- Mondo Meyer Upakhyan
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Mondo Meyer Upakhyan 
The French language film poster of the filmDirected by Buddhadev Dasgupta Produced by Buddhadev Dasgupta Written by Buddhadev Dasgupta, Prafulla Roy (short story) Starring Rituparna Sengupta Release date(s) 2002 Running time 90 minutes Country India Language Bengali Mondo Meyer Upakhyan ( Bengali: মন্দ মেয়ের উপখ্যান, English language:A Tale of a Naughty Girl, released in the French language as Chroniques Indiennes) is a 2002 Indian Bengali film directed and written by Buddhadev Dasgupta and starring Rituparna Sengupta. The film won National Film Award for Best Film in 2003.
Contents
Plot
Based on a short story by Bengali writer Prafulla Roy, the central idea developed by director Dasgupta, tells the story of a girl, Lati(Samata Das), whose mother Rajani(Rituparna Sengupta) is a prostitute living and working in a brothel in rural India. Rajani plans to offer her daughter to an older man, a rich husband and protector to her daughter. Lati, however, wants to return to school and finish her studies. Unwilling to pay such a price for material success, she runs away to Calcutta. The discovery of this new world is described parallel to other stories of emancipation, such as that of three young prostitutes, of an aged couple going nowhere and man's n landing on the moon. In a surrealistic approach typical of the director, a clumsy cat and an intelligent donkey are also present in the film. Ganesh (Tapas Pal) works full-time as a driver for wealthy Bengali-speaking, Natabar Paladhi (Ram Gopal Bajaj ), who lives in a mansion along with his wife, children and grandchildren, and runs 'Anjali Cinema' as well as has Ganesh use his vehicle as a private taxi-cab. Amongst Ganesh's customers are a woman named Bakul (June Malia), who alights near a town of Gosaipara to take up prostitution with Jamunabai; an abandoned elderly couple who are in need of hospitalization - but there is none in the vicinity, and they end up secretly riding with Ganesh all the time; while Natabar uses this vehicle to also travel to Gosaipara to visit a prostitute named Rajani and negotiate with her so that he can have her 14 year old daughter, Lati, as his mistress. Things get complicated when Lati rebels against her mother so she can return to school, and a prostitute is about to get killed by her vengeful husband.
Cast
- Rituparna Sengupta as Rajani
- Samata Das as Lati
- Tapas Pal as Ganesh
- Arpan Basar ... Shibu
- Ram Gopal Bajaj ... Natabar Paladhi
- Pradip Mukherjee ... Nagen
- June Malia ... Bakul
- Sudipta Chakraborty ... Basanti
- Pavan Bandhopadhyay
- Debjani Biswas
- Kajol Chowdhuri
- Ketaki Dutta
- Arjun Guha Thakurta
- Saroj Gupta
- Fakir Das Kumar
- Sreelekha Mitra ...ayesha
- Subrata Mukherjee
- Anup Mukhyopadhyay
Crew
- Directed Buddhadev Dasgupta
- Screenplay Buddhadev Dasgupta
- Produced Arya Bhattacharjee
- Music Buddhadev Dasgupta
- Cinematography Venu
- Film Editing Raviranjan Maitra
- Art Direction Kousik Sarkar
Promotion
Directors like Dasgupta (and others of his ilk like Adoor Gopalakrishnan or Mrinal Sen) make movies that are very specific to their own cultural milieu. A great master like the late Satyajit Ray was never comfortable when he stepped outside his native Bengal with his camera. So too Dasgupta. His latest work, Mondo Meyer Upakhyan (A Tale of a Naughty Girl), is set in his favourite Purulia, a backward region in West Bengal. Beyond these main travails of Lati, Dasgupta presents a gripping account of village life. On Dasgupta's canvas, one witnesses life in all its splendour. A Tale of a Naughty Girl is undoubtedly a piece of celluloid that elevates cinema to another realm. It is extremely positive, and probably comes from a deep sense of peace and tranquillity that Dasgupta must have achieved from his poetic inclination.[1]
Released
Country Date Fesivals Canada 7 September 2002 (Toronto Film Festival) Brazil 25 October 2002 (Mostra BR de São Paulo) South Korea 18 November 2002 (Pusan International Film Festival) USA 14 January 2003 (Palm Springs International Film Festival) Denmark 31 March 2003 (NatFilm Festival) USA 04 April 2003 (Philadelphia International Film Festival) France 17-May-03 (Cannes Film Festival) UK 15-Jun-03 (Commonwealth Film Festival) Russia 26-Jun-03 (Moscow Film Festival) Czech Republic 09-Jul-03 (Karlovy Vary Film Festival) Australia 18 September 2003 USA 22-Oct-04 (Milwaukee International Film Festival) France 17-Nov-04 Poland 24-Jul-05 (Era New Horizons Film Festival) Awards
- 2003 - Anandalok Awards - Best Director - Buddhadeb Dasgupta[2]
- 2003 - Best ASEAN Film Award - Buddhadev Dasgupta
- 2003 - National Film Award for Best Film - Arya Bhattacharya (Producer), Buddhadev Dasgupta (Director)[3]
References
- ^ "The Hindu : Work of rare depth". www.hinduonnet.com. http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/fr/2002/05/10/stories/2002051000640400.htm. Retrieved 2008-10-29.
