Konkona Sen Sharma had remained down to earth.

Konkona Sen Sharma had remained down to earth.

Konkona Sen Sharma, one of the successful actresses of bollywood had remained down to earth. Recently she had given interview in Zee Bangla in a program held on 26th June, 2010, which was anchored by director Anurag Basu. She was born on 3rd December, 1979, in Kolkata.

In the entire program which determined the greatest fan of Konkona Sen Sharma, the honesty and humbleness of the talented actress was reflected. References came about the performances of the co-stars of Konkona Sen Sharma, where she admitted that she admired Irfan Khan. She started her career with the film Ek Je Ache Kanya in 2000. Then she got National Award for the performance in the film Mr. and Mrs. Iyer in 2002. It was directed by her mother Aparna Sen.

She acted well in the parallel cinema Page 3 in 2005. Then she received filmfare awards for best supporting actresses in the films Omkara in 2006 and Life in a Metro in 2007. Her performance in the film Omkara also earned her second national award in the category of best supporting actress.

She spoke about her experience of acting opposite popular actress Rani Mukherjee in the film Laga Chunari Me Daag. She said that her dancing skills were quite weak. Her tool flew off and hurt Rani Mukherjee on the first day of shooting. She also did a great job opposite Farhan Akhtar in Zoya Akhtar’s film Luck By Chance which was given positive reviews by critics.

Recently she carried her success in art films to commercial films as well. Her film Wake Up Sid opposite Ranbir Kapoor became a smash hit in 2009. She confessed that she was very comfortable working with the director Vishal Bharatswaj as he was organized and actor Ranbir Shorey who was very intimate to her. The Bengali audience expressed their sadness for not seeing her in many Bengali films. Her Bengali films were limited to only art films like Rituparna Ghosh’s Titli where she acted opposite Mithun Chakravarty and Aparna Sen and the film Doshor where she acted opposite Prasenjit Chatterji. She confessed that she did not get good scripts. But both Anurag Basu and Konkona Sen Sharma said that they will look forward to working in more Bengali films in future.

The viewers expressed their regards to the talented actress and wished her best of luck for upcoming films.

Memsaheb was well directed.

Memsaheb was well directed.

The film Memsaheb, released in early 70s was well directed by eminent director Pinaki Mukherjee. Pinaki Mukherjee became extremely popular amongst intellectuals of Bengal after making the film Chowrangee. Chowrangee was the story of Sata Bose, a brilliant receptionist narrating the story of Grand Hotel during the early 60s. Uttam Kumar’s film released in late 60s ended up being a blockbuster.

The story of Memsaheb was written by Nimai Bhattacharya. The film was made at the backdrop of Bangladesh independent movement. Bangladesh formed part of Pakistan till the early 70s. As East Pakistan, the citizens were unhappy and wanted to sever ties with Pakistan. Indira Gandhi, the Indian Prime Minister during the early 70s, send Indian armed forces to help the Bangladesh citizens to fight out for independence. Bangladesh became an independent nation after the war.

Uttam Kumar was a journalist in the film who fell in love with a simple middle-class Bengali girl played by Aparna Sen. Aparna Sen was brought up by his uncle Bikash Roy. She became a Professor of History and inspired Uttam Kumar to be ambitious.

Uttam Kumar got promoted from staff reporter to main reporter, but the newspaper agency in Kolkata during the naxalite period did not do good business. So a number of staff lost jobs due to the company’s inability of paying them. Uttam Kumar also lost his job. Aparna Sen gave her savings to Uttam Kumar to re-establish himself as a journalist by settling in New Delhi.

Uttam Kumar joined a profitable newspaper agency and came to meet the political stalwarts. He got the assignment of covering the Bangladesh war. Both Uttam Kumar and Aparna Sen decided to marry each other after Uttam Kumar returned back to India after the War ended. But at that time, while invigilation relating to exams were in process in a college in Kolkata, Aparna Sen was killed by the bullet of naxalite. The film ended with a tragic note.

