Zee Bangla & Zee Bangla HD are set to showcase award-winning film, Praktan this Sunday. Praktan was released on Friday, 27 May 2016. On the very first day of its release, the film grossed an estimated 25 lakh rupees, becoming the film to gross the highest amount ever on the first day. Within three days the film made a business of Rs. 1 crore. The film screened in 90+ cinema theatres in the Greater Kolkata region alone. Besides Kolkata, Praktan was also released to the audience in more than 25 cinema theatres nationally and in 9 theatres in USA, covering almost all the major American cities with a large Bengali diaspora and in 2 cinema theatres in Canada.
Praktan has now become the biggest ever Bengali-film release breaking many earlier records of the film industry. Made at a budget of 2 crore, the collection worldwide has been a whopping Rs. 8.5 crores. Praktan has been not only a money churner but also been critically acclaimed by both intellectuals as well as the film loving audience. Praktan bagged 8 awards at the West Bengal Film Journalists Awards 2017 – Most Popular Film, Best Actor (Female/Actress), Best Supporting Actor (Female / Actress), Best Actor in a Comic Role, Best Music Album, Best Lyrics, Best Female Playback Singer & Best Art Direction.
Directed by Shiboprosad Mukherjee and Nandita Roy, the film starred award-winning actor Prosenjit Chatterjee and Rituparna Sengupta. The music for Praktan was composed by Anupam Roy and Anindya Chatterjee along with the lyrics.
After the success of ‘Bela Shese’, Shiboprosad and Nandita’s ‘Praktan’ hit the bull’s eye once again. With this film, Prosenjit Chatterjee and Rituparna Sengupta’s pairing made a comeback to the silver screen. Smart promotional strategy, amazing casting, and promising storyline added to the audience’s expectation,
The movie deals with the ups and downs faced in a relationship when an ex-husband and wife meet on a train. Where it becomes evident that our relationships often set our vulnerable selves up for severe heartbreaks. We move on, indeed, but take away a lot from the breakup. Where the realization dawns on each other that relationships involve a lot of compromising and adjusting to one’s partner.
What is also interesting in the film is how some of these stories operate at a meta-level. The musician is played by Surojit Chatterjee who quit Bhoomi, a pioneering Bangla band that peaked in the early 2000s. The elderly couple, played by Soumitra Chatterjee and Sabitri Chatterjee, are yesteryear stars who along with the protagonists, Prosenjit Chatterjee and Rituparna Sengupta mark the return of the pair many years after they fell out after a rumoured affair. The characters played by each of the actors are notably fabulous and most of them have shown real maturity of acting thus making the movie beautifully realistic. For the married it was nostalgia, for the youth it was a peep into relationships.
The reason for Praktan’s success can be attributed to the fact that a person could see his or her own piece of life on the screen, hence crossing all barriers of language, caste, culture, age and social as well as geographical diaspora.
Coming to you, this 12th February at 2 pm and 9 pm, only on Zee Bangla & Zee Bangla HD.