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by Swapnil Azad

I walked into Calcutta’s Priya Cinema last Friday to watch “Pratidwandi” [The Adversary], Satyajit Ray’s film from 1970, expecting a roomful Ray-admirers who rushed to see Anik Dutta’s (deplorable) “Aparajito” earlier this year. And well, I was disappointed. There were just a handful of folks inside the auditorium, and I can’t tell how many of them watched the film seriously. Speaks volumes about the gradual cultural death of Calcutta which has been happening over the past decade. A few years ago, news of a Ray rerelease would’ve brought in masses who would liven up the theatre premises and its proximity, even if with flattery. Or maybe not, I’m too young to know.

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Keeping aside my lamentations on the cultural fall of Calcutta, the experience was certainly worthwhile. The print screened was...

Film FestivalTIFF 2022 will run from September 8 to 18 without any of the restrictions of the last two years. Prior to the festival, notable works from Satyajit Ray and his contemporaries will be presented between August 4 and 27.Suresh NellikodeYouTube screenshotAfter a long patch of lockdowns and pandemic-inflicted restrictions, it’s time for Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) fans to get spoiled for choice. While the 47th edition of the film festival is two months away, the organisers have planned a wonderful line-up of events and TIFF looks poised for an opulent comeback this year. TIFF 2022 will run from September 8 to 18 without any of the restrictions that were in place in the previous two years. It’ll spring back to its previous normal with added surprises to make good for what was lost in the last couple of years. There were only 50 films in 2020 and 150 in 2021, with fewer in-person shows and more hybrid online shows.

Not many Bengali films make it out of Calcutta and pierce the international film consciousness, however, one very recent film got close. Anik Dutta's Bhooter Bhabishyat was one of the best received Bengali mainstream films in recent memory, and thanks to a fully subtitled, good looking print on YouTube, a lot of people who normally wouldn't care got to see it. Genuinely funny and nearly deserving of its two hour runtime, Bhooter Bhabishyat was a neat ghost comedy that resonated with audiences across India.Anik Dutta is back, and he's bringing the big guns this time. Ashchorjyo Prodeep is a contemporary Aladdin story about a struggling man who gets a much needed push from a modern genie. However, just like with any story like this, you...

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Mumbai, April 27: Satish Kaushik, who is directing "Gang Of Ghosts", the Hindi remake of Bengali film "Bhooter Bhabishyat", says it was a conscious decision to keep out the original cast, and retain only Parambrata Chatterjee from it.

"Bhooter Bhabishyat", released in 2012, is one of Bengali cinema's biggest hits of all times. It is about ghosts in an old bungalow who refuse to evict their abode to make way for a shopping mall.

From the original cast of the blockbuster directed by Anik Dutta, only Parambrata, who made a strong impact as Vidya Balan's cop-companion in the cruel climate of Kolkata in "Kahaani", will be seen.

Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur I will open the 12th edition of the River to River Florence Indian Film Festival, while its sequel Gangs of Wasseypur II will be the closing film of the festival. A documentary on the life and career of Amitabh Bachchan, Everlasting Light by Ram Madhvani, will be screened during the festival. Bachchan will also be present for a Q&A session post the screening of his film Black.

Besides film screening, the festival will also host interactive sessions on topics like, ‘Shakti: Women in Indian cinema and literature’ and ‘Bollywood and the expression of emotions in today’s India’.

The festival will run from 7th to 13th December in Florence followed by an edition in Rome from 14th to 16th December 2012.

The films in the 2012 line up are:

Much Ado About Knotting

Dir.: Geetika Narang Abbasi and Anandana Kapur

Bharatmata Ki Jai (Long live Bharatmata)

Dir.