Actualités

Arguably, Bengal has the richest literary heritage in this country. Advantageously, many excellent films have emerged from the captivating crevices of Bangla writing .

We could safely add this ambrosial adaptation to the hall of fame.

Director Suman Mukhopadhyay’s Putulnacher Itikatha (The Puppet’s Tale released on 1 August) is a lush layered luminous look at the wages of patriarchy , the burdens of an “English” education during a time when India was under colonial rule, and it also taps into the taboo subject of female sexuality at a time when women were supposed to show only those emotions that flowed from the eyes.

Significantly the most exploited woman in Mukhopadhyay’s village Gaudia Sendidi (Ananya Chatterjee) goes blind in one eye after a neglected attack of Smallpox: patriarchal arrogance manifested in gender discrimination and decimation.

The novel, and happily its film adaptation is soaked in socio-historical ramifications, though never at the cost of a fluid storytelling.

Padma Khanna, a trained Kathak exponent who turns a year older on March 10, was a better dancer than all the other dancing stars of her era. She could sizzle in cabarets and mujras without ever looking vulgar. Many iconic songs of the dance genre in the Hindi films of the 1960s-1980s were filmed on her.

To begin with, she had a minor role in the Biswajit starrer Biwi Aur Makaan in 1966, where she was billed as ‘Kumari Padma’. The really big break was the bold striptease in Vijay Anand’s Johnny Mera Naam. The song ‘Husn ke lakhon rang aag hai yeh badan kaun sa ang dekhoge’, and her provocative but never obscene dance moves as she stripped down to a bikini in front of a drooling Premnath, placed Padma on the perch of the prancing pyramid.

The offers poured in. And Padma made sway while the song shined.

Nechama meets a not-too-promising date, in the romantic comedy Matchmaking. Courtesy of Israeli Films

Matchmaking, one of the best comedies at this year’s St. Louis Jewish Film Festival, is a romantic comedy about a young Orthodox Jewish who seems to have everything a family could want in a match – good family, good grades, good looks – but who is pining for a girl who, on paper, does not match up.

Yeshiva student Moti Bernstein (Amit Rahav) is a good student and obedient son from a respected Israeli Ashkenazi Jewish family who has reached the age to start looking for a wife. Moti is a catch who has it all – handsome, smart, tall, from a good Ashkenazi family – everything any matchmaker or Orthodox family would want. As an A-list candidate in the books of Orthodox matchmaking, Moti is a guy who should have his pick of any girl he wants for a bride.