‘Teen Kanya’ to ‘Chaar’: Bengali anthology films you shouldn’t miss

An anthology film consists of more than one short film with a soft underlying theme running across the stories. Rarely getting noticed and barely given acknowledgment, it’s a genre which needs some serious attention. While the first Bengali anthology film being Satyajit Ray’s ‘Teen Konya’, in recent times ‘Chaar’, ‘Rong Beronger Kori’, ‘Ek Mutho Chabi’ and few others have received rave reviews. Here is a list of Bengali anthology films which you shouldn’t miss.

Director Ranjan Ghosh raises question against demonetization with four interlinked stories based on socio-political struggle. The story revolves around the elements of love, separation, profit, and loss. The world in this story is inhabited by a tribal couple Ram (Soham Chakraborty) and Sita (Arunima Ghosh) and a government clerk Khagen (Kharaj Mukherjee). An old brick kiln owner (Chiranjeet Chakraborty), his young wife (also played by Arunima) and her friend Mithun (Arjun Chakraborty); an anonymous prostitute (Rituparna Sengupta), her pimp (Dhee Majumder) and her client (Ritwick Chakraborty); and finally a young Dhaki Joga (Ritobroto) and his ailing mother (also played by Rituparna).

Bollywood director Imtiaz Ali visited Kolkata to promote this Bauddhayan Mukherji directorial and heaped praise on it’s out of the box content. The film even traveled to several international film festivals and won accolades also. ‘Teenkahon’ has 3 stories ‘Nabalok’, ‘Post Mortem’ and ‘Telephone’. Nabalok delves deep into the mind of a child considering his relationships with women but in a polished manner. ‘Post Mortem’ explores the contradictions within a person in a unique way with the help of camera, situation and the actors. ‘Telephone’, written by the director himself, is a typical mystery made in a unique way to keep the audience attentive throughout.

Sandip Ray’s ‘Chaar’ presents four stories in a singular narrative which define relationships aptly focusing on human emotions. The four stories are ‘Bateswarer Abodan’ by Parasuram, ‘Porikkha’ by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay, ‘Kagtarua’ and ‘Dui Bondhu’ by Satyajit Ray. Emotions in each story are wrapped in simplicity and virtue with ease. The selection of actors is equally brilliant. From Paran Bandhopadhyay, Saswata Chatterjee to Sreelekha Mitra, Rajatava Dutta and Swaralipi, Abir Chatterjee to Koel Mallick everyone excelled in their roles and build such an impact that you would feel ‘Chaar’ wouldn't have been possible without these actors playing their characters.

This Sandip Ray movie has four ghost stories spun together by a comical twist interlinked with unusual events. It’s a collection of 3 short films inspired by four Bengali short stories - Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay's ‘Bhut Bhabishyat’, Satyajit Ray's ‘Brown Saheber Bari’ and ‘Anath Babur Bhoy’. The background music of this movie also received a great response. Both the cinematography and background score make us intrigued with every new story pillared by decent performances. Overall, Sandip Ray manages to churn out a fine one time watch with an exclusive merit of introducing us to the brilliant stories written by the two gifted masters.

The Satyajit Ray directorial is inspired by Rabindranath Tagore's short stories and is divided into three parts – ‘The Postmaster’, ‘Monihara’, and ‘Samapti’. Originally it had three separate stories; so the title is ‘Teen Kanya’. However, the subtitling wasn’t finished in time for a Tagore anniversary, so the second story ‘Monihara’ wasn’t included in the cassette, retitled ‘Two Daughters’. In the two stories, we see the lives of two girls bound to a world, not of their making, so they face their fate with very limited options. ‘Monihara’ sees a school teacher telling the story of a zamindar’s wife Manimalika, who was a jewelry-crazy lady. When her husband faces financial problems, Manimalika gives all her jewelry and then disappears. The zamindar then in a deserted house opens the new box full of jewels that were meant for his wife, suddenly there is maniac laughter all around and Manimalika’s spirit comes to snatch all the jewels.

Directed by six different directors, it’s basically a collage of six films that explore the concept of moral aberrations, focusing on the six sins (based on Shada Ripu). The stories are completely different from one another; be it the narration or treatment. Directed by Arghyakamal Mitra, the first film is called 'Janmadin' and it deals with lust (kaama). Partha Sen’s ‘Pakshiraaj’, the second story captures the fallout of obsession (moha). The next offering is a story of greed (lobh). Directed by Indranil Roy Choudhury, 'Tapanbabu' is the best one amongst all six stories. The story that follows is 'Raagunbabur Galpo' dealing with the intricacies of rage/anger (krodh). Next comes 'Tarpor Bhalobasha' by Anjan Dutt which focuses on pride. Directed by Kaushik Ganguly, the final offering is 'Progress Report' which captures the vice of jealousy (maatsharya).