Weekend Roundup: Here’s what made headlines this week in Bengali cinema

If you have missed the exciting news, gossips or latest developments that have rocked Bengali cinema this week, here is a weekly roundup for you. Take a look:

Despite testing negative in his second COVID-19 test, Soumitra Chatterjee’s neurological problems continue to worry doctors. The medical team treating him thinks it might take a prolonged period for the thespian to recover completely. His oxygen saturation remains adequate, but his involuntary movement, agitation and restlessness has made the doctors thinking about consulting a neurology expert. Although his consciousness is a bit down then what it was last week, Soumitra’s condition is stable for the last two days.

Since next year is going to be the birth centenary of maestro Satyajit Ray, Raajhorshee De is coming up with his next ‘Abar Kanchanjhungha’ a direct tribute to the master filmmaker. The film will be a celebration of life. It's a complete family drama celebrating nostalgia, Bangaleeana, Christmas, Darjeeling, and obviously Kanchanjhungha. Each and every frame of the film will have the signature of Manik Babu. The cast includes Kaushik Sen, Saswata Chatterjee, Deboshree Ganguly, Arpita Chatterjee, Tnusree Chakraborty, Gaurav Chakrabarty, Rahul Arunoday Banerjee, Padmanabha Dasgupta, Rupankar Bagchi, Richa Sharma, Bidipta Chakraborty, Priyanka Rati Pal, Devlina Kumar, Sohini Guha Roy, Ashim Roychoudhury, Ranieeta Das and Anindya Chatterjee.

Srijit Mukherji’s 2019 box office hit ‘Gumnaami’ was loved by one and all and now here’s another piece of good news for the team. After South Asian International Film Festival in New York and Dhaka International Film Festival, the thriller is now an official selection at the Indian Film Festival in Melbourne. This is Srijit’s fourth film to be selected at the popular festival after ‘Chotushkone’, ‘Rajkahini’ and ‘Uma’. The film is based on the famous Mukherjee Commission hearings where the three theories about Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s alleged death were debated.

Noted music composer Daboo Malik has released his debut Bengali song ‘Na Bola Kotha’ as an independent music composer. The song is beautifully rendered by Sriijiit while lyrics are by Lipi. The soulful song has been picturized on the city of joy Kolkata. Speaking about his debut in popular Bengali music scene Daboo Malik said he always felt melodious music was appreciated by Bengali audiences always: “Bengalis have strong melodic heritage and making a song in Bengali for Bengal music lovers was a challenge. I knew it was not going to be easy at all. Na Bola Kotha is my first humble offering to popular Bengali music scene."

Just like others, the celebrities, too, can’t feel the Puja vibe like every year. However, they believe that Maa Durga will eventually heal the world faster. Actor Vikram Chatterjee says: “Usually, if I am in Kolkata during Puja, I get busy with all those professional commitments till its Shasthi. But this time around, there are no such things. I will be visiting my grandparents' house and will settle for a long adda with my childhood friends in Sulekha. I won’t go for any pandal-hopping or even the drive-in darshan is not in my plans because I have to follow all the rules I have set for the family. We have senior citizens at home and it’s always a concern for their safety, so I can’t do anything that will eventually put their health at risk,”