AUTOGRAPH AND OTHER DATABAZAR AQUIRED FILMS SWEEP STAR JALSA AWARDS 2011

July11, 2011 (Calcutta Tube): Star Jalsa, one of the most popular Bengali satellite channels for entertainment and reality shows, recently organized its annual awards for Bengali cinema. Happily, the awards revealed that most of the winners listed featured in one or other film acquired by Databazaar Media Ventures for distribution and exhibition in North America and Canada through its television, Roku Box, DVD and large screen exhibition outlets.

The Best Actor Award for Popular Cinema went to Prosenjit for his performance in Autograph. For the first time, the super-star played the role of a top star of the Bengali film industry in a film that was a kind of celluloid tribute to Satyajit Ray’s Nayak. Mithun Chakraborty won the same award in the Critics category for his mind-blowing performance of a junior artiste in Bengali cinema suddenly catapulted into a world of fame in his middle age in Gaurav Pandey’s Shukno Lanka. Srijit Mukherjee bagged the award for Best Director for Autograph. Deepti Naval bagged the Best Actress Award (Critic) for her touching performance of a grieving mother who realizes after the son’s sudden death that he was gay in Sanjoy Nag’s Memories in March. Aparajita Ghosh-Das won the Best Supporting Actress award for her performance as the sprightly, bubbly young girl in Atanu Ghosh’s  realoty-blended-fantasy Takhan Teish.

[ReviewAZON asin="B0044FDPA4" display="inlinepost"]Avik Mukherjee won the Best Cinematography award for his work in his directorial debut film Ekti Tarar Khonje. Debolina Chatterjee won the Best Debutant Actress (Female) for her soft, understated performance in the title role in New Theatres’ return to cinema through Ami Aadu. The Best Debutant Actor Award went to Heerok Das for his brilliant portrayal of Shibdas Bhaduri, the captain of the Mohun Bagan team in Egaro directed by Arun Roy. Somnath Gupta, who made his directorial debut with Ami Aadu, won the Best Director (Critic) Award. Budhaditya Mukherjee won the award for Best Editing for Autograph.

This is a telling comment on the choice of films by Databazaar Media Ventures’ acquisitions of Bengali cinema over the past year. It has been very good going indeed.

- Shoma A. Chatterji