Finally...... a youth film

Finally we the Bengali film audience is going to have the youth film of our generation (The past generations did it too. Remember Ekhoni by Tapan Sinha). Well, to be precise it is in Benglish (Bengali and English) so that the characters sound real.

Aamra , aptly named (Aamra means 'Us'), is aimed at the urban youth. Produced by this smart, daring, risk-taking producer from Kolkata- Nitesh Sharma of Bangla Talkies and directed by a debutant young NRB (Non-resident Bengali) Mainak Bhaumik, is a film that is officially 'By the youth, about the youth and for the youth'. The film is going to have a December 22 release majorly in multiplexes (Priya is the only single-screen theatre to screen it).

It's a story of the love, heartbreak, attitude, aspiration, relationship, frustration of generation X and young-at-heart (Only one lead character is 40-plus) comprising of six protagonists of diverse backgrounds.

Mainak is US-based and trained in film school. He's made two international award-winning documentaries.

Nitesh has made Raat Barota Paanch, the debut film of Saron 'Shikar' Dutta. A horror film made with mostly TV actors it was a different attempt of 2005. His next creation is Padakkhep by Suman Ghosh, a US-based director with a background of Economics apart from film school. It is currently doing the rounds of international film fests. Nitesh has a single-minded aim- to make sensible, meaningful Bengali cinema and to take it to national and global arena. I salute the spirit and vision of Nitesh and wish all the very best in his journey to make and market better cinema.

The film is also modern in its marketing, a small budget notwithstanding. It's producer has created a nice website (www.banglatalkies.net). After Anuranan, I came across this second Bengali film to have a well-designed website. The look is somehow similar to a scrapbook. That Bengali films are nowadays including internet in their marketing plan is indeed an intelligent and new age sign. Intelligent especially because Bengali films that merit a website generally have modest to small budgets.