ওয়াশিংটন বাংলা রেডিও Washington Bangla Radio USA

Kolkata, April 21, 2012 (Washington Bangla Radio / Penning Creations) It takes a lot of guts on the parts of directors to choose serious, topical issues as the main theme for their movies. While films of this genre tend to be instructive and often contain sensitive messages (when well-made, that is!), such movies do not generally have the legs to have sustained, successful runs at the box-office (compared to romantic flicks or hard-hitting action films, in particular!).

Understandably, filmmakers have tended to stay away from selecting such ‘risky’ plots for their flicks. In the last few years, only the Shilpa Shetty-starrer ‘Phir Milenge’ (2004) managed to successfully deal with a subject (the AIDS disease) that is generally considered to be a social taboo.Last year, one of the episodes of Onir’s prize-winning ‘I Am’ also did delve into the topic of sperm donation.

Director Shoojit Sircar, who had made the heart-warming ‘Yahaan’ seven years back, now returns with ‘Vicky Donor’ – a movie that revolves round the concept of infertility and sperm transfer. The movie marked the first foray into film production by actor John Abraham and had an exciting lineup of promising youngsters among its cast members. The actual movie turns out to be a pretty engaging affair too!

In ‘Vicky Donor’, we meet eminent health and fertility specialist ‘Dr. Baldev Chaddha’ (Annu Kapoor), who plies his trade at Dariyaganj in New Delhi. The doctor owes his popularity to his unique business proposition – he promises to supply such specialized sperms that would be ideally suited to the exact requirements of his clients. However (and rather unsurprisingly!), ‘Dr. Chaddha’ hardly manages to get any success from his profession and his patients are often left totally unsatisfied. The doctor resorts to scouting for a willing, healthy person, who would be able to deliver him with a really special and effective sperm. Finding such a donor does not prove to be an easy task though!

Bengali actress June Maliah

Kolkata, April 18, 2012 (Washington Bangla Radio / Penning Creations) On 16th of April, 2012 some members of the cast and crew of Tollywood Kolkata Bangla movie "Teen Yaari Katha" congregated at the Chrome in Kolkata. Produced by Sahara Motion Pictures and Ideas, Teen Yaari Katha is set to hit theaters on the 4th of May, 2012.

Jointly directed by Abhijit Guha and Sudeshna Roy (WBRi Interview) the film boasts of a delectable cast including well-known faces such as Parambrata Chatterjee, Rudranil Ghosh, Saswata Chatterjee, June Maliah, Biplab Chatterjee, Gita De etc. Added attractions include a script by Anindya Bose (associated with Bangla music band Parash Pathar) and film music by Bangla band Bhoomi.

Sudeshna Roy

Kolkata April 16, 2012 ( Washington Bangla Radio / Penning Creations) The month of March has been a stupendous one for the Bengali movie industry. The mood was set with the critically acclaimed ‘Charulata 2011’ during the very first week of the month and it was followed up by two monstrous hits in the form of Aneek Dutta’s ‘Bhooter Bhabishyat’ and Anjan Dutt’s ‘Abar Bomkesh’. Reshmi Mitra’s ‘Macho Mustana’ also managed to create quite a flutter among the general cinegoers. While these films delved with different central themes, all of them had a single common feature. Each of these movies was extremely well-promoted, with the makers deciding to adopt relatively aggressive marketing strategies to ensure that their films opened big at the theatres. Director Chaya Singh (an accomplished actress in South Indian cinemas in her own right!) chooses to, however, take up a slightly low-key approach for marketing her debut venture, ‘Ki Kore Bojhabo Tomake’. While there was very little awareness and hype surrounding the movie, Singh was looking to (pleasantly!) surprise movie buffs with an engaging and well-crafted flick. The movie had a pretty intriguing storyline as well.

