Shubho Mahurat

This day and age? Difficult to see why a novel that formed the basis for a popular (if not very good) American film in the 1980s and an excellent British television adaptation in the nineties should somehow have become so antiquated in 2003. Agatha Christie novels never work terribly well as whodunnits in film versions since it is almost impossible to duplicate in a film the devices she uses so superbly to fool readers in her novels. What Rituparno Ghosh has done is something very clever indeed. He has rewritten the piece so that in effect the whodunnit elements become less important and the psychological elements of the story (never a particular strongpoint with Christie) are much enhanced. The adaptation to an Indian situation is extremely adroit and all in all this is quite the best film (as opposed to television) adaptation of an Agatha Christie novel that I have ever seen (and I think one way or the other I have seen most of them).

Shuvo Maharat is a murder mystery film by Rituporno Ghosh. A film so well adapted from Agatha Christie's novel, I wouldn't believe without watching.

Rituporno just proved that he can make a successful movie of any kind. In this movie, we see prominent female stars Sharmila Tagore, Rakhi Gulzar who once ruled Bollywood. We see young Nandita Das, who became prominent later. Also loved Anindo Chatterjee's calm performance. And of course Tota Roy Chowdhury's acting too. Such a gala of stars and a mystery well blended- please watch this rare Bangla murder mystery and make your weekend watch a worth!

This movie is based of an Agatha Christie novel, which for its time must have been very original and spellbinding, but in this time and age, making a movie based on those stories is an insult to the audience. 10 minutes into the movie its easy to guess who is the victim as well as who is the killer. The acting on the other hand is great, which is what i would expect anyway, since this movie is packed with bollywood superstars like Nandita Das and Sharmila Tagor.

Although the plot is somewhat predicable, this movie was surely very riveting till the very last minute. Packed with Indian star actresses like Sharmila Tagore and Nandita Das, there was never any lack of suspense.

On the down side, I think the story was adopted from one of Agatha Christie novels, however it was not mentioned except the movie was dedicated to one of her creations, Miss Marple.

It is not easy to convert this foreign theme in Bengali and Rituparno Ghosh has done an excellent job. I would call it one of the best Bengali detective films.

Brilliant dialogues, interesting story line and tremendous acting. Rakhi Gulzar take a bow for portraying Ranga Pishi so superbly. She does justice to every dialogue whether it's humour, sarcasm, wit or a playful jibe. Nandita Das brightens up every frame with her screen presence. Sharmila Tagore playing an actress - superstar, does more than justice to her character. So do Anindya and Tota.

Bengali movies needed a breath of fresh air, and such crisp film making along with portrayal of so many emotions, could possibly be only done by Rituparno. I am sure he will be counted as one of the legends in Bengali cinema. RIP Mr. Ghosh.