Victor Banerjee

A taut thriller revolving around a sudden blast in a firecracker unit ahead of Durga Puja. Is there more than meets the eye?

Pratik Choudhury is a young engineer, tasked with constructing a dam across a river in Suryanagar, a fictitious village in Bengal. Along the way he has to deal with wicked people, trying to amass wealth by constructing a cheap dam using low end products. Apart from this, Pratik has another secret task- to clear his dead father's name from slanderous allegations.

Laal (Dev) belongs to a strict house-hold where they believe in disowning a family member if he/she commits more than 100 mistakes. Laal is already guilty of committing 99 mistakes and he is on the verge of making his 100th mistake. Things take an interesting turn when Laal misses the train which his family has boarded for their elder sons wedding. He ends up spending the entire night on the platform, where he meets a beautiful girl named Nilasha (Nusrat). The rest of the story revolves around how they both accompany each other on an adventurous journey.

Mind is the ultimate intrigue - and that is what Armin Salem realizes when he wakes up one morning in a beautiful Swiss town. He wakes up from an accident that has wiped his mind clean of any memory. His legs want to reach a safe haven but his mind isn`t willing to let him know the address. His blood soaked face, tattered clothes and his subconscious mind indicates a crime riddled past a past that leaves flashes of horrific images pinging into his mind. Unfortunately for him, the answer lies in the mind itself. A mind which has shut off his body and thrown away the key. Thankfully for him all his luck hasn`t deserted him as yet. He meets the mysterious Kaavya Chaudhary who almost falls in love with him and goes out of her way to help him. He has barely come to terms with her when he gets stalked by a beautiful, Rhea Wagner - a woman who Armin thinks is dead for a long time! With each passing day the two women, unknown to each other`s presence, guide Armin`s mind to the depth of the abyss. It is almost as if they are scared of his memory and what it will reveal. As the train of memory emerges from the tunnel of Armin`s mind, he is able to assess the fact that these two women are playing a deadly game of hide and seek with him. Unfortunately for him, the end of the game could be his own! In a narrative akin to the complexity of a psychological thriller; with traces of the neo-noir style, this is a story which delves into the recesses of reasoning. The quintessential mystery which packs in breathtaking locales, character-ridden houses, beautiful women adventure, desire, intrigue, drama and love!

Dora, Saul, and Salvador all with different dreams of a future realize that one way or another someone has to pay the bills.

Aladin Chatterjee (Riteish Deshmukh) lives in the city of Khwaish, an orphan who has been bullied since childhood by Kasim and his gang. But his life changes when Jasmine (Jacquiline Fernandes) gives him a magic lamp - because it lets loose the genie Genius (Amitabh Bachchan). Desperate to grant him 3 wishes and seek the end of his contract with the Magic Lamp, the rock-star Genius makes Aladin`s life difficult until the real threat looms on the horizon : the ex-genie Ringmaster (Sanjay Dutt). Why does Ringmaster want to kill Aladin? What is the dark secret about Aladin`s past that Genius is carrying? And what is Aladin`s destiny? Find out more in this swashbuckling fantasy adventure film from Eros Entertainment and Boundscript Motion Pictures.

When Anita Rajan (Aishwarya Rai - Bachchan), brings a power plant proposal to set up in rural Maharashtra, Shankar (Abhishek Bachchan) is quick to realize the benefits the power plant can bring to the people. Shankar's dream project gradually becomes a political minefield, it is in this backdrop the evil forces mightier than ever gang up to bring down the regime of Sarkar and obliterate Shankar's name from the political horizon.

Apne is about family life. Indian men have time and again given up their dreams and ambitions to keep their families intact .This film retells such a story.Baldev Choudhary (Dharmendra) is an ex boxing champion who wants to wash a stain in his boxing career with his son Angad's (Sunny Deol) success. But, a financial crisis hindered Angad's success and stopped him from achieving his dream.Another time, Baldev Choudhary gets an opportunity in the form of a TV show. He trains a local boy to get into this much- hyped boxing show, but is replaced by a better coach at the eleventh hour.Karan (Bobby Deol), the younger son of Baldev Choudhary is on the verge of releasing a music album, when he realizes that his father is in a crisis and decides to give up his musical career and gets into boxing. With his hard work and dedication he emerges victorious. But in a final with a heavy weight champion he is tricked and ends up paralyzed on the hospital bed. This leaves Father Baldev devastated. He wants to take his own life, but Angad steps in to turn the game upside down and brings happiness back into the life of his father

