Chander Pahar-Mountains of the Moon

I read the novel about 4-5 years back so when I entered the theater nothing was in my mind except some elusive memories like Jungle, Africa, a Bengali boy with lots of dreams etc. That helped me enjoy the movie actually as I could not keep comparing the movie with the novel constantly. Mainly I wanted to watch the movie for Dev. Not because of I am a huge fan of his but because I wanted to see whether he could come out from his red trouser, green shirt and big chain around his waist kind of image. In spite of being only the third movie of director Kamaleshwar Mukhodpadhayay, it creates a huge buzz before releasing mainly for its 17 crore Rs budget which is till date the maximum in Tollywood. I didn’t like director Kamaleshwar Mukhodpadhayay's first one Uro Chithi and could not watch Meghe Dhaka Tara. So was very curious with his 17 crore gambling with a mainstream movie hero like Dev.

There is nothing to say about the storyline, it’s very simple but the way it has been represented is outstanding. Gerard Rudolf as Diego Alvarez and Dev as Shankar make a superb combination. Apart from the volcanic eruption sequence, the cinematography is excellent throughout the movie. I found that volcanic eruption scene little juvenile. The jungle scenes are not less than any documentary from National Geography and Discovery channel.  Some scenes are so magnificent that you can feel that you are there. I wish it could be in 3D too.

Kamaleshwar Mukhodpadhayay kept the excitement throughout the movie except the last half an hour. He dragged the ending too much and Dev did a little overacting here, which is completely my own judgment. But as a whole, the experience was awesome, and a must watch for all age groups. Technically, this film will be a landmark and will take ahead the quality of Bengali cinema to a very evident extend.