Celebrating Bengali Cinema

Film, as a strong medium of expression in art, has always attracted the intellectual minds throughout the world to reach a wider audience. India has made its bold presence felt in the field of cinema with powerful innovations. Film directors from Bengal have largely enriched the corpus of Indian film and have won accolades in international film festivals for their artistic excellence. 

Established in 1958 with an aim to preserve and expand the rich heritage of Bengal through various cultural and social organizations in New Delhi, Bengal Association is a federative body of Bengali cultural associations, Bengali-medium schools and drama organizations spread across the national capital.

To make the audience watch, appreciate and discuss films, it is imperative to offer them a comfortable platform. To achieve this goal, Bengal Association is organizing first Padma Jamuna Bangla Cine Utsav at Muktadhara Auditorium from 2-4 September 2016. In addition to showcasing 6 award-winning Bangla feature films from India and Bangladesh and 5 short films from young and upcoming directors, Bangla Cine Utsav, for the first time in Delhi, is offering the audience a chance to interact with the directors and the lead actors of the films. 

Prosenjit Chatterjee, Chairman of the Bangla Cine Utsav 2016 and the most prominent face of current Bengali Cinema, will address the audience at the inaugural session on September 2. Acclaimed film directors and actors like Gautam Ghosh, Kaushik Ganguly, Debesh Chatterjee and Paoli Dam will be attending the festival to interact with the audience. The 3-day long festival will see a considerable number of discerning cine-lovers at the venue that also offers exquisite food, sari and handicrafts from Bengal.

Cine Utsav opens at 1:30 pm on September 2, with a short film by Amitabha Gupta, ‘Musallam Iman’. The director will join in for an interactive session with the audience shortly after the film. The first of the two Bangladeshi film, ‘O Amar Desher Mati’ directed by Ananta Heera will be shown at 2:30 pm. The inauguration will take place at 5 pm on that day. 

Prasenjit Chatterjee will interact with the audience before the screening of Gautam Ghosh’s ‘Shankhachil’ at the end of the day.

The next day programme will start off at noon with two short films, ‘Sheshkatha’ by Arkadev Mukherjee and ‘Faith Revisited’ by Ishani Dutta, followed by the directors meet. The next Bangladeshi film, based on the life of the legendary Ila Mitra of Tevaga Movement, ‘Nacholer Rani’ by Sayeed Wahiduzzaman Diamond will be screened from 2 pm. There will also be an interesting session of quiz on the Bengali film history of 95 years along with light hearted discussion with audiences. At 6 pm in the evening, award winning film ‘Shabd’ by Kaushik Ganguly will be screened. The last day of the festival will begin at 12 noon with two short films, ‘Parama’ directed by Ribhu Ghosh and ‘Jyanto Durga’ by Arin. ‘Natoker Moto’ directed by Debesh Chatterjee will be screened from 1.40 pm while the last film of the festival, ‘Moner Manush’ directed by veteran director Gautam Ghosh will be screened at. All the screenings will be followed by interactive sessions with the film directors.

Entry to the screening at Muktadhara Auditorium is purely by invitation. Invitation Cards may be collected from Muktadhara office of Bengal Association.