Game – He Plays To Win!!

So this weekend I thought, instead of writing off the "commercial" Bangla movie completely just by watching the trailer I will actually watch one before I dole out my judgement.
 So after listening to "Tui amar Tatka Priya Marie re" a few times, youtube suggested I watch Game... Wait what?? You don't know anything about Tatka Priya Marie?? Click the link below and check it out right now.. you are missing out!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfksC4UUig0

Yes- Jeet is wooing this girl - saying that she is like is fresh Priya Marie Biscuit that he would like to dip in his lemon tea!
.....I have never been courted by anyone like this so I don't really know how I would feel if someone told me that I was a fresh biscuit.. but the girl in this picture seems perfectly happy, so are her white friends who also decided to join in her celebration!

This was probably the phone conversation between the girl and her white friends:

" OMG you guys! he finally told me that he wants to dip me in his lebu - cha"

Anyway, catchy tune.. very Durgo Pujo e para's dance song like...

Modern lyrics too :  " Likhe Dilam Love you Shona Check koro Facebook"!

Anyway I started watching Game

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6OQGHuksQY

 I was very much into the movie only about 10-15 minutes into it. It was an action/suspense thriller type  movie. I was even saying to myself commercial Bangla movie has come a loong loong way! I remembered Proshenjit's Jamaibabu Zindabad or Swami keno Ashami and felt happy that the movie is actually making sense.

Granted there was chorom nekami by the heorine and heavy doses of overacting in the hero/ heroine Premer scene but I was very excited about the movie.

I started discussing this movie with my family and told them it is a must watch. Then I started doing some research and discovered that this is remake of the Tamil movie Thuppaki starring Vijay and Kajal Agarwal!

I told myself, that okay so we basically took the essence from this Tamil movie and then used our creativity to make it completely Bangla and possibly more awesome! So I started watching the movie in Tamil without subtitles! Well, I didn't have any other choice I was on a quest - turns out it was a scene by scene copy ... oops I meant to say remake.. did I say copy out loud? Sorry!! I mean CTRL C & then CRTL V!  Oh then I found out that there is also a Hindi version starring Akshaye Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha called Holiday.

So basically Tamil movie industry comes up with solid scripts, make movies and then the rest of the country  just copy pastes in their regional languages!

So in light of this, I have decided that I will save myself the trouble of watching all these versions. Instead go straight to source and watch the Tamil movie instead! I know I don't speak or understand language but I'm sure I will figure it out from the partial English phrases and then within the next few months when it comes out in Bengali or Hindi, I will just watch that and get the rest of it !!  Solid Plan, right???

Chotushkon: My Preview and other observations...

So Parambrata's new movie is coming out this Pujo (September 26th) and he is playing a character by the name of Jayabrata - a film director. Interesting right?

Facts  about the movie :

1. This is Srijit's new venture after the National Award Winning "Jatiswar".

2. Music by Anupam Roy - loved the Boshonto Eshe Geche and the Boba Tunnel track.

3. Check out the Trailor here :  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uNrGCBIgo0

4. Cast : Prambrata, Aparna Sen, Chrinajeet, Gautam Ghosh, Kaushik Ganguly, Koninika, Payal Sarakar, Deblina Dutta among others.

5. Genre : Triller

My Observation :

Before I tell you about my true observations, let me make one thing very clear, I am no movie critic! I am an average movie goer who loves watching intelligent bangla movie.. that's all .. I thought I needed this disclaimer before freely expressing what I really thought!

So the trailer was really obscure! I watched it three times.. Twice before watching the interviews and once after watching the interviews in youtube. I didn't really understand what the movie was about.. except maybe that it was about something dark..may be even something supernatural.. May be it it meant to be Atel.. Anyway, you have to remember this is Srijit's first movie after the National award so pressure to perform at the box office and the national award level is pretty high... . although he claims he wrote this movie long time ago, right after 22nd Srabon. But he had to tweak it a bit since he catered the script to the people playing the characters.

So what is interesting is, they said that each of the 4 main character are directors and their parts of the story are shot in a way they themselves would have shot/ narrated their movie..  I can't wait to see what Param's style would be.

I thought the cast was rather arrogant and show offy during the interviews.. one claimed there was no one else in the industry who could have done this role. Okay may be true.. but is modesty dead?

Parambrata wasn't arrogant - he was asked numerous times how does he feel to do a role that was originally scripted for Rituparna Ghosh.. he fielded the questions brilliantly I think! He acknowledged he wasn't the first choice and then quickly went over to narrate the story of how Srijit approached him for the movie and he had to say yes because it is Srijit after all!! Nicely done!

I really don't know what to expect from this movie. I feel like it feel be either super hit or will vanish into obscurity pretty quick. This will not be an average movie for sure. Unfortunately the marketing strategy employed has not been able to pique my interest! But I wish the movie all the best, hope it does really well.

My Adventures in the near shore Motherland!

So I took the summer off from blogging!  And now I'm back!

I want to tell you all about my latest trip to NY.. well on second thought everyone knows what New York is all about.. right? Wall street, Statue of liberty, Central Park, Manhattan sky line, expensive shopping - you can google it or even better Youtube it. Seach for "What to see in NY" and you will be flooded with thousands of videos. So let me tell you about the hidden gem that is New Jersey- specifically Jersey City.

After being in there I have decided I no longer need to buy super expensive tickets and fly for 22 hours to visit the motherland. I can just visit Newark Avenue in NJ. Don't believe me? Fine take a look at the picture below:

.. Yes it is not some gali in Mumbai, Kolkata or Delhi this is Uniter States of America.

The sights, the sounds and the smell reminded me of India... my cousin took us to this amazing biriyani place called the Paradise Biriyani and the moment we stepped in, we knew we were teleported to Biriyani Paradise. 

We ordered Chicken Biriyani, Mutton Biriyani, Mutton Chap and something else...  and off course Thumbs Up to wash it all down.. 

We ordered so much food because for some weird reason it felt like doom's day is upon us and we need eat as much biriyani as we can! Pictures you ask? In our frenzy to chow down this Regal dish fit for  BadShahi courts I forgot all about documenting it. 

Don't you dare start talking about carbs and all that!! When you are pretending to be in Shah Jahan's court you don't care about your carbohydrate intake.. 

First of all you have been transported back into the 1600s, people don't know about the Atkin's diet or carbohydrates and secondly you already made it to the royal court.. who cares about how you look?? Anyway.. no regal meal can be finished without paan. So off we went into our Indian street into a store called "Mithai" which had paan and they even had the expensive silver foil thing that you see in expensive mishtis back home. Check out the expression of my fellow travellers by just the smell of paan.

Next morning started with Masala Dosa and Masala tea with finger licking good coconut chutney and sambar. They had more delicious food just looking at us from the show case - stuff like pakora, vada, lots and lots and lot colourful mishti.. although the choices seemed to be infinite, my stomach's holding capacity is finite.. well, I could have packed it.. However, I was supposed to do all the touristy things in New York right after and carrying sambar around isn't that easy. However, I did not leave Newark street without some paan from the store that actually looked like a pan store - tiny store, that you can't get into. The shopkeeper was standing at what looked like a window and you had to yell out the order in a very typical Indian style and he would make the fresh paan right in front of you eyes. 

It felt like we were visiting Kolkata during Durga Pujo! 

It was like India had made a near shore support centre for the Street food deprived Indians who live out side of India. It was in essence my near shore Motherland!!!!! Jai New Jersey.