Rini Choudhury

This, I guess, is the first film made on Satyajit Ray's legendary character Professor Trilokeswar Shonku. The best thing I like about Sandip Ray's movies are that, he never deviates from the core plot. Yes, he makes necessary changes to make the story more contemporary, like using email instead of letter, making the characters use mobile phones, etc but the main story always remains the same. That is a main reason why his movies are worth watching. Professor Shonku too is no exception. The actors did complete justice to their roles. The making is crisp and smart leaving no space for boredom. The movie is mostly dubbed in English, which is quite natural as the backdrop is Brazil. There is occasional use of Portuguese too. English subtitles are there to help the viewers understand the dialogues better. There are subtitles even for the Bengali dialogues. People who are not so proficient with the English language should read the Bengali novel first to understand the movie better. A must watch movie, especially for sci-fi lovers.

A well made, enjoyable movie with historic background, lots of adventure, fight sequences, treasure hunt, traditional Durga Puja, sweet romance and what not! An ideal movie to watch with family, especially the little ones who will definitely enjoy it till the end. Certain inconsistencies are there, like Abir (Arjun Chakraborty), a new swimmer, remaining under water at night for considerable amount of time without an oxygen mask, the otherwise intelligent boy Kucho suddenly running away into the forest defying his elders, the sudden appearance of the bear in a jungle trap that had only one entrance, etc, but these minor defects can be overlooked as the movie, as a whole, is quite entertaining. Abir Chatterjee's performance as Sonada is undoubtedly the best, followed by Arjun Chakraborty's Abir and child artiste Kucho.

Watched Sujoy Ghosh's movie "Badla" today. It is a very well made suspense thriller starring Amitabh Bachchan, Taapsi Pannu, Amrita Singh and others. "Badla" is a remake of the 2016 Spanish movie, "The Invisible Guest". The storyline goes like this. A young married entrepreneur Naina Sethi(Taapsi Pannu) becomes the prime suspect after the police find her locked up in a hotel room with the dead body of her ex-lover Arjun Joseph (Tony Luke). Her lawyer friend Jimmy (Manav Kaul) arranges for the best lawyer Badal Gupta (Amitabh Bachchan), who has never lost a case in the past forty years of his career. Mr Gupta arrives at Naina's house a few hours ahead of the appointed time to discuss the case with her. He informs her that the police has found a new witness whose statement might turn the case further against her. That is why he decided to turn up early so that they can discuss the case before the witness appears at the police station to give his/her statement. Mr Gupta asks Naina several questions about the murder in order to understand the case better, but many of her replies do not satisfy him. He is sure that Naina is hiding certain facts that might prove vital for solving the mystery. He further interrogates her and learns about an accident that occured a few months back. Naina and her secret lover Arjun were returning home from their weekend pleasure trip. On their way, Naina's car met with an accident with another car that resulted in the death of the young man who was driving the other car. At first they decided to drive away as there was no witness to the accident, but later they had to change their plan as they saw another car approaching them. As the car stopped and the driver asked if they needed any help, they fooled him into believing that the two cars involved in the accident individually belonged to Naina and Arjun and that they were not injured at all. Soon the car drove away, but now the couple were left with a witness who had to be taken care of. Naina drove the other car in a remote wilderness and dumped it, along with the dead body of the youth, into a river. During this time, Arjun waited for a tow car as Naina's car would not start. He met a helpful old couple Nirmal and Rani (Amrita Singh) who towed Naina's car to their home that was nearby. Rani invited Arjun to tea while Nirmal, who was an expert with cars, fixed Naina's car. Arjun came to know from a photograph that the youth who got killed in the accident was actually the only son of Nirmal and Rani. When a shocked Arjun rose to leave, the mobile phone of the dead youth, which had accidentally remained in his pocket, started ringing as Rani dialled his number from her mobile. Arjun handed over the mobile to the old couple saying that it was lying on the sofa and he was sitting on it. But Rani found that weird as her son was too much addicted to his mobile and always carried it with him. Arjun entered into the driving seat of Naina's car and adjusted the seat belt that was earlier adjusted to the waist size of Naina, who was driving the car during the time of the accident. This made the old couple suspect that earlier Arjun had a co passenger with him. He picked up Naina from the road and they decided to part ways. Everything was okay with Naina for the following few months. She became extremely successful in her career and received the award of the best female entrepreneur of the year. On the evening of the celebration party, Naina had a surprise visitor. Rani, who had been frantically trying to find her missing son for the past few months, was now sure that something bad had happened to him and Naina was the one who had all the answers to her queries. Naina, who immediately recognised Rani from her appeals on TV channels regarding her missing son, feigned ignorance about the entire matter. Rani left after warning Naina that severe consequences awaited her. I will not tell the rest and be a spoilsport. Different quotes from Mahabharat and Bhagavad Geeta have been used to prove that crime, however cleverly committed, never pays.

I read Kavita Kane's book 'Karna's Wife: The Outcast's Queen' first, and watched the serial 'Karn Sangini' later. Well, had I watched the serial first, I would have considered the book to be utter trash and never taken the pains to go through it. But thankfully it was the other way round. The novel was good just as the serial was bad. It failed because the serial makers did not stick to the novel at all. They invented their own trashy soap opera where there was everything except Karna and Mahabharat. The lead actors looked good and tried their level best, but they were helpless in the hands of the awfully written script and storyline. In the novel, Karna and Uruvi did not know each other before their marriage. Uruvi fell in love with Karna when she saw him at Hastinapur ground during the weaponry exhibition of the Kuru princes. Karna was totally unaware of her existence and love for him. He was sort of stunned when she chose him as her husband in her Swayambar sabha. Uruvi's parents initially objected to her choice, but later they accepted their marriage. Poor Queen Subhra has been pitifully black painted in the serial. It really was unnecessary to devote so many episodes to her 'evil' ploys. Karna did not have any aunts living in his palace, neither was there any show down between Radha and Queen Subhra. Radha's dance sequence was a direct lift from the movie 'Devdas'. Draupadi, who had a major presence in the novel, has been totally ignored in the serial. Why? Was it necessary to give so much footage to the comically villainous actions of the non existent characters and neglect the main plot? In Kane's book and other Mahabharat related novels, we find the mention of Vrishali as Karna's wife. From where did the serial makers bring a mental case called Kasturi as Uruvi's co-wife? And my god, Sri Krishna (with due respect to the divine Lord) looked like a monkey!! From where did the serial makers collect him? After Nitish Bharadwaj, Saurabh Raj Tiwary and Saurav Pandey, who would tolerate this ape faced effeminate man (his eye liners and lipstick were deeper and redder than Uruvi's...Lol) as Sri Krishna? At many places the serial became a boring comedy circus. In most of the episodes it was a 'tu tu main main' serial with no trace of either Mahabharat or Karna. No wonder the viewers rejected it. I have the curiosity to know how Kavita Kane feels about the slaughtering of her good novel.