Teen Kanya- Bold and Beautiful

“Teen Kanya” - the name reminds me of legendary Satyajit Ray and his film with the similar title. However, the current one runs on a completely different storyline; and has nothing to do with its 1961 namesake.

I've heard about it from my mother and I loved the way she praised it. I do not generally doubt my mother's recommendations so I've decided to give it a shot. But as I stay in a place where Bengali is not even a second language; thus I have to wait until I got a VCD of it.

This is a story of three girls, coming from different backgrounds and are unknown to each other. But thanks to the interesting screenplay, they got interconnected somehow. How? Watch it and know by yourself. The protagonists named Nancy, Aparna and Damini are played by Ananya Chatterjee, Rituparna Sengupta and newcomer Unnati Davara respectively.

Rituparna Sengupta as Aparna - There is nothing more to say about her. She is continuously proving herself as a complete versatile actress. How can we forget her immensely convincing  role in “Dahan”. Here she played schizophrenic and with her splendid performance, it has become equally convincing too. The character definitely demanded very matured acting skills and Rituparna justified to the requisites by all means.

Ananya Chatterjee as Nancy - “Abohoman” was the first movie I've encountered of Ananya and her National Award Winning role in that movie proved that she is going to stay in Bengali off-bit movie industry for long. She may not be as beautiful as the other two girls in this movie but the way she presented her character, undoubtedly she definitely took away the maximum of lime-light. At least for me she is the best among the three.

Unnati Davara as Damini - She has done well enough considering the fact that it’s her debut film. Though with the kind of a role, she doesn't actually had to do much other than having a similar expression throughout, her role was pretty much stagnant but she really played her part modestly.

The lovemaking scene between Rituparna and Unnati is a must that needs attention and mentioning; and it has added enough spice to the film. The story line is a little controversial but very well managed and depicted.

The movie is a platter of different emotional circumstances of these Teen Kanya's. You will find a mix of emotions like - terror, suffering, romance, suspense, thrills and more. The hotchpotch of the emotions is a bit confusing, but I believe the film maker created these confusions intentionally and it had added in building an interest about the story till the end. Watch it. It's fun!

Life of Pi – Food for Soul

Watching Life of Pi was absolutely a different experience from others. Ever since I’ve heard of this movie, watched its trailer, visited its website, inquired about it on Wiki; I was super sure this is NOT the one to be missed. 

Generally whenever am up for a movie, I make sure that I watch it ASAP. My love for movies always made things smoother for me. But things were not that same with “LoP”. I got to watch it two weeks later after it hit the big screen. And I must say the growing interest about the movie, as well as about the story of Mr. Piscine Molitor Patel have added to the rising excitement within me.

The movie was undoubtedly living its tag line “Journey of a Life Time”; but I would like to add “Food for Soul” with it. The story is so well composed that it would certainly help you in growing up as a human. And I would certainly dare to comment that had it not been a story from an Indian origin, this would not have the charm and aura it is having now. 

I’ve not read the book, and I think that had added to my liking and interest towards the movie. Because I personally believe, a film can never be as good as a book. A book can enrich you more than one way; however, a movie stays in an advantageous position because of its visual attires. But it’s a total turn-off if you find the movie not visually alluring enough in accord to the images you have woven in your mind.

Nevertheless, I would certainly say, the 3D effects were not up-to-the mark as they should have been; with such a beautiful story that gives you so much of a scope to make an extraordinary illustration, Ang Lee could have made it better. But the lack of 3D effects that seldom makes a sudden adrenaline flow; the story is reason enough you would happily pass this deficiency.

I will not discuss the story of Pi, as you must have gone through a lot of variants of that already; rather I would like to share what I have learnt from it….

For me, the story is about “having faith in ‘faith’”. Be it the regular shift from one religion to another of the protagonist, or his out-of-this-world relation with Richard Parker (the Royal Bengal tiger), or his struggle through the sea to land, or the un-jolted belief in God that he had since childhood; all these are nothing but his faiths. 

His faith in friendship - his faith in himself - and above all his faith in GOD. This is his faith that had helped him to survive and help Richard Parker survive through the bedlam in the sea. And last but not the least, the faith of the burned-out writer - Rafe Spall, who had shown his faith in Pi’s story. As a stranger he could have let it pass easily; but his faith on the tale helped us to believe it as well.

I am no one to judge Ang Lee’s direction or Yann Martel’s writing. So, I’d not go in that zone at all. All I can say is Life of Pi achieves the near impossible; presenting a story which is impervious to present in a movie set-up. It's an astonishing technical achievement that's also emotionally rewarding. Don’t dare to miss it!!