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Soft lights, mellow music and a roomful of people glued to the video clips of a much-talked-about film. The music release of Aabar Aashbo Phire, floating on an impressive budget of Rs 3.5-crore, drew a motley crowd of actors and singers at The Kenilworth on Tuesday night.
The time-tested story of love and reincarnation makes a comeback to the Bengali big screen in mid-September with this debut feature film of Ravi Ojha, who shot to fame as director-producer of the popular Ek Akasher Niche on Akash Bangla.
Hoping to carry the lucky charm from small screen to big are two of Ojha’s favourite actors from the same serial, Saswata Chatterjee and Koneenica Banerjee (picture by Pabitra Das). The star cast is led by Victor Banerjee, Sabitri Chatterjee, Tapas Paul, Barun Chanda (remember the ad exec in Satyajit Ray’s Seemabaddha?) and Rajatavo Dutta.
Though the leading man of the film was conspicuous by his absence at the bash, his father Subhendu Chatterjee was spotted in the last row. Victor made a brief appearance, but the flashbulbs were firmly on Koneenica, shimmering in a sequinned blue georgette sari. “This is my first feature film and I am very excited,” smiled Konee, who plays an orphan raised in a church.
Also spotted: playback singers Srikanta Acharya, Lopamudra Mitra and Jolly Mukherjee.Swapner Din: Dreams unlimited
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| Susan and Goldie: Twin treat |
They have been in Hollywood for over three decades, have Academy Awards to show for their efforts, are in long-term relationships and now have grown-up daughters making waves on screen. Susan Sarandon and Goldie Hawn have more things in common than most, yet they’re two very unique individuals.
And now you can catch two of Hollywood’s favourite women together in a film about life, love and laughter. With The Banger Sisters on Star Movies, Friday, 9 pm, discover a little bit of you — or your loved ones — in Suzzette (Hawn) and Vinnie (Sarandon).
The film is about two wild women who were rock groupies in their heydays, partying with practically every rock star worth knowing in the 60s and 70s. But while Suzzette continues with the roller-coaster lifestyle as a barmaid in LA, Vinnie is now Lavinia, a staid mother of two, with a lawyer for a husband and a job as a social worker. When Suzzette loses her job, she goes in search of her friend, whom she hasn’t seen in 20 years. And she’s shocked at the change.
Sarandon admitted in interviews that she would have loved to play the free-spirited Suzzette instead of having to wear “dull beige” outfits, but enjoyed bringing her own character to the film. And Hawn laughingly declared, “I loved keeping my (fake) breasts and the wardrobe”, while describing her role.
So, does Suzzette’s spirit rub off on Vinnie? Does the past creep up on her? Find out on Friday.
You must have hated him as Bill’s “Sidewinder” brother Budd in Quentin Tarantino’s revenge rampage Kill Bill: Vol. 2.
And here’s more reason to hate him on-screen — actor Michael Madsen, the only male assassin in Bill’s killer squad called DIVAS, is billed to feature in more QT projects.
Tarantino has long toyed with the idea of teaming Madsen and John Travolta in a film titled The Vegas Brothers.
Part of the celebrated mythical world of Tarantino, Madsen’s character of Vic (Mr Blonde) Vega in Reservoir Dogs and Travolta’s character of Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction were supposedly brothers.
But there is a technical hitch here. Both the characters died in their respective movies. So if Tarantino has to bring them back, he has to make a prequel. But there is a hitch there, too. With both Travolta and Madsen not getting any younger, a prequel is — to put it politely — a bit of an age-old problem.
Madsen, however, has been confirmed for the film adaptation of the Majesco game, also starring Michael Rodriguez, Ben Kingsley and Kristanna Loken. You can also catch Madsen in the action-adventure flick Sin City, about a corrupt police department. Boasting a cast of Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, Benicio Del Toro and Elijah Wood, the film follows three separate stories.
If The Vegas Brothers does not work out, Tarantino and Madsen can still come together for another of QT’s dream projects, Inglorious Bastards, about US soldiers offered the chance of a reprieve before execution during the time of World War II.
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| Swapner Din: Dreams unlimited |
Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s Swapner Din (Chased by Dreams) — starring Prosenjit, Rimii Sen and Raima Sen — is turning out to be the perfect globetrotter. First call: the 29th Toronto International Film Festival, starting September 9, where the film is slated for a world premiere.
Now, the first Bengali film from the stable of Mumbai-based Jhamu Sugandh Productions is set to be unveiled at Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), as well. The New York gallery reopening this November at an expanded mid-town address will screen Swapner Din on December 3 at its inaugural film exhibition, titled Premieres.
“It’s a very prestigious screening, as my film will be shown alongside the works of such greats like Jean-Luc Godard, Abbas Kiarostami, Theo Angelopoulos and Alexander Sokurov,” said Dasgupta, who had earlier screened Uttara and Mando Meyer Upakhyan at MOMA.
Tracing the journey of three people chasing different dreams and ambitions, Swapner Din finds Prosenjit as the pivot, scouring the countryside in a jeep with a 16-mm film projector.
“I plan to attend the festival as I would have wrapped up my next feature film by then,” added Dasgupta, now busy fine-tuning his script.
