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Not a fan of the horror genre, I was taken aback by how shaken I was with the business on hand in Bhog (in Bengali on Hoichoi) largely for its central performance. Actor Anirban Bhattacharya’s jolting performance as a working-class bloke who transforms into a possessed entity, right in front of our disbelieving eyes, echoes Jack Nicholson in The Shining.

There is an unsettling normalcy to Atin’s behaviour, his environment and his near ones at the start. Admittedly, Atin lost his mother when he was young. But he was more than compensated for by a mother-figure Pushpa (Sudipa Basu), whom Atil treats with a mixture of reverence and mischief.

How is he, or we, to know that Pushpa would disappear into thin air, literally with no forwarding address?

There is a chilling finality to the eerie happenings in this sturdily ominous fear feast, based on a short story by Avik Sarkar.

19th annual New York Indian Film Festival (Nyiff) special focus on new Bengali CinemaBengali is the language of Bangladesh. In fact, its 1971 war of Independence from Pakistan was based upon the language which they favored rather than upon the religion (Muslim) they happened to share with Pakistan.May 7–12, 2019 at the Village East Cinemas, 2nd Ave @ 12th Street, NYC.This year 19th annual New York Indian Film Festival (Nyiff) has a special focus on the new Bengali Cinema, reflecting a resurgence in films coming out of West Bengal. With seven new films, including works by the Bengali masters Buddhadev Dasgupta, Suman Ghosh and other first time filmmakers, it is a reflection on Nyiff’s commitment to young emerging filmmakers from India. Here is a listing of the films (with English subtitles)With seven new films, including works by the Bengali masters Buddhadev Dasgupta, Suman Ghosh and other first time filmmakers, it...

The Bangladesh Oscar Committee has selected Mostofa Sarwar Farooki’s “No Bed of Roses” (“Doob”) as the country’s entry to the Oscars foreign language category. The film follows a renowned filmmaker who creates a scandal in Bangladesh when he leaves his wife and marries his daughter’s classmate.

Indian actor Irrfan Khan stars in and co-produced the film that also stars Nusrat Imrose Tisha Parno Mittra and Rokeya Prachy (“Kingdom of Clay Subjects”).

The film premiered in competition at the 2017 Shanghai International Film Festival; and subsequently at the Moscow International Film Festival where it won the Kommersant Weekend Prize. It also played the El Gouna, Busan, Vancouver and Kolkata festivals.

“Roses” was initially banned in Bangladesh on the grounds that it might be based on a revered real-life author and filmmaker. The ban was eventually lifted and the film released in October 2017 in Bangladesh, France, India and Australia.

Variety reviewer,...

Bangladesh has selected No Bed of Roses (Doob) as its entry in the foreign-language film Oscar category.

Directed by Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, the drama stars well-known Indian actor Irrfan Khan (whose Hollywood credits include Life of Pi and Slumdog Millionaire) as Javed Hasan, a successful director who faces a midlife crisis when he has a tryst with his daughter's childhood friend whom he also marries, causing a national scandal. Rokeya Prachi plays his wife, while Nusrat Imrose Tisha plays the daughter and Indian actress Parno Mittra plays her childhood friend.

In a statement about the film, Farooki had said he took ...

Bangladesh has selected No Bed of Roses (Doob) as its entry in the foreign-language film Oscar category.

Directed by Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, the drama stars well-known Indian actor Irrfan Khan (whose Hollywood credits include Life of Pi and Slumdog Millionaire) as Javed Hasan, a successful director who faces a midlife crisis when he has a tryst with his daughter's childhood friend whom he also marries, causing a national scandal. Rokeya Prachi plays his wife, while Nusrat Imrose Tisha plays the daughter and Indian actress Parno Mittra plays her childhood friend.

In a statement about the film, Farooki had said he took ...

Life is a collection of moments coming out of the aura of relationships. The relationship could be between a mother and child, father and daughter or son, husband and wife and so on. But somehow, like life, every relationship expires with time. And the thread of relationship moves on with time in a quest to fulfill its wish. Director Mostofa Sarwar Farooki portrays few of these relationship moments like an untold poetry in his classic “Doob: No Bed of Roses”.