Kolkata April 16, 2012 ( Washington Bangla Radio / Penning Creations) Over the last few months, the genre of comedy has got a fresh lease of life in the Bengali film industry. Director Aniket Chattopadhyay regaled critics and viewers alike with the well-made comedy flick, ‘Goray Gondogol.’ More recently, Anik Dutta’s ‘Bhuter Bhabishyat’ (which has gone on to assume the proportions of a modern classic!) scored big at the box office. Filmmaker Raja Chanda, who had previously made the rather lukewarm ‘Target’ (2010) looks to build upon this encouraging trend of making classy comedy flicks, with his latest film, ‘Le Halua Le.’ While the film’s release was preceded by a great deal of hype (which is understandable, given that the movie is produced under the banner of Shree Venkatesh Films!), it also faced intense competition at the theatres, with Kaushik Ganguly’s ‘Laptop’ also releasing on the same day. Would ‘Le Halua Le’ be able to hold its own as far as its theatrical performance is concerned and deliver director Raja Chanda with his first big hit? Chances for that are bright, for the movie is one of the funniest of recent times!

It should be mentioned at the very outset that there is not much originality about the storyline of ‘Le Halua Le’. The movie borrows heavily from the 2003-Bollywood hit ‘Hungama’ (which, in turn, was adapted from the Malayalam flick ‘Poochakkoru Mookkuthi’). In the film, we meet two young (and eligible!) bachelors, ‘Rahul’ (Soham) and ‘Subho’ (Hiran). Although our protagonists are acquainted with each other, they can hardly be called the best of friends (nothing could be further from the truth, in fact!). The reason for such animosity, you ask? Both ‘Rahul’ and ‘Subho’ harbour romantic feelings towards the same girl – ‘Sonali’ (Payel Sarkar). Now, that is quite a justified cause for the prevailing ill-feelings between the two leading men, what say?!

Read the complete Bengali movie review and watch the trailer via WBRi.

Kolkata April 14, 2012 (Washington Bangla Radio / Penning Creations) Imagine how you would feel when you are treated to a movie where there is a lot of explosion, lots and lots of noise and a greater magnitude of bullets and cannon shots flying around the place but then you just do not have a clear idea of what exactly are they trying to show you. Well, Battleship belongs to a genre of films that offers you the very experience described above. Coming from the makers of Transformers, Battleship lacks the finesse of a good action plot that ought to present a unique blend of adrenaline pumping action with character sketches that define a good piece of cinema. Instead, the Peter Berg movie is a sci-fi flick that is just loud and ear splittingly sonorous with nothing else to offer for the audience.

The action kicks off when a group of scientists, curious as ever, go snooping around to find alternate living environments similar to Earth by sending radio signals to a planet located in a distant galaxy. The scientists’ search for alternate life forms turns into a horror as a fleet of gigantic spaceships crash into the waters off the Hawaiian Islands in the middle of a naval exercise between US and Japan. Just when you search for the noble and courageous officer who has to save the day for the Navy, the answer sure comes when we are taken into a pub in Oahu where two soldiers are involved in a heated conversation. ‘Stone Hopper’ (Alexander Skarsgard), the elder one is disgusted with his younger brother ‘Alex Hopper’ (Taylor Kitsch) for wasting his life and getting into unnecessary troubles. ‘Stone’ decides to enlist his brother in the Navy and this decision could not have come at a better time as the aliens have just invaded Earth. Yes, the ironies do not end there as ‘Alex Hopper’ declares that he would go out to the high seas and meet the aliens face to face. So much for the transformation from the I-don’t-know-what-to-do-with-my-life loser to the alien avenging hero!! Thus starts a war between the ammunition loaded naval ships and the spaceships containing the hooded and bearded aliens. The director of the movie does not take the pains to clear out why the aliens took the trouble of visiting our precious planet in the first place. The designers of the aliens seem to have burned the midnight oil though in giving technical out-of-the-world touches like grey goatees. Not to miss out in all these action sequences is ‘Samantha’ (Brooklyn Decker), Hopper’s girlfriend and a physical therapist by profession and ‘Raikes’ (Rihanna) who shouts out ‘Boom’ every five minutes during her entire screen presence.