Bengali movies that explored the spirit of the youth

While most of the Bengali movies largely focus on youngsters and their colourful stories, their portrayals are often quite shallow and rarely explored beyond love stories. However, every now and then Tollywood comes up with a film on the young generation that manages to hit the right spots. Here is a list of Bengali movies that very aptly capture the coming-of-age struggles that the youngsters face these days

'Open Tee Bioscope' is worth a watch if you grew up in Kolkata during the 80's and 90's. It is not a film, rather some sort of time travel that takes you back to your sweet childhood days. The story sees Fowara (Riddhi Sen) returning to his north Kolkata home after he was expelled from the school hostel, only to make new friends and enjoy the sweetest time of his life. But life eventually turns on its head following a series of incidents, only to get back into groove towards the end. Above all, this film beautifully explores the troubled days of every Bengalee teenage boy while growing up in a metro city.

Having been shelved for more than five years, the release of ‘Teen Yaari Katha’ raised everyone's expectations very high but it proved to be a cakewalk for director duo Sudeshna Roy and Abhijit Guha. It’s an out and out comedy film with an emotional touch. The best thing is that it keeps incorporating the harsh reality checks and real-life struggles of the young generation. Three suburban young lads Shyamal, Antu, and Bilu are in search of love and welcome their daily obstacles with a big smile. Even if they miss out on everything in the real world, the trio has their friendship to fall back on.

It’s all about four close friends - Hari, Shekhar, Ashim and Sanjay. The film also showcases the serious problems our young generation faces, especially when you are confused about what to do in life without a job in hand. Ashim was a medical student but later decided to never pursue that profession. Sanjay left his well-paid ad agency job. The rest are jobless. They once had a Bengali band, but after being beaten up by the public at a stage show, they vowed to never perform again. They ultimately start a travel agency 'Gharoa Travels'. On their very first trip, they have only nine passengers. On the way to the hills, a girl named Ria joins them. The film deals with their journey through North Bengal. As the journey progresses, their natures are slowly exposed. The film uses a flash-forwarding to the future style juxtaposed with the present day. The lush visuals of Kalimpong, Darjeeling and the lazily flowing Teesta make this Anjan Dutt directorial a visual pleasure.

In Ek Phali Rodh, Atanu Ghosh unfolds the puzzled story of Somshankar Roy, a social scientist (Dhritiman Chatterjee) who is obsessed with experimentation of the ‘Bystander Effect.’ It’s the human nature of walking away when one witnesses a street crisis. He appoints two young volunteers Swagato (Ritwick Chakraborty) and Anwesha (Aparajita Ghosh Chakraborty) to stage fake crisis situations in order to see how passers-by react. Rittwick Chakraborty excels in his usual natural self while creating and observing the fake crisis situations, he delivers his anguish perfectly while facing a real crisis as his girlfriend goes missing and to top it all the reason she left. All this perfectly relates to the youngsters of today.

Lionel Messi is the spirit of this Bengali film, where the soccer wizard turns out to be a metaphor for Bengal’s passion for football and the young generation. Director Ringo Banerjee tries to capture our almost instinctive love for the game. The passion is reflected in every nook and corner of West Bengal - from villages to towns to cities. Soumitra Chatterjee's grandson Ronodeep Bose and Aryann Bhowmik played the two central characters as para footballers