- ^ "Mando Meyer Upakshan(2003) Movie Awards". www.gomolo.in. http://www.gomolo.in/Movie/MovieAwards.aspx?mid=15264. Retrieved 2008-10-29.
- ^ "Mondo Meyer Upakhyan (2002) - Awards". www.imdb.com. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0332699/awards. Retrieved 2008-10-29.
External links
Films directed by Buddhadev Dasgupta •Samayer Kache (1968) • Dholer Raja Khirode Natta (1973) • Dooratwa (1978) • Neem Annapurna (1979) • Grihajuddha (1982) • Andhi Gali (1984) • Contemporary Indian Sculpture (1987) • Phera (1988)
• Bagh Bahadur (1989) • Tahader Katha (1992) • Charachar (1993) • Lal Darja (1997) • Uttara (2000) • Mondo Meyer Upakhyan (2002) • Swapner Din (2004) • Ami, Yasin Ar Amar Madhubala (2007) • Kaalpurush (2008)National Film Award for Best Feature Film 1954–1960 Shyamchi Aai (1954) · Mirza Ghalib (1955) · Pather Panchali (1956) · Kabuliwala (1957) · Do Aankhen Barah Haath (1958) · Sagar Sangamey (1959) · Apur Sansar (1960)
1961–1980 Anuradha (1961) · Bhagini Nivedita (1962) · Dada Thakur (1963) · Shehar Aur Sapna (1964) · Charulata (1965) · Chemmeen (1966) · Teesri Kasam (1967) · Hatey Bazarey (1968) · Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne (1969) · Bhuvan Shome (1970) · Samskara (1971) · Seemabaddha (1972) · Swayamvaram (1973) · Nirmalyam (1974) · Chorus (1975) · Chomana Dudi (1976) · Mrigayaa (1977) · Ghatashraddha (1978) · No Award (1979) · Shodh (1980)
1981–2000 Akaler Shandhaney (1981) · Dakhal (1982) · Chokh (1983) · Adi Shankaracharya (1984) · Damul (1985) · Chidambaram (1986) · Tabarana Kathe (1987) · Halodhia Choraye Baodhan Khai (1988) · Piravi (1989) · Bagh Bahadur (1990) · Marupakkam (1991) · Agantuk (1992) · Bhagwat Geeta (1993) · Charachar (1994) · Unishe April (1995) · Kathapurushan (1996) · Lal Darja (1997) · Thaayi Saheba (1998) · Samar (1999) · Vanaprastham (2000)
2001–present Shantham (2001) · Dweepa (2002) · Mondo Meyer Upakhyan (2003) · Shwaas (2004) · Page 3 (2005) · Kaalpurush – Memories in the Mist (2006) · Pulijanmam (2007) · Kanchivaram (2008) · Antaheen (2009) · Kutty Srank (2010) · Adaminte Makan Abu (2011)
Cinema of West Bengal Directors · ActorsFilms
Bengali films A-Z — Films by year: Silent films · 1931 · 1932 · 1933 · 1934 · 1935 · 1936 · 1937 · 1938 · 1939 · 1940 · 1941 · 1942 · 1943 · 1944 · 1945 · 1946 · 1947 · 1948 · 1949 · 1950 · 1951 · 1952 · 1953 · 1954 · 1955 · 1956 · 1957 · 1958 · 1959 · 1960 · 1961 · 1962 · 1963 · 1964 · 1965 · 1966 · 1967 · 1968 · 1969 · 1970 · 1971 · 1972 · 1973 · 1974 · 1975 · 1976 · 1977 · 1978 · 1979 · 1980 · 1981 · 1982 · 1983 · 1984 · 1985 · 1986 · 1987 · 1988 · 1989 · 1990 · 1991 · 1992 · 1993 · 1994 · 1995 · 1996 · 1997 · 1998 · 1999 · 2000 · 2001 · 2002 · 2003 · 2004 · 2005 · 2006 · 2007 · 2008 · 2009 · 2010 · 2011Categories:- 2002 films
- Indian films
- Bengali-language films
- 2000s drama films
- Films directed by Buddhadev Dasgupta
- Bengali-language film stubs
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