2018 roundup: Best performances by Bengali actors

The year 2018 has been a great one for Indian cinema, be it the business or content. It’s dominated by actors who brought quality content alive on the celluloid for Bengali cinema. Artistes like Jisshu Sengupta, Adil Hussain and Anjan Dutt helped further spreading the movie magic with their exquisite talent and honest portrayals of challenging characters. Here are some of the Bengali actors who stood out with their brilliant performances.

Jisshu Sengupta at his best with a king size performance in Srijit Mukherji’s ‘Ek Je Chhilo Raja’! He slips into the characters of both the King and the Wandering sadhu with elan and superb restraint. Jisshu is rock solid with every glance, every expression of all three stages of his character with great conviction. Some would say a few portions of his character could have been written with extra care, but the versatile actor remains standout performer. No doubt, it’s his career best performance so far. And yes while we loved ‘Ek Je Chhilo Raja’, Jisshu was brilliant as the perplexed yet equally loving son and husband in Parambrata Chatterjee’s ‘Shonar Pahar’ as also, his another master performance of the year.

Abir has literally grown into Byomkesh over the years and he is in fine form in ‘Byomkesh Gowtro’ as well. There’s something unique about his face, an sere intelligence that comes alive whenever he is chiding his chronicler-friend Ajit or exchanging poetry with wife Satyabati, or even mouthing, almost off-handedly, the seeti-maar dialogue about being Satyanweshi and Sabyasachi at the same time and thus equally efficient at using both hands if required. ‘Arindam Sil’s latest Byomkesh offering makes him arguably the best Byomkesh on-screen yet.

How can we forget Purnendu Pahari of ‘Ahare Mon’? He is an eternal charmer in all his appearance – be it smile, grace, poise or endearing mannerisms. Simply one of the most desirable male characters in Bengali cinema this year! Pratim D Gupta introduces the most-well written character of 2018, and Adil with his elegance just enhances it. Any sensible Bengali lady will fall for Mr. Pahari as Adil delivers one of the best performances of the year. We should thank Adil Hussain for making Purnendu Pahari such a charming character. Yes, all drools over him!

It has been a happening year for Anjan Dutt the actor. There’s no doubt he still remains far more impressive in front of the lens. Anjan playing the troubled filmmaker Brahmananda in Srijit’s ‘Uma’ welcomes back the versatile actor we have missed since ‘Juganto’ or ‘Chalchitra’. He maintains the balance between aggressive frustration and sensitivity with elegance in ‘Uma’. Anjan goes an extra mile with even better performance in ‘Ahare Mon’. His character Barun seems to be an amalgamation of maturity, mischief, solitude and empathy. With this one he gifts Bengali cinema’s some of the precious scenes in 2018 alongside Mamata Shankar. We would really wish to see him more in near future.

Prosenjit as the half-blind lawyer Jiyon Mitra offers great skill and conviction towards his multi-layered character. The lawyer is torn between his love for a beautiful family and the woman Srimoti he genuinely cares for. It’s Prosenjit’s balanced and oh-so-natural performance which becomes the highlight of a film which suffers from a bit needless complexity. Some of the plotlines are stretched too thin to give an impact, while others seem to be rushed to such a fast pace that the moment you blink, you are sure to miss more than you can afford to. However, Prosenjit remains in complete command of his craft giving his role some serious thought.

Essaying the main character Apu in a slice of a life drama, Rwitobroto incorporates the right amount of vulnerability, teenage innocence and typical teenage irritation to his superbly written character. With perfect expressions and exact dose of voice modulation, he manages to hold key to the main elements that makes the film working and even connects with the young generation.

Arindam Sil invested a lot while creating such an impactful negative character like Satyakam in ‘Byomkesh Gowtro’. Arjun leaves the audience in awe as the spoilt brat from an affluent family. His character is literally conceited, brash and also a flirt but often, in his straight forward dialogue “I was born to destroy families”, he subtly points out a certain helplessness deep inside. Arjun also succeeds to show the complexity of his character, being true to his words while paying fees or being generous towards those whom he loves.

He was the main man behind the camera, so it’s obvious Parambrata won’t invest too much in developing his character in ‘Shonar Pahar’. However, he mixes the right amount of empathy and poise as needed for the script and narrative to progress smoothly. It’s definitely a good casting decision and Param plays his acting part with elan. Despite being a highly sought after actor, Parambrata believes there is no conflict between the ‘actor Parambrata’ and the ‘director Parambrata’. He proves it yet again.

Rudranil’s Gobindo has to be amongst the strongest character portrayals in an otherwise average emotional drama. He did outshine Anjan Dutta in few of his scenes. But, many would say he didn’t have that required meat in the character to topple others and climb top of the list due to those limitations. The ending of ‘Uma’ where everyone comes forward for a heart-breaking send-off to little Uma is literally owned by Rudranil. The versatile actor effortlessly won our hearts just like his any other films.