The period is just before the Indo-Pak war of 1971. A coal mine laborer is returning home with his newly wed wife. They missed the bus and chose to walk to get home. The story of two characters and life emerges in the experience of the new couple’s new acquaintance and journey.

In The Mist is a saga of a woman who finally empowered herself after passing through a dark and abusive childhood , while  searching her gender identity during her path to adulthood and how she embraced a house in a no man’s land for finally getting a reliable shelter on the earth.

An old adage says – Pay off your debt, and you’re a free man! However, debt or loans are not limited to money. It can be anything at all. Debt, its repayment and the sense of freedom it brings are the three pillars of the story exploring how debt affects both the giver and the receiver.

Formerly a well-known writer, Balmiki, 58, now lives in obscurity stripped of dignity and respect. A year ago, a publishing house gave him an advance of forty thousand rupees to write about his wife, who was murdered thirty years ago. Despite repeated requests, Balmiki has not provided a single page of the manuscript. To recover the writing, the publishing house engages Sounak, a young debt recovery agent. Balmiki tells Sounak he cannot write on his own due to ill health. Now, Sounak engages Medha, a middle-aged woman to write down what Balmiki dictates. Assisting Balmiki with his writing is not an easy task. Moody, evasive and impulsive, he quickly drives Medha into chaos. A unique journey awaits Balmiki, Medha, and Sounak as they pursue opposing and conflicting objectives. Interestingly, the last page of Balmiki’s writing holds a lot of surprises. 

CAST & CREW

Cast

Balmiki: Prosenjit Chatterjee

Medha: Gargee Roychowdhury

Sounak: Vikram Chatterjee

Deepa: Rayati Bhattacharya

Crew

Story, Screenplay, Direction: Atanu Ghosh

Producer: Friends Communication

Director of Photography: Soumik Halder

Editor: Sujay Datta Ray

Art Director: Goutam Basu

Sound: Anindit Ray & Adeep Singh Manki

The Sunday lunch got more interesting along with the mutton curry cooked by Angshuman’s mother when Uncle Bishu informed that Sushil Mallik, the famous director from Mumbai would be visiting Darjeeling to make the very first Bengali film of his career. This film would also pave a comeback for the famous Bengali Heroine Madhavi Sen. Mallick wanted to cast Angshuman in the role.

A few days later, Angshuman set off for Darjeeling chaperoned by Uncle Bishu and the newly acquainted Sushil Sir. Even Madhavi Sen dropped her celebrity tantrums and became friendly with Angshuman in the airport. During the journey, Angshuman took the opportunity to learn from Uncle Bishu and Sushil Sir. He got introduced to the idea of a stuntman and his job. Madhavi Sen informed him that Captain Krishnan would perform all the stunts in the film including the bike chase scene where villain Jaggu would kidnap his character and escape in a bike by jumping over a river. Angshuman it felt like waiting to meet the hero he had read about in comic strips and Sci-Fi stories. Finally, they arrived at their destination when the car came to a halt under the portico of Mr Lohia’s house. Mr Lohia was the owner of 21 tea estates. Other than being an entrepreneur, Mr Lohia was also a gem collector. The museum of his gemstones dazzled like that of a royal jewellery vault. The showstopper that made their heart stop and eyes dazzled with its cut and shine was Bluebell. Next day morning, during the shoot Villain Jaggu’s annoyance irritated the horse, Toofan.

The ostler lost control of the horse that galloped off with Angshuman sitting on its back. As Toofan sped off on the roads looking down gorges of Darjeeling, a scared Angshuman sat on its back holding the reins tight and eyes closed afraid to look at the gorges passing by. Suddenly out of nowhere Captain Krishnan pulled him down from the horseback . This incident made a hero out of Captain Krishnan among the film crew. Angshuman became his die-hard fan.

A pleasant surprise was waiting for Angshuman the next evening. While having ice-cream at Glenary’s Angshuman came to know that Captain Krishnan was a Bengali by origin. His home was in Konnangar. And his real name is Krishnapada Haldar. Angshuman proved his worth and won the hearts of the entire cast and crew by his acting skills. Yet what was disheartening was that despite possessing such rare talents, captain Krishnan was not properly valued by the members of the crew and the cast. The room allotted for him was common. His place during dinner was often far from the key members of the crew where he would dine with the junior assistants. Jaggu would insult him at the drop of a hat. And even Sushil Mallik would not pay any heed to the way Krishnan was treated. This affected Angshuman deeply and with time he fell more and more in love with this real- life tragic hero.