The music of the film composed by Ashima Bhattacharya was very impressive. Rabindrasangeet was sung by Ashima herself and Sailen Mukherjee. Manna Dey’s song “aaj khushi” became a big hit. The credit for the success of the film goes to director Pinaki Mukherjee, as he directed the film very well. The film should be restored for the realistic story, brilliant direction and powerful performances of Uttam Kumar and Aparna Sen.

The Japanese Wife is quite an Abstract Film.

The Japanese Wife is quite an Abstract Film.

Aparna Sen had experimented with Kunal Basu’s story in her film The Japanese Wife. The story of the film is very abstract.

In the film Rahul Bose and Chigusa Takaku were pen friends who exchanged wedding vows through letters. They did not meet each other within 15 years, yet their attachment towards each other remained intact.

The relationship faced challenge when a young widow played by Raima Sen with a small child came to stay with Rahul Bose. Rahul Bose a teacher in Sunderbans and cared for the rural population of the place.

He cared for his unseen Japanese wife as well. When he came to know that she was ill with cancer, he took leave from his school to find a cure for the ailment. But later when the entire village was infected with malaria, he got infected too. He died at the end.

His Japanese wife came to the village in white saree, the symbol of a widow. The performances of Rahul Bose, Raima Sen and Chigusa Takaku were excellent. Moushumi Chatterji also did well in her respective role.

The music of Sagar Desai was soft and meaningful. Aparna Sen used the camera to perfection. But the trouble with these films lies in the ability of the viewers to accept it. Firstly the development of romantic relationship between a man and a woman through letters in the 21st century is very much imaginative.

Life had become so fast in the last years , that the impulses of slow moving personalities can reach the viewers to boredom. The story had very strong human values embedded in it, and the direction of Aparna Sen had been brilliant, but going by the record of realistic films in the last 5 years, it does not seem like being a crowd-puller in the real sense.

Even then it was a brilliant effort on the part of Aparna Sen to choose such a subject and do justice with it.

Review of Amritakumbher Sandhane.

Review of Amritakumbher Sandhane.

Director Dilip Ray experimented with epic literature of Bengal’s literary giant Samaresh Bose titled Amrito Kumbher Sandhane. The film was based on the experience of visiting Kumbh Mela in Prayag Sangam in Allahabad. It was probably the last film where Sudhin Dasgupta composed music mostly which included bhajans and bayul songs.

Subhendu Chatterji played the role of the observer in the film. He was a writer and related the stories of different individuals who travelled with him. He observed the story of Bhanu Banerjee, who had a daughter, who left the house with her girl friend and never returned back. Bhanu searched for her in Allahabad.

He witnessed the story of George Becker, who was a sadhu, then married Sanghamitra and left the life of ascetic. But she left him and became a baijee in Benaras and again returned back to Allahabad as a devotee. Anup Kumar was a bayul, who went to Prayag for giving holy dip in the sangam of Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati. But at the holy time for bathing in Prayag, there was immense rush and got stamped and died.

Subhendu met a Bihari family of Pramod Ganguly and his three wives. The characters were played by Aparna Sen, Ruma Guha Thakurta and Lili Chakravarty. Their husband was old and infirm. He was taken to Prayag so that the holy dip can change his health. Instead he got stamped in the rush and died. All the three wives got back being widows.

At the time when everyone wanted to bath in Prayag, the naga sanyasis from different akhras created a mess, and the police and administration failed to stop the crowd and the unrest. It took away the lives of more than thousands of people and the rest returned back with injuries.

Samarash Bose attacked the unscientific belief in the minds of rural people in India that bathing in the holy waters of Prayag during Kumbh Mela can wash away all their evil and bring prosperity in life. His words were given expression by Subhendu Chatterji in the film he realized that Kumbh Mela hardly brought any happiness and prosperity, on the other hand took the lives of innocent people. But for uneducated population of the country the religious beliefs in their minds cannot be substituted by rational scientific thinking.

Dilip Ray was appreciated for his efforts to make a film on the brilliant subject and the film ended being very successful.