Tollywood 2008

Best romantic pair: Dev-Koel

Koel Mullick has finally got a man in her life (on screen, we mean!). A suitable match was eluding the petite beauty ever since she and Jeet parted ways. Now, she and Dev seem all set for some crackling screen chemistry. If Premer Kahini was the litmus test early this year, which they passed with flying colours, Mon Maane Na made sure we sat up and took notice of how good they looked in each other’s arms. What we like about the Dev-Koel pair? Everything. The way they look into each other’s eyes, the way they laugh together, the way they fight and scream and...


Best Dance sequence: The title track of Bor Ashbe Ekhuni
The typical Tolly steps — actually, freehand exercises passed off as choreography — gave way to some real moves and shakes in Rangan Chakravarty’s debut film. Jisshu Sengupta and Koel Mullick looked great grooving together to the folksy number Bor ashbe ekhuni. The secret of success: Bollywood choreographer Stanley D’Costa, who was flown down from Mumbai.


Best negative role: Arjun Rampal in The Last Lear
Brooding, caustic and intense with a deep furrow between his brows... Arjun Rampal hid a killer mind behind his killer looks in the Rituparno Ghosh film.

His lean mean bearing was the perfect foil for the role of Siddharth, a filmmaker so obsessed with his craft that he pushes his lead actor (Amitabh Bachchan) to the jaws of death in cold blood. Rampal looked sinister when he stiffened his facial muscles, glanced sideways or spoke in that flat, emotionless voice... A far better act than his cocky villainous turn in Om Shanti Om.


Best Fun film: Chalo Let’s Go…
Discount the trite twists and turns, and Chalo Let’s Go... guaranteed a few good laughs. The road movie brought together Bongs of many shades — from a bumbling bullied husband to a snobbish NRI, a nyaka arm candy to a cribbing-leching professor — and played them off against each other. But the fun lay more in the players than in the play.

There’s a bit of romance here and a bit of heartburn there, but it’s the moments that make magic in Anjan Dutt’s ensemble film. We loved Rudranil Ghosh’s rastar chhele antics and Kaushik Ganguly’s wimpish act.

Novel adaptation of a classic: Chaturanga
Starring Rituparna Sengupta, Subrat Dutta and Joy Sengupta, Suman Mukhopadhyay’s Chaturanga is as close as it can get to Tagore’s story while retaining a touch of today’s world.

Suman used Sufi singers and cooked up a few other novelties but the essence of Chaturanga ran right through the plot and the various subplots most of which he packed into two hours.

The backdrop was straight from the Tagore text — colonial Bengal, class consciousness, gender politics, the suppressed passion of a woman and the mystical awakening of a man. A period film that went beyond the period.

Best Bollywood import: Manisha Koirala in Khela
Sometimes bubbly, sometimes batty. Manisha Koirala played Prosenjit’s bitter-sweet Bangali bou to perfection in Khela, looking ever so graceful in taant saris, a bun and sometimes a big red bindi. Though the Prosenjit-Raima Sen track took up most of the Khela reel time, the Bollywood beauty never let us forget the pathos in her eyes or the playfulness in her smile.

Her voice was dubbed as her Bengali was less than perfect, but Manisha more than made up with her eyes and body language. And, a 10:10 for that lipsync to the Tagore song Chhaya ghanaichhe...


Best body: Claudia Ciesla
It was Claudia Ciesla’s body, and not her Tolly debut 10:10, that had the town talking about her. (She camped in Calcutta for over a month to shoot for six minutes of screen time!) Her topless pictures on the Internet had got the 10:10 makers in hot pursuit. But the German model sprang an (un)pleasant surprise by acting coy and going fully clothed as a foreign journalist in the film. Claudia did paint the town red when she was not shooting — singing in nightclubs and merrily posing for the camera, baring her ample cleavage.



Boldest dresser: Swastika Mukherjee
Swastika raised the bar with a bra! When she dropped her inhibitions for a photo shoot, her dress code was a black strapless bra, which she donned with panache. 'Boldest dress is a relative term.... For me wearing a daring backless top isn’t bold', the gutsy girl had told us.

Inspired by size zero Bebo, Bhebli (that’s what those close to Swastika call her) hit the gym with a vengeance and cut out the flab. The svelte actress’s current style statement is short frocks, flashing a great deal of her shapely legs. Her other achievement: being the best coiffured actress in tinsel town.


Hot heroine: Rituparna (for Mon Amour and Chaturanga)
When there’s a sultry seductress’s role, Tolly directors usually knock on Rituparna’s door. Though she prances around in mini skirts and tank tops in most of her ‘commercial’ films, Rituparna can tone down her exuberance to match the mood of her screen character if need be. Like in Mon Amour: Shesher Kobita Revisited, where she played a modern-day, sophisticated Labanyo, and in Chaturanga, where she was the feisty Damini. In a sari revealing a bit of bare back (Chaturanga), Rituparna singed the screen more than she does in hot pants and noodle straps.


Hot Hero: Prosenjit (for Khela)
Tollywood’s main man hasn’t looked more handsome — or hot — in recent times. Truth be told, his rugged, unkempt look in Khela made many women go weak in their knees.

Though Prosenjit seems to favour a cropped cut — which he has been sporting in all his recent films, from Golmaal to Rajkumar — long locks and a scraggly beard look great on him. P also knows how to kill his women — Raima, Manisha and us — with a playful smile and a romantic gaze.


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