After Mrs Sen’s shoot got over, the entire crew and cast organized a farewell party in her honour. The party was a grand success with a lot of fun, games and food. The news of the Bluebell theft reached the crew after Mrs Sen’s departure. Mr Lohia’s trusted servant Santosh had also fled. He must have drugged the police guards and helped the thief. Or perhaps he was the thief himself. Inspector Salim Khan took the charge of investigating the theft. The entire film unit was restrained under police observation. Unfortunately, Captain Krishnan was on his regular dinner walk when it happened and it took some time until he returned. In the meantime, Angshuman naïvely revealed his true identity. This targeted him as the main suspect. So is Krishnan a thief? Or someone else steals it? What will Anshuman do now for his Friend?

CAST & CREW
Director:  Sagnik Chatterjee

Cast:

Soumitra Chatterjee,

Kanika Majumdar,

Pahadi Sanyal,

Kali Bannerjee,

Shefali Bannerjee,

N. Vishwanathan,

Kunal Basu

After the loss of her only daughter, Ela, a former actress, not only loses her identity as a mother, but also the only reason to be with her husband. While trying to find a new identity for herself, she tries to reignite her relationship with an old lover who suddenly resurfaces in her life. Desperate to move out of her husband’s house and buy a place of her own, Ela confronts her step-brother to claim her half of the share in their ancestral property. But he refuses to comply as he lives with a deep-seated resentment for Ela’s mother. When even the banks refuse to give her a loan, Ela eventually succumbs to the lascivious overtures of her boss, who runs a real-estate business through a ponzi scheme. Their lives finally culminate when the crimes of Ela’s boss are discovered leading to Ela losing her new-found identity, love and independence all at once. The film unveils the interconnected lives of people struggling to live in a city that is experiencing the
aftermath of a communist regime.

CAST:

Director: Aditya Vikram Sengupta
Sreelekha Mitra, Satrajit Sarkar, Arindam Ghosh, Shayak Roy, Bratya Basu

Satya is a petty criminal in Kolkata. His lover Beuti, who is an illegal immigrant sex worker from Bangladesh decides to open a legit bank account. Satya decides to rob her before she can shift her cash and jewellery into the bank account. Chandu, a retrenched factory worker is a night guard in an ATM booth. He can’t accept that his wife Soma works as a full-time maid in a high-end condo. Chandu’s co-worker in the ATM convinces Chandu to work as a courier of contraband drugs to supplement his meagre income.
Satya meets Chandu, the courier and buys the drug. Satya asks Beuti to marry him, one last time. Beuti laughs it off.

Cast & Crew Details
Main Cast – Ritwick Chakraborty, Aupee Karim.
Director – Indranil Roychowdhury.

Barna is a 24-year-old girl – open-minded, intelligent and full of life. While conducting research in her university, she meets Ipsita, a middle-aged woman she has very little in common with. Gradually the two form a friendship that eventually shapes and changes their lives in unexpected ways.

The Terrace is the absolute place in the life of a young schoolteacher Mitra, who sketches & writes with a passion. Mitra is offered to write for a prestigious local magazine for a special edition which is a dream come true for her. Her communication and relationships with the sky, birds, clouds and the neighbours comes to a halt when the common terrace is locked up by the occupants. This further blocks her mind to conclude her story. Life becomes unbearable when Mitra’s school closes for summer vacations and she is confined to the stuffy overbearing house with an uncompassionate husband.
The terrace is reflective of Mitra’s emotional reasoning and so when the terrace is taken away she suffers from existential crisis. The story writing process makes Mitra realize that her inability to rescue her own-self was a crisis deeper than her need for the open space of the terrace…
Festivals
i) World Premiere at the South Asian International Film Festival, Toronto, August 2022
ii) Indian Premiere at the Kolkata International Film Festival ( KIFF), December, 2022 (It received the Special Jury Award at the KIFF)
iii) Screened at the Dhaka International Film Festival, January 2023
iv) Screened at the London Bengali Film Festival in April 2023
v) Screened at the Stuttgart Indian Film Festival, July 2023 Stuttgart Germany

CHHAAD was in the Film Bazar Recommends section at Filmbazaar 2021.

Cast & Crew Details
Main Cast – Paoli Dam, Arunnoday ‘Rahul’ Banerjee, Rajnandani Paul.
Director – Ms. Indrani Chakrabarti
Story and Screenplay – Ms. Indrani Chakrabarti
Cinematography – Mr. Subhadeep Dey
Sound Designer – Mr. Anup Kumar Mukhopadhayay
Music Director – Mr. Joy Sarkar
Editor – Mr. Amitava Dasgupta