Chander Pahar

Disappointing. What could've been one of the best entries in the genre of adventure cinema, that's not too well populated by movies made in the Indian studios, is marred by sloppy set-up/acting/directing/screenplay/editing, (really, really) shoddy CGI (Desert, Volcano, Bunyip.....) and everyone line-reading to one another. The actor who plays Diego (Gérard Rudolf) rises above the general mediocrity, but the main lead only remembers to stay in character right at the very end (about 15 minutes prior to curtains). The (rather unnecessary) voice-over narration also is a huge diversion, and was the root of plenty of unintentional humor, as was the lead's tendency to keep smiling at some private joke only he was privy to, almost throughout the movie's running time.

+s I can think of - a bold entry in a relatively new genre, noble intentions, lack of musical diversions, Gérard Rudolf's acting, (some of the) cinematography.

A missed chance, a lost opportunity. I do hope it doesn't put filmmakers off adventure fare though.

Another thing - lots of reviewers seem to be showering this with platitudes just for the intention, and are looking past the end product. It's nice to seem/sound encouraging, but I do wish the right talent had the chance to play with such budgets.

Despite several accusations on the village-minded acting of DEV, it was a right decision to go and watch Chader PAHAR at first day. The movie had a irregular graph of suspense, several ups and downs, still it managed to glue me to my sit for the whole 150 minutes.

Rightly predicted by Kamaleswar Mukherjee, this movie will drag the standards of tollywood to one level up. Beautiful landscapes of South Africa & Mount Kilimanjaro are added flavor to the epic story-line, which has been nostalgia among Bengalis irrespective of age group.

Loved the presence of Gerard Rudolf as Diego Alvarez, boosted the reality in the movie, and I missed the voice of Sabyasachi Chakraborty as a narrator, which had been perfect, considering the fact that jungle is his specialty. Also the background score could be better.

But all in all, a must watch movie to see the hard work Chader Pahar team has put to make this a success. Viva, montanha da lua !

Waited for this since it was a rumor. Liked the end product.

Theme: Its an adventure movie. 90% of the movie is shot in either wild or desert. Chander Pahar is the story of a young Bengali man's adventures in Africa in the years 1909-1910. Shankar Roy Chowdhury, the protagonist, is a 20-year old man, recently completed his FA(graduation) and about to take up a job in a jute mill, a prospect he absolutely loathes. He yearns for adventure, wild lands, forests and animals. He wants to follow the footsteps of famous explorers like Livingstone, Mungo Park, Marco Polo, all of whom he has read about and idolizes. By a stroke of luck, he secures a job as a clerk in Uganda Railway through a fellow villager already working there and goes to Africa without a second thought.

Character development: The character of Shankar is drawn very well. His transformation from a Bengali village boy to a wanderer is drawn very carefully. Two things made it possible i.e. make-up and Dev's somewhat mature acting.

Direction: The director first gets a nod for daring to make such a movie. Then he again gets a nod to make Dev act. Non-linear narration was used to tell the story. He took artistic liberty to tweak few story points. At times actors took time to react to their environment which should have been taken care of. Man vs. Wild scenes are very well captured and they are a treat to your eyes. The thrill and excitement is very well built and executed. He gets nod for creating few edge-on-the seat action scenes. Still more work should have done Dev's expressions. Why is he smiling in almost all scenes?

Cinematography: This and this only makes all sins made by Dev go away. Beauty of Africa, wild animals, chase scenes are very well executed.Hats off to the DOP Soumik Haldar.

Acting: Dev tries and tries very hard. Till he's accompanied by Alvarez he poses an immature look on his face and casual approach to situations around him. May be its intentional to make his character feel more out-of-place without Alvarez or its his weakness. Still, till Alvarez is alive he at times appears annoying. Gerard Rudolf as Deigo Alavarez did a very commendable job. Very good acting by this gentleman. Kudos to him.

Songs and background score: Only one song and I did not like it. Background score was apt to the mood of the scenes and never overwhelms the scene.

Editing: The dialog parts are too slow for the high paced movie like this. Editing could have been more good. Few unnecessary scenes are kept which can be removed. Specially the scene where Shankar Alvarez gets to meet three Masai tribe members in wild. This is an important part of the book but when pictured this scene does not add any value to the move. One or two more scenes like this could have been edited.

Entertainment value: Apart from the occasional slowness this a very good adventure movie. Full of African wild animals and edge-on-seat thrill. I would recommend this.

Verdict: Tollywood never did an adventure movie. Did not do in India and leave alone Africa. But the director and more-over the producers took the risk to do the impossible. The risks were great. What if it tanks, what if it does not live up to the expectation of people. Making movie from a classic is always a risky business. Still they braved this and we get a very good Christmas present in the form of a movie. Should you watch it? Why not? Most of us had read the book and imagined the locations in our mind. This is a dream-come-true for all of us. The director does not cheat us here. If not 100% but I would say 80% of your thirst would be quenched. Yes Dev hams at the beginning of the movie but later he throws a good acting example. Ask me, I liked what I had seen. A warning, don't expect much as VFX from a movie whose total budget was 15 crore.

The film brought back the memories of watching Life of Pi. This is a memorable journey of a single man through the wilderness of Africa, from death to life. 90% of the film is very high quality; the quality falling only at two points, the cg depiction of the volcano and the Bunyip monster, which I feel could have been better had the filmmakers got more post production time before release. For the same reason, though there are 5 languages used in the film, it has no subtitles. Overall, the film is a feast of spectacular visuals and stunts. The film has an universal appeal; even a person with no knowledge of Bengali language can watch the film, because there are few dialogs in the entire movie. The film has that element that makes you crave to come back to watch once more.

After the brilliant Meghey Dhaka Tara, director Kamaleshwar Mukherjee has pulled off another masterpiece. At this point in time, I regard him as the best current Bengali director, a couple of notches above Srijit Mukherjee.

I know this is not a fashionable opinion I hold. I almost did not watch this movie after reading some reviews on certain Bengali movie websites. I realize now that I should not have taken those reviews seriously, since they reflected a typically strange attitude - that Dev cannot act. First of all, I think Dev acted wonderfully in this movie. Second, this movie is not only about Dev - that would make it more like a 3rd class Hindi movie which has no substance but the cheap pull of its leading man. That would be a insult to a director of Mukherjee's calibre.

I don't want to reveal too much about this movie - so I wont go into details. I would request people to watch this movie - and make up their own minds. Let me put it simply, without revealing too much.

I will compare it to 2 recent movies which received better reviews - Satyanweshi by Rituparno Ghosh and Mishar Rahashyo by Srijit. In both those movies, I fell asleep at various points - especially in the turgid effort by Srijit with its high faluting moralizing and lack of pace and punch. In this movie, I was drawn to the action from start to end - the pace never slackened, the next event never became apparent, and the story never dulled.

Proloy was another great movie made recently - but this is the best Bengali movie of 2013.