Chander Pahar Bengali Movie
To see the world was his dream. To get close with the varied colours of civilization was his ambition. He went, he conquered and he is still living his dream maybe in some unknown land on the planet. This is Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay's Shankar. The small town boy, who always dreamt to be like John Cabot or David Livingstone.
Journey to the Moon Mountain or chander Pahar in Africa was the first of his triumph. Based on this story director kamaleshwar Mukherjee has weaved the story of his new film Chander Pahar.
The film begins with the glory of Africa and places us directly at the heart of adventure. The narrative is adapted within a flash forward and backward pattern, which at times takes us to the far stretches of Africa and at times makes us nostalgic by taking us to Shankar's village. The carefree days when Shankar slowly began to build his dream bit by bit.
Shankar (Dev) lives a simple life in his small village in the deepest quarters of West Bengal. But he dreams large and believes that one day he will be travelling the world and discovering the facts that he has read all these years.
Finally it is a job as a stationmaster that takes him to Africa and brings him a step closer to his dreams. He begins his triumph with hunger for adventure and begins to slowly mould himself to face the tough path ahead. From lions to weird wild beasts to the wilderness of the erratic weather everything becomes a part of Shankar's life with time. It is through these trying times that one day he rescues a Portuguese explorer Diego Alvarez and begins to nurse him. As destined this man and Shankar finally set out on to realise a weird dream of reaching the diamond caves in the mountain of the moon. An expedition of a lifetime awaits them and they are ready to face the adverse conditions too.
The quest is not easy and through this adventure Shankar discovers himself and unknowingly reach the diamond caves. Who said Bengali cinema couldn't be sensible and can't explore unknown territories. Chander Pahar is excellent in terms of cinematography and does successfully establish the mis-en-scene so beautifully that the darkest continent back in the year 1909 becomes truly real in front of us. While everyone was concerned about Dev as Shankar but our superstar has beautifully carried the film in his shoulders without stooping down. His brilliance became all the more fantastic when he started transforming over time while estranged in the locales of Kalahari.
To summarize, Chander Pahar is definitely a very good watch, what else? We do not get to watch sensible films in Bangla anyways. Watch sans prejudices and watch to feel the brilliance of an expedition and begin trekking with Shankar as he climbs the Mountain of the Moon.
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