It’s that time of the year, and here is my list of the best five Bengali films of 2024, in no specific order, except that Beline and Swapankumarer Badami Hyenar Kobole – two films as different from each other as imaginable – get my joint vote for the best of the year.

Beline (Dir: Samik Roy Choudhury)

Suman Ghosh recommended Samik’s film to me, and I remain grateful for that, as otherwise I would have remained unaware of the film given that it did not get a theatrical release in New Delhi. What a terrific narrative the director weaves, taking on issues of urban isolation, an octogenarian’s obsession with the characters of a TV melodrama, and the shifting spaces between what is real and what is not.

This is a film that keeps teasing you with the way it unfolds, always a step ahead of you and consistently surprising you with its trajectory. A social satire, a black comedy, a psychological thriller, an exposé of our inherent voyeurism, a meditation on loneliness – Beline is all of this and more. And all this is driven by what is arguably the finest performance of the year, by Paran Bandopadhyay.

Shri Swapankumarer Badami Hyenar Kobole (Dir: Debaloy Bhattacharya)

My vote for the most enjoyable film of the year goes to Debaloy’s pulpy, profane homage to Bengali pulp fiction. This is one lurid, delightful romp through the world of bot-tawla writing that takes hold of you from the first sequence and never lets go. It’s the metatextual narrative bringing together the writer, Shri Swapankumar (Paran Bandopadhyay), and his creation, the famous pulp detective Dipak Banerjee (Abir Chatterjee), that is responsible for much of the film’s fun quotient.

But Debaloy has the sensitivity to make this more than the meta coming together of creator and creation. In his expert hands the film becomes a dark satire lampooning the Bengali industry’s obsession with done-to-death tropes and themes (the detective film, for example) and the viewer’s indefatigable appetite for the banality of nostalgia. Abir Chatterjee is a hoot as Detective Dipak, bringing to his portrayal a winking awareness of having been part of mystery franchises like Byomkesh and Sona-da that adds immeasurably to the film’s fun quotient. Speaking of Abir, 2024 has without doubt been his year. While Bohurupi hit the box-office jackpot at the end of the year, he delivered an exceptionally mature performance in Arjun Dutt’s Deep Fridge, which should go places.

Padatik (Dir: Srijit Mukherji)

I quite enjoyed Srijit’s Uttam Kumar homage, Oti Uttam, despite the force fitting it entailed. It was quite like Srijit to attempt something as audacious and pull it off, warts and all. However, it is with Padatik that the filmmaker gave us a glimpse of the Srijit of the early days. I am wary of biopics – with their emphasis on the ‘look’ of the protagonist approximating the subject’s and disdain for any objective assessment.

Padatik not only highlights Mrinal Sen’s cinematic achievements but also delves into the personal experiences that shaped his vision and narrative style. A major achievement in the film is the way it brings forth the essence of Sen’s life and cinema as the ‘eternal traveller’. Watching him frame Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen in their engagements and disagreements, one gets the palpable sense of the difference that marked the approaches – to both life and cinema – of these two giants: Ray would probably never see himself as a ‘padatik’. Sen was never anything but one. It is probably impossible to bring to life the complexities and nuances of a filmmaker like Mrinal Sen, but Srijit’s Padatik gives as good an insight as you can hope for into a filmmaker whose work continues to resonate deeply in the world of cinema.

Chaalchitra Ekhon (Dir: Anjan Dutt)

Two biopics of the same filmmaker in the same year could well be a case of one too many. However, despite my other reservations about Chaalchitra Ekhon, including the rather tepid performance of the character essaying Anjan Dutt, Anjan Dutt’s homage to his mentor is one of the better films of the year, thanks largely to the director’s terrific portrayal as Mrinal Sen.

Also, unlike Srijit’s biopic, Dutt’s film focuses on the relationship between Sen and Dutt during the making of Sen’s 1981 film Chalchitra and this offers a valuable record of a time and space. The mentor-protégé relationship is one of great dramatic potential. There’s no doubt that this is a labour of love for the filmmaker. In one sequence, the protégé takes the screenplay of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Oedipus Rex from his mentor’s bookshelf which the latter then signs. There’s something organic and affecting about the way it plays out. A few more sequences like these and Chaalchitra Ekhon would have been much more than it is.

Manikbabur Megh (Dir: Abhinandan Banerjee)

How does one convey loneliness on screen? Abhinandan Banerjee shows how in the exceptional Manikbabur Megh. Banerjee’s film shares quite a few themes with Samik’s Beline – urban isolation, a man’s disconnect with the world around him, the blurring of the real world with a fantastical one, a terrific performance as the aching heart of the film. With one telling difference. Manikbabur Megh is a more whimsical, elegiac narrative while Beline is almost irreverent. Chandan Sen is a revelation as Manikbabu, the everyman whose routine life drives him to forge a relationship with a cloud. I left the theatre with an unfathomable weight on my heart. Not many films manage that.

(Shantanu Ray Chaudhuri is a film and music buff, editor, publisher, film critic and writer)