Yet another National Award winning film released by Channel B for home viewing ? Paromitar Ekdin (Rs 199). Directed by Aparna Sen, it was awarded the best Bengali language film in 1999. Aparna Sen has written and acted in it, as well. It’s a heart-warming tale of friendship and understanding between the daughter-in-law and mother-in-law, who are traditionally meant to be at loggerheads. But here the two women of the house try to understand each other ? their sorrow, their ideology. When Rituparna Sengupta gives birth to a spastic child and is incessantly ill-treated by the brute of a husband it’s her mother-in-law who insists she sever all ties with him. It is this daughter-in-law who again comes back to look after the bedridden mother. The whole relationship is extremely touching. It’s a film by a woman, for the women. Cinematically the film uses Tagore’s songs brilliantly. It also got the singer Jayashree Dasgupta awards and accolades for her song ? Hriday ammar prokash holo.

Those who are sold on action-thrillers would love to posses a VCD copy of Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill 1 & 2. The first part of the film comes with the tagline ? In the year 2003, Uma Thurman will kill Bill. But why? Well, that’s what this film is all about. Unlike conventional movies, Kill Bill (Eros; Rs 149) is told in chapter format making the narrative flow more like a book than a film. And one by one the chapter opens on us revealing why and how ‘the bride’ played by Uma Thurman has revenge on her mind. A film of breathtaking suspense and gory violence. It’s a story of grit and physical strength and punishing the wrong-doers.

Uma Thurman excels. She plays a female assassin of The Deadly Viper Assassination Squad but made her gang members her enemy when she wanted to quit, get married and settle down. And on her wedding night the gang made her pay for leaving them. The gang consisted of -Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu), Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox), Budd (Michael Madsen) and Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah), not to mention the boss, Bill (David Carradine), and one by one they all face the wrath of the wronged woman.

Kill Bill 2 (Eros; Rs 199) is completely different. Writer-director Tarantino splits his original film into two parts and the opening of Part-2 is actually the midway point in Tarantino’s screenplay. The tagline says ‘Revenge is a dish best served cold’. Part-2 is almost entirely made of Quentinesque speeches and retorts which is his trademark and the focus thus shifts from action. Thrown in is a familiar Tarantino face in a cameo, some brilliantly chosen soundtracks with an exquisite climax. Tarantino gets a perfect conclusion to his magnum opus. If there’s anything left to be said about the luminous Uma it’s that after Part-1 she’s even better here.