Chander Pahar

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.

Please visit - http://iamalekhya.blogspot.com

Mountains of the Moon come to reel. One of the best movies made lately. It is one of my favorite escapade hardback and I am really happy with its reel product The movie is a true gem and bids extensive detailing of African biota. Director adds some of his own accounts to the story which is something new, which could have been edited but still it doesn't matters to you in the end. You'll actually love it.

Acting: Dev has a done fabulous job. The character of Shankar is drawn very well by him. Especially the last 15 minutes, he has done his best till date. It seems that he was made for this role. Gérard Rudolf does a praiseworthy job, loved him as Diego Alvarez.

Direction: Salute to the director, Mr. Kamaleswar Mukherjee for being audacious to make such a movie. He is the one who bring to us Dev in an innovative way and makes Gerard Rudolf speak Bengali in a Portuguese accent.

Cinematography: Soumik Halder does it yet again. Every bit of scenes he captured, from the landscapes to the chased thing, he made us Teleport to Africa.

Sound: I liked the Background Score but it could have been better for such a paced film. The song at the end credits is too average.

VFX: The worst part of this delight. When they can spend such a big amount, they could have spent some more for the VFX. The computer generated Volcano was bad and the Buniyp was terrible.

Verdict: A Bengali movie is up over the moon with this production. They went directly to Africa which is truly a daring task to attempt. Kudos to that!! Make it a success for the entire Chander Pahar team, Go and watch it. It's a must watch one. 4.5/5 for sure!

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 !

Chander Pahar............

Its really a journey if I forget Deb If I forget Bibhutibhusan and if I forget Kamaleshwar..Its still a journey for a Bengali movie to have come this far and a must watch for any Bengali...Animations are amateur no doubt but still the amount it has shown is a great leap for Bengali movie. The story line has been maintained around 80 percent with some overthrown because of infrastructure and difference in the art form. Deb has come a long way from what we know of him......But still I feel some other would have gone far in critic sense but in commercial angle Deb has been viable.

Music and background score is good.But the editing has not been up to the mark with us feeling bored at the end of first half. Alvarez was excellent except the language with which he decides to speak... Bunip was a poor creative...but the lion scenes excellent .. A good effort and a new market that could take Bengali movie to great heights and can make many of our Bengali classics commercially viable.... Cant give less than 4 out of 5 as a Bengali........................

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.