Honoured in several film festivals, Amodini (Max Video; VCD Rs 199) is a satirical fairytale directed by Chidananda Dasgupta and is set in the 18th century, when social customs were rigidly followed. A beautiful and spoiled daughter of a raja is forced to become the bride of her 15-year-old Brahmin servant because they believed that if she is not married before sunset, something horrible will happen to her. After the marriage the boy is exiled. But what happens when the boy returns? He is back ? wealthy, married and takes the raja’s place. But does he takes back his arrogant first wife? Rachana Banerjee in a very different role. Konkona Sensharma also in a small but interesting role.

Directed by Dilip Roy, Debdas (Angel Video; VCD Rs 199) is one of the many remakes, based on the famous Saratchandra Chattopadhyay’s story by the same name. In this 1979 remake Debdas is played by Soumitra Chatterjee along with Sumitra Mukherjee as Paro and Supriya Debi as Chandramukhi. Uttam Kumar plays the happy-go-lucky Chunibabu, providing a perfect foil for the introvert and brooding hero. This is by now a well-known story of a young man who takes all the wrong decisions in life and regrets them throughout his life. This pushes him towards liquor and spells his doom. But this is one tragedy that people have savoured for years.

A film by Ashok Viswanathan, Kichhu Sanglap Kichhu Pralap /Dialogue and Delirium (Channel B; VCD Rs 149) got the Special Jury Award in the National film awards in 1999. A rather experimental narrative, it’s a comment on Calcutta as we have known it for years, but not really known. It has the taste, the smell, the feeling, of everything Bengali, everything that’s Calcutta. The songs by the posthumously famous ‘Father of the Bangla band movement’, Goutam Chattopadhyay, are used as a commentative device throughout. The singer is a kind of wandering minstrel and is often shown in the most unexpected of places. In fact, the music plays an important character, existing almost independent of the narrative line. The entertainment value of the musical score does not detract from the essentially seriousness of the film. The cast includes N. Viswanathan, Labony Sarkar, Nandini Ghosal, Ashoke Viswanathan and Goutam Chattopadhyay among others.