“Doob falls in a new relationship with her daughter’s friend Nitu (Parno Mittra). With time, Javed marries Nitu and divorces his present wife Maya (Rokeya Prachy). Javed’s daughter Saberi (Tisha) fails to accept her father’s infidelity and decides not to keep any relation with him. The narrative moves through the subtle path of emotions to bring in the threads of relationships till life touches the final thread- death.

Irrfan Khan is set to co-produce and star in Bangladeshi filmmaker Mostofa S. Farooki’s No Bed Of Roses, which is scheduled to start shooting later this month.

Khan’s Ik Company will co-produce the film, described as “a family story about loss and love”, with Bangladesh’s Jazz Multimedia and India’s Essay Movies. Jazz Multimedia will distribute in Bangladesh.

The cast also includes Nusrat Imrose Tisha, who appeared in Farooki’s 2012 drama Television; Rokeya Prachy, whose credits include The Clay Bird, which won the Fipresci prize in Cannes Directors Fortnight in 2002; Parno Mittra and Bratya Basu.

The Bengali and English-language project was selected for the 2013 edition of Film Bazaar, organised by India’s National Film Development Corp (Nfdc), where it won the Dubai Film Market award.

Television, about an imam in a Bangladeshi village who bans TV, closed Busan International Film Festival in 2012 and won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2013 Asia Pacific Screen Awards...

X, directed by eleven Indian directors, will be screened as the opening film of the South Asian International Film Festival (Saiff). The festival will be held from November 18-23 in New York.

The film brings together eleven filmmakers with disparate styles to make different parts of the same film. The story revolves around K, a filmmaker with a mid-life crisis, who meets a mysterious young girl who reminds him of his first girlfriend at first, and subsequently, of every woman in his life.

Produced by Manish Mundra, the film is jointly directed by Abhinav Shiv Tiwari, Anu Menon, Hemant Gaba, Nalan Kumarasamy, Pratim D Gupta, Q, Raja Sen, Rajshree Ojha, Sandeep Mohan, Sudhish Kamath and Suparn Verma.

X features Aditi Chengappa, Bidita Bag, Gabriella Schmidt, Huma Qureshi, Neha Mahajan, Parno Mitra, Pia Bajpai, Pooja Ruparel, Radhika Apte, Richa Shukla, Rii Sen and SwaraBhaskar with Anshuman Jha and Rajat Kapoor.

Shiladitya Bora...

Apur Panchali, director Kaushik Ganguly’s homage to renowned Bengali director Satyajit Ray’s Apu trilogy, is all set to win over a whole new generation of British cineastes when it premieres at the world’s best cinema, the British Film Institute’s prestigious National Film Theatre 1 on July 14and subsequently at the Cineworld Wembley on July 15 as part of the 5th anniversary celebrations of the London Indian Film Festival.

The event is being held in association with the Satyajit Ray Foundation and the screening will also honour the Foundation’s Founder and Chairperson Pam Cullen, a dear friend and tireless advocate of Ray during his lifetime, and former member of the Free India Movement in her younger days.

The President of the Foundation is Mrs Bijoya Ray and the Vice President is Sandip Ray. The Foundation’s Patrons are a glittering array of film personalities including Lord Attenborough Cbe,...

Get ready London film fans! The fabulous London Indian Film Festival, running July 10th – 17th, will bring you an eclectic and cool mix of films! Now Europe’s largest platform for Indian cinema, the London Indian Film Festival returns to the Capital, in association with Pure Heaven, the British Film Institute, and official Hotel Partner Grange Hotels, celebrating the exploding movement of Indian Independent cinema and bringing to UK audiences a rare selection of cutting-edge films from some of the Indian subcontinent’s hottest independent talents. Going way beyond Bollywood, the festival presents a kaleidoscope of new films that challenge, shock, generate debate and present a more realistic view of India and the subcontinent today, in all its diversity.

The festival has many highlights and will showcase Emma Thompson’s Sold and Million Dollar Arm, which stars Jon Hamm and also boasts a bevy of Bollywood stars! The festival will stretch citywide,...