Weekend Roundup: Here’s what made headlines in Bengali cinema this week

If you have missed the exciting news, gossips or latest developments that have rocked Bengali cinema this week, here is a weekly roundup for you. Take a look:

While most of the cinema hall owners are eyeing the Christmas festivities to bring audience back to theatres release of many Bengali films have been pushed to next year owing to the uncertain future. Among these films, Raj Chakraborty’s two upcoming directorials ‘Habji Gabji’ and ‘Dharmajuddho’, both waiting for December release, have now been deferred. Raj himself took to his social media handle to announce the news. With an ensemble casting of Swatilekha Sengupta, Ritwick Chakraborty, Subhashree Ganguly, Parno Mittra, and Soham, ‘Dharmajuddho’ revolves around a small town of Ismailpur, which suffers an apocalyptic night as the town descends to anarchy as a sudden communal riot breaks out. Meanwhile, ‘Habji Gabji’ starring Parambrata Chatterjee and Subhashree Ganguly in the lead for the first time will address a socially relevant issue like the young generation is obsessed with mobile and internet gaming.

The shooting of Arindam Sil’s ‘Tirandaj Shabar’ where Saswata Chatterjee plays Shabor Dasgupta, a police detective, has stalled midway. Explaining why the shooting stopped, Sil said, “We are all trying to get back to normal under these difficult circumstances. For a shoot to be conducted, a lot of things have to be taken into consideration. The shoot of Shabor has been postponed for a while by our producer. There was a co-producer who backed out at the last moment. Therefore, the other producer is now making arrangements for the shoot to start back up soon.”

Amartya Ray who played one of the leads in Abhishek Saha’s ‘Uronchondi’ opposite Rajnandini Paul is now gearing up for his next big Bollywood outing ‘Maidaan’. He will leave for Mumbai later this month as ‘Maidaan’ shoot resumes after a long gap and the young actor is eagerly waiting to join the team. Amartya’s character in the sports drama is inspired by Indian football legend Chuni Goswami. ‘Maidaan’ is a sports biopic based on the golden era of Indian football. It stars Ajay Devgn in the lead and his character is based on former Indian football coach and manager, Syed Abdul Rahim. Rudranil Ghosh and Gajraj Rao also play two important characters in the film.

Rahul Banerjee will soon be seen in a psychological thriller ‘Chokh’. Directed by debutant Bappa, the cast also includes Anindya Banerjee, Rimii Deb, Ankita Chakraborty, Tapati Munshi, Sandip Mandal, Annay Bhattacharya, Bikram Das, Arpan Bose, Saheb Haldar, Surajit Maity in key roles. The story follows a professor Robert (Rahul Banerjee) who suffers from a personality disorder while struggling to get hold of his crisis. Meanwhile, a series of deaths rock the city and Robert gets involved in it. What happens next forms the crux of the story.

Debutant director Manas Basu’s ‘Chobiyal’ sees a fresh pair of Saswata Chatterjee and Srabanti Chatterjee in the lead. We have seen both the actors in Aparna Sen’s ‘Goyanar Baksho’ but they didn’t have a single screen together. The film was scheduled to release on March 27. However, due the global coronavirus pandemic the film’s release got postponed and it’s finally releasing in theatres on December 11.

We already know that Subhrajit Mitra’s ‘Avijatrik - The Wanderlust of Apu’ is an official selection at the 26th Kolkata International Film Festival in the national competition on Indian Languages section. Now, the screening timings are here. It will be shown on January 11 at Nandan II and on January 13 at Chalachitra Satabarsha Bhavan. It’s Arjun Chakrabarty who will essay the iconic character of Apu in this film as he will relive his childhood through the eyes of his son, visiting Benaras and his village Nischindipur.