Raima Sen Movies

Two young men find themselves dealing with the ins and outs of Bengali culture on different sides of the globe in this comedy-drama from Indian filmmaker Anjan Dutt. Apu (Parambrata Chatterjee) is a successful computer technician who is looking for greater career opportunities, and decides to leave his home to move to Texas. Apu's family is nonplussed, and his girlfriend Sheela (Raima Sen) makes his clear she has no interest in joining him, so he flies to America to start a new life on his own. Apu has trouble adapting to life on and off the job in Houston, his new romance with Rita (Peeya Rai Chowdhary), the daughter of a wealthy expatriate family, runs into more than a few rough patches, and Hasan (Shauvik Kundagrami), Apu's new best friend, seems to be having even more trouble adjusting to American life than he is. Meanwhile, Andy (Shayan Munshi), a musician of Indian descent who was born and raised in New York City, comes to India for the first time to visit his grandfather. While Andy imagined he knew what India would be like, his assumptions go out the window once he arrives, and his downtown sense of cool begins to fail him when he falls for a beautiful woman he meets in Kolkata -- Sheela. The Bong Connection was screened in competition at the 2006 Dubai Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Sarat Chandra Chattopadhye's beloved novel is brought to the screen in this lavish adaptation, which moves the story to the heady days of 1962 in Calcutta. Lolita (Vidya Balan) is a beautiful young woman who is taken in by her uncle after the tragic death of her parents. She grows up in a household of love and support despite her unfortunate circumstances, and as a child she makes friends with Shekhar (Saif Ali Khan), a boy from the neighborhood. Shekhar wants to be a musician and has plenty of talent, but he lacks the courage to go against the wishes of his father, who wants Shekhar to go into business. Lolita and Shekhar remain close friends and confidantes over the years, but it isn't until Girish (Sanjay Dutt), a wealthy and charismatic man, comes into Lolita's life that Shekhar comes to realize that he's deeply in love with his childhood pal, and wants to have her as his own. Parineeta is the first feature film from director Pradeep Sarkar, who previously earned his reputation directing commercials and music videos. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Bengali filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh directs the costume melodrama Chokher Bali: A Passion Play, based on the 1902 novel by Rabindranath Tagore. Set in the early 1900s, the film draws parallels between the British colonization of Bengal and the domestic situation of a Calcutta household. Hindi-speaking movie star Aishawarya Rai plays the lead role of Binodini, a young widow who arrives at the home of Westernized patriarch Mahendra (Prosenjit Chatterjee). While working as a caretaker for his mother Rajlakshmi (Lily Chakraborty), she becomes close personal friends with his wife Ashalata (Raima Sen). Eventually, Binodini's duplicitous actions shake up the entire household. Rai and Sen's voices have been dubbed into Bengali. Chokher Bali was nominated for the Golden Leopard at the 2003 Locarno International Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

The theme of how power can corrupt even the most well-meaning of souls is explored in this drama from India. Veeram (Milind Gunaji) and his wife Rambhi (Shabana Azmi) are forced to leave their village and move to a larger city in search of work when a drought devastates the local farmland. At his new job, Veeram murders his foreman, a cruel and bigoted man who openly loathes people of Veeram's caste. It seems that the foreman had many enemies, because the police refuse to investigate the matter and Veeram finds himself rising up the ladder of local politics. But when Veeram renounces the use of violence against the people, he's assassinated, and Rambhi is elected to take his place. While she assumes leadership with good intentions, she soon displays a willingness to use her authority to brutalize others and is not above the use of violence to achieve her ends. Rambhi's increasingly corrupt rule reaches a turning point when her son demands to marry a Muslim, leading to public outcry and rioting in the streets. Godmother, which includes several musical numbers, was shown as part of the World Cinema program at the 1999 Montreal Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide