Ravi Teja’s ‘Ravanasura‘ is running at the theaters now and it is an official remake of the Bengali thriller ‘Vinci Da’. It is definitely not a very good film. So, why is this worth an article or why is it significant for the Bengali film industry.
Remakes are nothing new in the Telugu cinema business. But Ravanasura being the remake of a Bengali film is indeed something worth noticing. Filmmakers like Raj Chakroborty and actors like Jeet and Dev are always accused of remaking films from the South Indian industries and audiences have complained many times for this. Now the times are changing and the audience is taking more pleasure in the artsy intellectual stories; directors and superstars too are focusing more to create a middle-way or a bridge between good stories and commercially successful movies. Vinci Da is an epic example. Finally, a Bengali movie is remade into Telugu and it seems like the Dark age for the Bengali cinema is getting erased slowly.
There was a time when Bengali films were constantly remade in Hindi and other languages but the gap between commercial success and good content grew so big that the last resort for making successful films was copying from films of Suriya, Mahesh Babu or Ravi Teja, so to speak. Ravi Teja himself now remaking a Bengali film is a sign that the tables have turned and a new era of Bengali cinema has begun.
Srijit’s Vinci Da is definitely one of the best films made in Bengali in recent times. It tells the story of a maniac who goes on killing offenders of the law and does not hesitate to stoop to any level to do that. Ravanasura cannot match the level of mastery in direction and execution like Srijit did with Vinci Da. Still, it is a significant film for fans of Srijit.
Srijit Mukherjee is one of the most trusted filmmakers of the country now. He seems to be going on with a wishlist in his hands and accomplishing great feats one by one. Soon he will be helming the Sherlock adaptation for BBC India and his films like Sherdil and Shabash Mithu will soon earn him a dedicated fan base in the Hindi belt as well as Bengal.