Ten all-time great romantic movies in Bengali cinema

Sitting on the couch, holding a tub of popcorn, snuggled in a warm blanket with your loved one and enjoy a good romantic movie, don’t we all dream of that? ‘Romance’ happens to be one genre that Tollywood would like to stake its claim on. The history of Bengali cinema has seen so many romantic hits – some that make us want to fall in love, again and again, some that make us feel completely mushy, and those which bring tears to our eyes. Here is our collection of the all-time evergreen Bengali romantic films.

The crackling chemistry between Jisshu Sengupta and Koel Mallick in this movie is simply mesmerising. ‘Ghare And Baire’ deals with so many subjects like love, passion, friendship, separation, twist and comedy. In the film, Amit, a band musician, destroys his bohemian dreams of making music in Kolkata and steps into the corporate slavery in Mumbai. He hopes one day he would be able to express his feelings for his best friend Labanya. But he suffers heartbreak when an unconventional Labanya under tremendous family pressure agrees to a traditional arranged marriage to a ‘Probashi Bangali’.

Entertaining, thrilling, engaging and most importantly 'emotional'! That’s what everyone said after watching this Raj Chakraborty directorial. This movie is a 'stroke of difference' since it heavily differs from other 'commercial blockbusters'. You can actually 'feel' every character's pain and emotion. As per the narrative, there were mainly two couples – one is played by Soham and Mimi Chakraborty and the other one is Abir Chatterjee and Paayel Sarkar. Full of wit, charm and cinematic charisma ‘Bojhena Shey Bojhena’ made the audience glued to the seat until the end. Loaded with really good main and supporting characters the 2012 hit became a sure-surprise gift to all moviegoers.

The iconic bike sequence of this Bengali classic turned out to be a template for many Bengali romantic movies. Came to the celluloid during the height of the Uttam-Suchitra wave, ‘Saptapadi’ is all about the doomed romance of a Bengali Brahmin boy and a Christian girl. The movie was packed with all the elements that a romantic Bengalee of the 1960s would dream of. It included the immortal music scored by Hemanta Mukhopadhyay. The outstanding camera work, brilliant script, heart-touching music and above all a giant named Uttam Kumar’s one of the career-best display that turned ‘Saptapadi’ into an almost near perfect movie experience for moviegoers.

Shap Mochan is another Uttam Suchitra classic directed by Falguni Mukherjee. Suchitra Sen plays the character of Madhuri who desperately tries to eliminate a family curse and inspire Uttam Kumar (the character Mahendra) to pursue his musical career. A strong storyline and superb acting by some of the stalwarts of the Bengali films make this 1955 classic one of the elite films Uttam and Suchitra has ever acted in.

Shriman Prithviraj is a comic take on child marriage. With a cult following, Ayan Banerjee and Mahua Roychoudhury as the child-couple are still talked about in every Bengalee adda. The free-flowing comedy flick gave some amazingly rendered traditional Bengali romantic tracks. It’s punctuated by a set of stand-offs the young boy faces, mostly with unwanted results for those who are against him. The Bengali classic is a beautiful pre-adolescent love saga.

The legendary Suchitra Sen and Uttam Kumar – that’s what this movie is all about. It’s simply their charisma, their chemistry, their presence which will captivate you throughout. As per the narrative, Uttam Kumar is an amnesiac following a train accident and meets a doctor played by Suchitra Sen. They fall in love and eventually ties the knot, but soon Uttam Kumar recovers his lost memory after another accident. He then returns to his old life, leaving Suchitra but she visits Calcutta in search of her husband. Uttam fails to recognise her. Isn’t it an intriguing storyline? The climax is even better!

‘Anuranan’ revolves around two couples. One is a successful and dynamic architect Rahul (Rahul Bose) and his wife Nandita (Rituparna Sengupta) who is traditionally a bit conventional despite staying in London for some years. When they return to Kolkata, they meet another couple Amit (Rajat Kapoor), a workaholic real estate developer and his charming, effervescent wife Preeti (Raima Sen). The closeness of the foursome turns out to be a see-saw, pitching several dimensions, building a resonance, a chord and it eventually echoes through their present and future.

Suchitra Sen’s heart-warming performance in this 1959 classic is still regarded as one of the greatest ones in Bengali cinema. Based on a short story ‘Nurse Mitra’, ‘Deep Jwele Jai’ tells the story of a young nurse (played by Suchitra Sen) who helps a progressive psychiatrist in treating his patients suffering from emotional trauma. However, when the nurse gets involved in a relationship with one of the patients (played by Basanta Chowdhury), things get complicated. One of the most outstanding features of the film is its musical score by Hemanta Mukherjee and the title song ‘Ei Raat Tomar Amar’.

This was the period when Uttam Kumar was intentionally passing on the baton to the younger generation. But in ‘Mouchak’ despite a handsome Ranjit Mullick catches the limelight, it is still Uttam Kumar who creates a larger impression. The legendary actor taught how to make the audiences laugh even with simple performance. It’s one of the rare occasions when the famous comic trio of Robi-Anup-&-Chinmoy acted together and Chinmoy perhaps overshadowed the other two. Arabinda Mukherjee, who already gave the other masterpiece 'Dhanni Meye' (1971), once again showed his mastery over this comedy genre.

The all-time favourite on-screen couple of the Bengali cinema not just created many memorable romantic moments but also shattered many taboos around romance, just like in 1956 classic ‘Sagarika’. Made by the directorial group Agragami, its story follows a young talented lad Arun (Uttam Kumar) with a big dream of studying medicine abroad and the women in he comes across, one of them even cost him dearly. Arun, after being blind for a period, finally reunites with his love and a happy ending sees life becomes all good.