Bolo na Tumi Amar

Yeah, we are cool, deal with it!!

Gotta love commercial Bengali movies!! This is a rom-com from Dev's early days (2010) in the industry when he wasn't a big shot yet and he definitely wasn't ruling some obscure district in Midnapore (umm, born and raised in Kolkata, so in our make believe world, we are the centre of the universe, duhhh!!).

So yeah, did I watch the movie in its entirety? Hell yeah!

Did I make snarky comments throughout the movie!? Absolutely.

Was I predicting it scene by scene and still sitting their being entertained? You got that right. 

I actually loved how predictable it was. I just needed one of those shut off your brains and just go with  the flow kinda movies, you know the type that rake in the cash.. but my poor brain would wake up at times and be like ... but umm.. that's makes zero sense.. For example, Koyel managed to call off her wedding with groom of her dad's choice, Tota. And, the dad, Sabyasachi explained how his "honor" / status in society is going to get affected if her daughter  doesn't get married on the date that was set previously. So, solution? Find someone random and get daughter married anyway. gWHAT?? I took me a while to coax my brain back to sleep.

He could have said I have already put down deposits on the venue and caterer and it is non refundable, so yeah, you have to get married.. but no, I guess that would be too logical.

Another thing, Eevery time I see Sabyasachi in a irrational father's role in a commercial film, a part of me dies.. Why?? Why?? God why? This is our sharp Feluda? I think the Bengali community should come together and raise money so that actors like Sabyasachi don't have to do roles such as these. Some might argue, well he is just showcasing his versatility - no he is not! This is equivalent to Irfan Khan taking a dad's role in a Bollywood commercial film in 15 yrs from now... yes, I feel that strongly about it.

So what did I like?

- The Bollywood like packaging.  You have to sell something, so why not a modern Bollywood packaging?

- The styling of Dev and Koyel - very modern. Not relatable, I mean show me one, just one pizza delviery guy that dresses that stylishly in Kolkata,

- The songs. Jeet Ganguly's songs lyrics are always a bit too much - " Ei gambat chol dur hath", Pulak Bandhopadhay is probably rolling his grave hearing this, but the tunes are pretty catchy. Plus I guess this is the language of contemporary youth. I'm sure people talk amongst themselves like this - I guess no one cares about politeness anymore.

Am I a film critic? Nope, I'm just passionate cinema lover with lots of opinions!!

My Bangla Pride

When I lived in Kolkata this whole Probashi Bangalis (Bengalis living outside of Bengal) didn't impress me much. To me they were wannabe Bengalis and not as cool as me!
Whenever someone uttered the word "probashi" images of my relatives living somewhere deep in MP/UP who only surfaced during biye season or durga puja season, came to my mind.

 The Mashi/ Pishi (s) generally had perfect Bangla but their kids or my cousin's Bangla used to be atrocious.
Phrases like "tui amar choto bon achish" or "tora duRRga pOOjyor somoy kotto ta anondo korish" - bengali with a Hindi accent were common which made me impatient.. it was like watching a movie with a subtitle.. finish your sentence already damn it!! Remember I was a Kid! Don't judge me.

I gave them props for trying though.. or at least I pretended to. You were not allowed to laugh at them or you will see you mom's big eyes getting even bigger singnally you to stop immidiately and if you continued.. "thash thash" kore chor!
However,  my "probashi" cousins were always considered "dudhe- bhathe"... and we didn't really take them super seriously especially if they were younger.

I didn't have any close relatives living in so called "Bidesh" so never really experienced North Americanzined Bengali. But one thing I was sure of was my Bangla language skills although I went to a English medium school.. go figure!

12 years later.. Here I am .. recounting my probashi experiences! Life I tell you can be a bitch! Or rather karma is .. What goes around comes around.

So when I go back to Kolkata/visit Kolkata  I am always afraid people will categorize me into the same Probashi Bangali category I hated so much! So my strategy to deal with it?? Over compensate by speaking in Suddho Bangla..  But in doing so I tend to go over board and alienate my own cousins.

Example :

Me to my Cousin : Shon,  amake durobhash shomapto karjer r dorkhasto joma dite hobe. Tui ki jabi amar shonge?
( Listen, I was to submit the application form to cancel our phone line. Did you want to come with me? in a very Bengali text book way)

My Cousin gives me a stunned look... as if I just time travelled from the medieval Bengal and burst into her drawing room.. and then says

" ki bolli, dorkhasto?? She abar ki?"
(Dorkhasto what is that??)

Okay,  time to reevaluate my linguistic skills... did I use it wrong?
No?
Okay, too old fashioned?
That must be it! But obviously can't admit that in front of my younger cousin.. so I say,

" Dorkhasto mane application.. You kids these days.. have no respect for your your language and culture deshe r j ki hobe?"

