18th/19th c. Calcutta was the seat of the British Raj in India. Consequently, it witnessed a fusion of the East and the West, giving birth to the Bengali Renaissance – richly evident in the works of the great poet Rabindranath Tagore, and also the generation born to the educated middle-class around this time. Satyajit Ray […]
Read More Bicycle Theives (1948): The Neo-Realist Masterpiece that inspired RayThere are two films in the Harry Potter franchise that I have a bi-polar appreciation for. Previously, I have said why I think Prisoner of Azkaban is the best one of the lot, because of the brilliant direction of Alfonso Cuaron, even though I don’t like that some of the important plot points from the […]
Read More Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Expressive Cinematography at its finestYou were cinema’s young man who showed us what it means to lose really everything in life and yet have the courage to start over. You were the jovial yet heart-breaking brother-in-law; and the proud, angry Rajput taxi driver set on an expedition to find his place in the world. You gave life to our […]
Read More Curtains down on the Golden Era of Bengali CinemaCAPTAIN Psst! Computer. (the holo-screen lights up) Define “dancing”. BACK OUTSIDE THE AXIOM Eve and Wall-E descend along the starboard side. Spiral gracefully around one another. SHIP’S COMPUTER (V.O.) “Dancing” – A series of movements, involving two partners, where speed and rhythm match harmoniously with music. Wall-E’s extinguisher runs out of foam. He lets it […]
Read More WALL-E: Hope for a Better TomorrowApril 1917, the Western Front. A young soldier, Lance-Corporal Blake, is given a perilous mission. He has to carry a message through a “No Man’s Land” to a battalion of the Devonshires, revoking an attack planned for the next day. The Germans have put just retreated to the Hindenburg Line – but aerial reconnaissance has […]
Read More 1917: A Visual Masterpiece“Less is more.” That’s the art of minimalism – to speak less and say more. Indraadip Dasgupta has been a celebrated music director in the Bengali film industry for two decades and has scored some of the best-known songs over the years. But it was the call of the spot behind the camera that he […]
Read More Kedara: A Symphony of SilenceOkay, hold your horses! Calm down and listen to me before you get all riled up about the futility of this. Now instead of jumping into it directly, let’s take a step back. Let’s talk about that form of art that is already being taught in schools around the globe – literature. So why do […]
Read More Why should Films be Taught in School?As an ode to the maestro and to celebrate the start of the centenary of Satyajit Ray, the title song of Feluda Pherot was launched today. Written by Srijato, composed by Joy Sarkar and sung by Rupankar, Rupam Islam and Anupam Roy, the song is a fantastic treat to all Feluda-lovers (i.e. all Bengalis all over […]
Read More Feluda Phirbe Abar!Satyajit Ray – a man who had the deepest impact on me when it comes to cinema, a man who taught me to understand cinema as a form of art and fall in love with this medium. Amidst these gloomy days that we are in right now, could there be any other auspicious day for […]
Read More The Hidden Gem in Ray’s Creative Crown“The great danger of lying is not that lies are untruths, and thus unreal, but that they become real in other people’s minds.” The first words of “Caging Skies”, a novel by Christine Leunens, which Taika Waititi’s latest feature Jojo Rabbit is adapted from. When you put the words “Hitler” and “comedy” together in a […]
Read More Jojo Rabbit: A Satirical War Against Hate
The Film Reel 