There have been a couple of things I have been wanting to write about for quite some time now, particularly since the last two months, during which I went back home and had the privilege of watching two of the most stupendous Bengali movies of recent times: Moner Manush and Arekti Premer Golpo (Sorry, by the way, Autograph fans...inspite of all the hullabaloo, I refuse to admit that Autograph is a landmark creation in Bengali cinematic history or anything like that. As far as the presentation and music is concerned, it is no doubt pretty fabulous, but in no way is it phenomenal, or outstanding. It just happened to do very good business, which lot other, much more insightful films have failed to, before it. But that involves lot of other factors like publicity and market demand and so on. Anyway, I am not here to criticize Autograph; rather my intention was to share my realizations and lessons that I drew from the other two films I mentioned before). However, right now, I am racing against time to finish this post, and do not feel like analyzing the myriad of emotions and thoughts that MM and APG had evoked in me. So I leave that aside for now. There is something else however...that I feel pressed to talk about...
My life currently is a terrible mess....I have a midterm coming up in two days; there are two homework sets lying untouched. Today I should have gone up for work at the lab (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory), but slacked off taking full advantage of my advisor's absence; and to top it all, I have been hooked to YouTube for the last hour. No self control whatsoever...what a shame!
But the primary reason behind my YouTube addiction of late, has been this enormously popular Bengali soap Gaaner Opare, which seeks to rediscover Rabindranath Tagore and his philosophy as a tribute to him on his 150th birth anniversary. This is not your run-of-the-mill daily soaps, that are created keeping mostly the middle to old-aged female homemaker audience in mind. Gaaner Opare, as is evident from its theme, is (or at least was, when it first started) a conscious effort to present Tagore's culture and value system in the backdrop of a fictitious setting. Armed with a script by the ace art film director Rituporno Ghosh, Gaaner Opare (or GNO, as we, the non-resident Bong community who watches it on YouTube like to call it in short) started out with a bang, catching everyone educated Bengali's attention, irrespective of gender, status and age. One of the standout aspects of GNO, besides the theme, was its stellar cast, comprising veterans like Dipankar De, Kaushik Sen, Aparajita Adhya, and Alokananda Roy. However, what made GNO all the more special was the introduction of some extremely talented newcomers, namely Gaurav and Arjun Chakraborty (sons of another veteran actor, Sabyasachi Chakraborty) as the lead protagonists. Gaurav Chakraborty especially caught my attention from the very first episode in which he was shown. This was one guy who had everything a good actor required: starting from the "handsome hunk" looks, right down to the voice modulation abilities and clear enunciation of the dialogues..he was a complete package of acting skills. And how he captured my dreams and fantasy...now every blessed day remains incomplete without me gaping at his scenes from the soap for at least half an hour. I do not, like lot of other fans of the soap, want his character to shape up a particular way over anything else. All I want is to see him carry on the good work that he has begun, as far as his performance is concerned, regardless of how his character develops. Here's wishing Gaurav Chakraborty all the best for his future endeavours and also for the rest of his stint in GNO. I only wish I had a little more self control so that my daily work would not be so hampered by his charismatic screen presence. Why why why did I ever see you Mr. GC??? :( How you ruined my life....!! Lol...