Then I add in a very Dida/ Kakima / Jethima style :

" Toder moton boyeshe amader Bangla Bhasar kodor onek beshi chilo.. ei shob oi hindi chobi r dosh!

When in doubt blame Bollywood.. always works in typical Bengali household.. baje result? math e  kom nombor, khele dhuloye haar, kom boyeshe depomi kore prem?? whatever it is blame it on Hindi Cinema... works every time!

Also, who cares she is only two years younger than me and the fact that two years ago I didn't even live in India. Minor details, Minor details.. as long as you are super confident in what you are saying, people tend to believe you.

My fight for when in Kolkata only speak Bangla doesn't go that well with random strangers either.. Example??

So I went to South City Mall in Kolkata, and asked a security guard type of person..
-Dada, ekhane osudhu er dokhan kothaye pabo?
- Mam, if you go this way (blah blah) you will find it.
He replies back in English... 
Me replying back in Bangla again
- Achha, mane soja giye odike, tia to?
(oh you mean, I should go straight and then that way, right?)
- Yes man,
- Apni Bangla bolen ebong bojhen to?
(You understand and speak Bangla right?)
He smiles and nods and replies
-Yes mam..
 I glance quickly over to his name tag and yes, just what I thought.. the name was Subhendu Sil.

Did times change? Or did I change? Am I desperately trying to hold on to my Bengali identity and hoping to still be a member of a club where my membership might be expiring soon? Don't know exactly!

I don't speak English like North Americans.. I have an Indian Accent
I don't speak Hindi like non - Bengalis ... I have a Bengali accent
I can't speak in a Bangal Bhasha ... I have a Kolkata accent!

So I can't help but overcompensate when I'm in Kolkata.. no one can say I have a Hindi accent or a North American accent.. My bhasha.. spoken the way it should be..

Tollywood er news!

1. Parambrata can be seen next in Chotushkone, Roga Hobar Sohoj Upay. Don't forget his directorial venture Lorai.

2. Sesh bole kichu neyi - Jisshu's upcoming movie.

3. Jisshu can also be seen in the film  "Nayika " along with Raima Sen. It will be a biopic on Suchitra Sen. 

4. 2 of Raima Sen's films are realeasing on 16th May- Bari tar bangla and Children of war. 

5.  Prateik Babbar is going to act in a Bengali movie "Auroni Taukhon". It is a socio political drama! 

6. Rituparna to do a Marathi Film.

7. Arpita Chatterjee roped in for Onir's next "Shab" opposite debutant  Delhi based mode Ashis Bisht.

Apur Panchali - A Preview

Director: Kaushik Ganguly
Starring: Parambrata Chatterjee, Parno Mitra
Music by: Indradeep Dasgupta
Releasing: April 25, 2014

Okay, so I'm pretty excited about this film. I know I wouldn't be able to watch it until it is on youtube or netflix.. but I'm excited, anyway.


Synopsis:

We all know about the  Satyajit Ray classic "Pother Panchali" . This film is about the child actor's "Apu" or Subir Banerjee's life. Parambrata plays a younger Subir in the movie and Parno Mitra plays his wife.

Subir Banerjee was lost in oblivion soon after the iconic Ray movie and had never been a part of any other movie.  He lived a "chaposha" middle class life, worked in a a mill. Then, he worked as a clerk in Central Government and is currently retired.

Kaushik Ganguly  accidentally discovered Subir  few years back and was intrigued that Subir, never appeared on the silver screen again. Apparently at first Subir wasn't even ready to admit that he had acted in the role of Apu. Eventually however, they connected and Kaushik expressed his interest in doing a film on his life Subir eventually agreed and the rest is history. The movie fetched this talented director a Best Director award at 44th  International Film Festival of India. Pretty Impressive!

However, Wikipedia tells me that  India Today, had tracked down the child actor in 1980, about 30 years after the film was released and published an article on the child actor. But that neither reignited Subir's passion for films nor did it inspire anyone to make a film on it, it just got lost!




Trailor, Poster and Interviews : My Inference

The trailor starts of with this young man trying to track down "Apu", set in modern Kolkata. The film is a flash back of Apu's rather Subir's life and it is most probably set in the mid -late 70s. The flash back is black and white (classic!!) there is a hint of Nokshal andolon in there. There is also an inkling of a solid Bengali romance - they keep flipping back and forth between pictures of Parambrata/ Parno and Soumitra/Sharmila.

Parambrata is going to be fantastic, I can tell.What? Biased you say? Not one bit! I just happen to be one of Parambrata's biggest fan of all time, that's all!
Parno is the actress who portrayed the character of "Sunny", the tom boy from the film that is my blog's namesake " Maach, Mishti, more. She actually looks pretty good in this completely new avatar, but I doubt she is going to be have a lot of screen time or impact in the movie, no offense to Parno offcourse. I just think that that script being Subir centric, there will not be a lot of emphasis on Subir's lady love. Actually the fact that they say that there are similarities between reel and real Apu, makes me nervous of an untimely death of Parno's character. Or, I could be totally wrong and maybe this death has a profound impact on Subir's life and it changes how he sees the world?

