Srijit Mukherji's ZULFIQAR Trailer Promises a Shakespearean Touch to Kolkata's Underworld
It's a surprise that Srijit Mukherji's movies don't get as much notice outside West Bengal, and outside India, as it should. Bengali commercial cinema in India was in a state of creative decadence till Mukherji burst onto the scene with Autograph, his stylishly-crafted tribute to Satyajit Ray's immortal masterpiece Nayak, in 2010. More than half a decade later, Mukherji has become arguably the most bankable director working in Kolkata's studios today. Few can bridge the rural-urban divide in Bengal as well as he does. And most of his movies--from Autograph to Rajkahini--manage to achieve the double of achieving critical acclaim and humongous box-office returns. Even as I write this, he is preparing for his big leap into the ambitious world of Hindi cinema--he is busy with the post-production of a Hindi remake of Rajkahini, titled Begum Jaan, which stars Vidya Balan and is produced by Vishesh Films.
In the last few years, however, he has unfailingly kept a date with the most auspicious of occasions in Bengal--Durga Puja. In 2014, he wowed everyone with Chotushkone, a complex tale of four fictitious film directors and their tryst with death. In 2015, he stunned everyone with his Partition-inspired Rajkahini, which featured a powerpacked performance from Rituparna Sengupta as Begum Jaan, and had arguably half the stalwarts of Bengali cinema in its lineup. This year, the maverick director returns with Zulfiqar, which is interestingly a big-screen adaptation of two of William Shakespeare's best-known tragedies, Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra, but set in the seamy underbelly of Kolkata's infamous Port area.
Like Rajkahini, Zulfiqar too has a heavyweight cast. Veteran actor Prosenjit Chatterjee (Shanghai, Traffic) plays the eponymously-named Zulfiqar Ahmed, obviously modelled on Julius Caesar. Other members in the cast include Parambrata Chatterjee (Kahaani, Traffic), Jisshu U Sengupta (Mardaani, Piku), Paoli Dam (Chatrak, Hate Story, Ankush Arora Murder Case), Deepak "Dev" Adhikari, Ankush Hazra, Kaushik Sen, Kanchan Mallick, Rahul Arunoday Banerjee, Nusrat Jahan, Kyra Dutt and June Maliah.
The trailer for the movie is out, and my guess is that Mukherji will keep his Puja record spectacularly intact. The three-munute trailer promises a world of divided loyalities, numerous betrayals and copious amounts of bloodshed, while staying true to Shakespeare's vision. Mukherji has collaborated with his most trusted collaborators on his film too--Anupam Roy (Piku, and the forthcoming Pink), Soumik Halder for cinematography, Indraadip Dasgupta for the background score, and Soumyabrata Rakshit as the chief assistant director. More notably, though, the action sequences have been designed by heavyweights Javed and Aejaz Gulab, who are making their Bengali debut after having wowed Hindi cinema through their work in films such as Shootout At Lokhandwala, Don 2, Mission Istanbul and others.
Produced by Shree Venkatesh Films, Zulfiqar hits screens in Bengal on October 7. Whether it get a same-day pan-India release is something that remains to be seen. I'll keep my fingers crossed.
