Unlike the halcyon era of Bengali cinema, which had been responsible for empowering and pushing the boundaries of cinema in the Indian sphere, the current regional outputs have been largely unremarkable, primarily because of the industry’s proclivity to iterate what works (family dramas, remaking other regional films, umpteenth iterations of detective stories) rather than innovate. As a result, both the audience and the capital for it decreased significantly in the last decade. Having said that, there are still gems being released from the industry, as well as big swings, both in terms of artistic and commercial endeavors, within the contours of limited budgets. The Bengali movies listed below impressed me in 2024, primarily due to their overarching quality and the variation in story and storytelling, which amounts to a major swing from the norm.
5. Beline
“Beline,” by Samik Roy Choudhury, is ample proof of how smart direction and extraordinary performances can elevate standard pulp genre fare. The story of an octogenarian finding joy in vicariously following the life of a young couple after a cross-connected phone call revels in its limited budget. The sharing of its ethos with a theatrical production helps the narrative itself, with characters on the other side of the phone revealed out of focus but present within the same location, highlighting the protagonist’s imagination for the audience.
The protagonist’s attraction towards serialized melodrama, coupled with his searing isolation, introduces the inciting incident and develops it into something provocative, profound, and uncomfortable. The extraordinary performances by Paran Bandopadhyay and Shreya Bhattacharya, especially from the former, help communicate the film’s darkly comedic tone.
4. Bhootpori
Bhootpori follows the story of a young boy, Surja, suffering from insomnia. When holidaying at their paternal village with his mother, he meets the ghost of a woman, who he is able to communicate with. Their friendship, along with the boy’s attempts to engineer the freedom of the ghost tethered to the realm, forms the crux of the story.
Director Soukarya Ghoshal attempts to provide a strong social statement (about Sati, female infanticide) through a vague, liminal, and yet lyrical fantasy world with the ethos of children’s literature, where concepts are mutable depending on the conviction of the children the story is intended towards. These used to be a staple of Bengali literature whereby ghosts are portrayed as misunderstood spectres.
The uniqueness of this feminist tale is the exploration of freedom for the ghost, played by Jaya Ahsan, and her backstory and, through that, the backstory of the village being esoteric. The story of the ghostly specter is whimsical and yet heart-wrenchingly moving. Ghoshal is indebted to Ray in integrating social causes within children’s fables a la Hirok Rajar Deshe. While he is not nearly as deft at it, the presentation is admirable albeit flawed.
3. Chaalchitra Ekhon
Through barely hidden ciphers of the real-life figures of Mrinal Sen and Anjan Dutt, director Anjan Dutt explores the relationship between director Kunal Sen (Anjan Dutt) and Ranjan Dutt (Sawon Chakraborty) and their first collaboration, “Chaalchitra,” in 1981. It has the jump cuts and freeze frames as homage to the maverick, but “Chalchitra Ekhon” foregoes hagiography in favor of personal recounting; Dutt brings out the flashes of impish humor, the self-effacing nature of his mentor Mrinal Sen, through his own gesticulations.
It’s a lived-in performance overflowing with affection but underlined with respect, as the myth of Mrinal Sen is broken by his protégé. In exploring the relationship between Ranjan Dutt and Kunal Sen, Dutt tries to shine a light on the easygoing yet combative relationship between a man so in tune with his politics and his student stuck in the dilemma of existing with a separate outlook and a lack of love towards his city. It works primarily because of Dutt and young Sawon Chakraborty’s performance, who is very good at playing Ranjan Dutt as an unlikeable sod going through a coming-of-age narrative. The film is thus personal just enough to be universal in its impact.
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2. Manikbabur Megh (The Cloud and the Man)
A surrealist tale unfolds as Manik (Chandan Sen), a lonely man trapped in the monotony of his dull existence, finds himself forging an unexpected bond—whether platonic or romantic—with a cloud that seems to follow him wherever he goes, blurring the lines between reality and his yearning imagination. “Manikbabur Megh” is a melancholic, lightly whimsical, but mostly poignant story about a man searching for connections he is unable to forge in a world that is also unable to provide him the connection or platonic friendship he requires.
The effectiveness of the film rests on the methodical pacing, of developing the monotony and the severe isolation experienced by the Manikbabu, which pushes itself to its breaking point after the loss of his father, whereby the isolation becomes routine-breaking. It’s these circumstances that force Manikbabu, and in turn, humanity from a general standpoint, to take comfort in the unexplainable.
The methodology of connection between the eponymous cloud and man straddles the fine line between surreal and sweet, but director and writer Abhinandan Banerjee never forgets to highlight the bleak reality of the world in which Manikbabu exists, even if he is interacting with a presence that might challenge conventional mores. The performance of Chandan Sen and the cinematography of Anup Singh provides the film with beauty and lyricism in its stillness.
1. Shri Swapankumarer Badami Hyenar Kobole
In Kolkata where both Shri Swapankumar (Paran Bandopadhyay) and his creation, the famous pulp detective Dipak Banerjee (Abir Chatterjee), exist simultaneously, the city is rocked by the presence of an evil force only known as Badami Hyena. Banerjee reluctantly takes on the role of the city’s savior but is hobbled by the wild and scattershot narrative charted by his creator, even as time runs out.
Debaloy Bhattacharya, the lover of pulp fiction, and willing to experiment, produces a love letter to the pulp fiction of Samarendranath Pandey, AKA Shri Swapankumar, through a metatextual lens where the creation comments on the limited articulation of his creator but is also held back by that same creator’s uncontrollable imagination. At its core, “Swapan Kumarer Badami Hyena’r Kobole” is a loving satire.
It’s a lampooning of the genre of stories the Bengali film industry had wrung itself to death, and it comments on the tropes of storytelling and the viewer’s propensity to seek a dopamine rush from nostalgia. The casting of Abir Chatterjee, essayer of roles of literary detectives like Byomkesh or Feluda, is on point in driving home a disillusionment in portraying characters within the contours of a similar genre. More importantly, it’s an experimentation that is successful in being both a commentary and an entertainer on its own is rare for cinema in general, much less Bengali cinema, thus catapulting it to the top of this list.
Honorable Mentions:
- Bohurupi
- Pariah – Vol. 1
- Chaalchitro: The Frame Fatale
The above three films miss a spot on the list but are no less important. While “Bohurupi” represents a new way forward for a commercial film with a rooted cultural specificity, shifting focus away from remakes, “Pariah Vol. 1” is a flawed but valiant attempt at creating a dark and gory action film completely indulging in the genre tropes rather than create a potpourri. “Chaalchitro – The Frame Fatale” represents a more dramatic approach to the police procedural thriller, with smart flourishes in both dramatic poignancy as well as the plot itself, without resorting to gimmicks.
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