I smell a hint of satire or rather irony -  the man who was part of a movie that changed Bengali move forever, was a one cinema wonder!

Finally it is a tribute to all the lost child actors that were part of cinema that changed the world. (It says right in the trailer).

I can't wait to find out what it is all about.

This movie is going to tug at our heart strings and make us cry!

P.S. There is only one song that has surfaced " Apur Payer Chap", by Arijit Singh. Wonderful song, very calming.

Ashchorjyo Prodeep- My thoughts ( Spoiler alert)

Yes, I'm a bit behind, I agree. This film was released 5 months ago, but I just watched it and wanted to talk about it.  Probably didn't need to put the spoiler but just in case any one of you haven't already watched it already.

So, a film by Anik Dutta! I was obviously thrilled to watch it. I watched the tailors on you tube and couldn't wait to sit down on a lazy weekend afternoon with a bowl of pop corn to be mesmerized.

We started watching it, it started off, excellent. We were thoroughly enjoying ourselves but then suddenly the movie started to go off in a different direction. I understand the whole concept of reaching a high point and then crashing, but it could have crashed a different way.

My bone of contention is this.. did the wife have to be the high class escort? Aren't we going back 20 years here in cinema and society?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying women don't choose these occupations, any more. But I'm saying, are you trying to tell us that women can not find anything else to do to support her family other than being an escort! She couldn't have been the agent or the owner of this business?  Even that would have showed her in a little bit of a different light.

Had she been the agent, it would have been a little less dramatic, agreed. But it could have been done. I think it maybe works for the movie, but it definitely doesn't work for the message that is going out . Granted, this was supposed to fun movie, but I can't help but ask myself what was the point of this movie, every time I watch movies that are made by intelligent story tellers like Anik Dutta and has such talented cast!

Another thing - you know how the Genie tells the protagonist that he can bring him everything material but nothing abstract such as love, sneh, momota and all - Great point - but it was too blatant! And could have been left for the audience to figure out.

I felt like the movie started great, with full "enthu" and then they either ran out of time, or money or whoever was in charge said "wrap it up, NOW" and they scrambled to make the deadline!

Today is finally my some day!

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Okay folks!

Here is my "this is my someday"  take 2! First of all I should start with a disclaimer : I did not come up with the name Maach Mishti and more! It is a Bengali film I watched some time ago and really liked.  I also thought that this really "fits" with what I want to write about. I'm a bangali girl ( don't like "bengali" or the term "bong", but I don't know how else to write bangali there is no "chondro bindoo" in English unfortunately.) who wants to talk about Mach( fish) , Mishti ( sweets) and more.

So what exactly is this blog going to be about?

 Here I'm going to talk about the movies I like watching and will give you my my thought about the movies I have watched. Yes I'm no movie expert and people in the film industry hate critiques, but hey.. I'm an ordinary girl, part of the audience and I'm simply telling you if I like it or not. If you don't agree with my thoughts, I'm okay with it and I will agree to disagree.  So I like Bangla movies - Kolkata ones. I haven't seen any amazing Bangladeshi movies yet, but I am open to it. I especially like the movies that are modern and not a musical that have actors that suddenly turn into politians and compare being in politics with being raped!

I am a huge fan of Parambrata Chatterjee. Why? His natural acting and his very South Calcutta thing he has going on. I can't really describe it. But no matter what he is portraying I can relate to it. I think if I ever meet him, I will have no issues striking up a conversation and start addressing each other as "tui" and I just know we will have a lot to talk about.. starting from phuchka to Shinghi Park er pujo to Patho Bhavan vs. South Point. So I try to watch every movie he is in :) .

I like Hindi movies too. I am a big fan of the actor Amir Khan and the superstar/businessman Shah Rukh Khan. I love analyzing his marketing his shrewd business and marketing strategies and I respect him for that. His movies, I'm sorry to say don't appeal to me any more.

My guilty pleasure is watching Karan Johar's Koffe with Karan and Zoom- isko dekho. Are they pointless? Yes, absolutely! But do I spend hours watching and analyzing it? Yes absolutely! I love it but feel guilty admitting to people that I do it! I sometimes feel like I am getting to see the real person, through how someone answers a question in an interview - although everything is probably is scripted. But I like to think that - don't take it away from me :P

 I will talk about food. I'm Vegan, by the way. Bangali Vegan sounds like an oxymoron, I know. But there are still a lot of food that is Bangali but Vegan ( think Jhalmuri, luchi alur dom, muri less muri ghonto.. my ma swears you can make it, lau diye dal, posto... just to name a few).

So, I'm starting this journey today, let's see where I go with it! I'm sure it will be a fun one!