It is an evocative and poignant composition consisting of three separate stories set in three different cities in contemporary India. Every story revolves around love, life and loss. The first story enters straight into the heart of Farooq (Ankur Khanna) and Ira's (Soha Ali Khan) relationship in Mumbai. Farooq remains troubled by his own inability to let go of the memories of his dead parents in his ancestral which he continues to occupy and use as the disturbing muse for his own writing. So deeply ensconced in being haunted by his own past, Farooq appears incapable of fully living in the present, to the extent to which he proves powerless in responding to the possibility of sharing true love with Ira. In Kolkatta, the second vignette revolves around Dr. Siddharth Bose (Victor Banerjee), a wealthy Calcutta surgeon in his fifties. Dr. Bose's is stuck in the rut of a loveless, pitiful, and seemingly pointless marriage which he attempts to rattle by embarking on a quick, nervous and uncomfortable affair with a much younger woman. His lover, Lea (Keira Chaplin), is a German on her own journey to discover India, and to some extent herself. Their passionate yet tormented romance lays the groundwork for Dr. Bose and his wife (Roopa Ganguly) to repair their relationship while Dr. Bose simultaneously self-destructs his nascent, doomed affair. The third and final story occurs in the south Indian city of Kochi where the Nair family confronts the sudden loss of a nuclear family member who died serving in the Indian military. One of the Nair children, Naveen (Karthik Kumar), returns from Vienna to try and reconcile the harsh, lonely reality of his brother Keshi's (Shayan Munshi) death with his own inability to connect with his personal and familial history in India and his present predicament of having to feign a relationship with a woman to conceal his love for a man in Europe. —Swarup Basak

Two roommates fall in love with the same girl, but soon realise they are not the only ones chasing her heart. Amidst all the competition, who will end up winning her hand?

The film is based on the lives of Bengali's across the world, especially on those settled abroad. It attempts to delineate the pain and dilemma of Bengali's estranged from their places of origin. It seeks to explore sensitive souls singing to the tunes of Tagore.

My Brother... Nikhil is a story of a swimming champion who is kept in isolation becuase he is tested HIV+. While his family and friends disown him, he finds solace and support in his sister and her boyfriend who stand by him and encourage him to continue with his swimming.

A man visits his estranged father-in-law and finds himself falling in love with his late wife's twin sister, much to her father's disapproval.

Jenny, a 30-year-old woman who lives an independent life, shuffles between working as an executive in a five-star hotel and as a model. Although her past romantic life has been less than perfect, her life turns upside down when a retired Justice Jyotin Chatterjee falls in love with her.

A married couple rents a beautiful apartment at a ridiculously cheap price only to find that it is haunted. What follows is a series of eerie supernatural episodes in the house.

Gita tries to reunite with her father while he awaits the return of his younger daughter, from America. Will everyone reunite?

A tough cop must come to terms with his brother and rival, and with his mother's tainted past. Samrat is the local goon of Debipur who is a terror for the corrupt and a saviour of the poor. He is the only solace of the poor villagers against all odds including the evil moneylender Pannalal. His increasing power and popularity with the people led to the Police department bring in their best man, Subroto in charge of the area. This leads to a tiff between the two brothers, unknown of each other's identity. Samrat is actually the elder brother of Subroto, who was left at the hands of a nurse soon after his birth by the unmarried mother's father (Subroto's grandfather). It is destiny again that the brothers are united followed by a happy ending where the mother and the father accepts the elder son into the family with open arms. —Angel Digital.

Adela Quested (Judy Davis) is sailing from England to British Raj India with Mrs. Moore (Peggy Ashcroft), the mother of her intended bridegroom, Ronny Heaslop (Nigel Havers), Mrs. Moore's son from her first marriage. Heaslop is the City magistrate in Chandrapore, and Adela intends to see if she can make a go of it. Mrs Moore is scheduled to return from India after a few weeks, and Adela intends to stay on and has an open-ended ticket with the cruise liner. The ship arrives in Bombay, from where the ladies have to travel another 1000 miles over land to reach Chandrapore. Collector Turton (Richard Wilson) is Ronny's boss in Chandrapore and is travelling on the same train, with his wife Mrs Turton (Antonia Pemberton). The ladies are disappointed to find that the British community is very much separated from the Indian population and culture with a growing Indian independence movement in the 1920s. Anthony (Ashok Mandanna) is Ronny's butler. Major McBryde (Michael Culver) is in charge of law and order in the town. Turton makes attempts to help Adela and Mrs Moore meet Indians in social settings, but Adela is ashamed to see that the Indians are not treated well by the British. Indians are seen with distrust and disdain. Mrs Moore also admonishes Ronny and says that she cannot understand this disdain for the fellow human. Mrs. Moore meets by chance another Indian local, Dr Aziz Ahmed (Victor Banerjee) at the local mosque, which she visits at night and happens to find Aziz there. Aziz is a widower who is surprised by her kindness and lack of prejudice. Ali (Art Malik) and Aziz are good friends. Advocate Hamidullah (Saeed Jaffrey) and Begum Hamidullah (Dina Pathak) are also very close to Aziz. Adela and Mrs Moore are encouraged when the local school superintendent Richard Fielding (James Fox), introduces them to the eccentric elderly Hindu Brahmin scholar Professor Narayan Godbole (Alec Guinness). Fielding also formally introduces Aziz to the ladies. Aziz offers to host an excursion to the local Marabar Caves. Godbole tries to discourage the ladies by saying that the caves are dark and empty. Ronny reacts very strongly to Adela meeting Indians, prompting her to later tell Ronny that she has decided that she will not marry him. Meanwhile Aziz is in a state of panic. Hamidullah tells Aziz that he will have to arrange transport from the station to the hills, furniture for the English ladies to sit, food for the English and for Professor Godbole (who eats only fruits), and alcohol. All of this will mean he will have to hire servants. To clear her head, Adela takes a bike ride and comes upon some abandoned ruins. She finds ancient Indian art celebrating carnal love between man and woman. She finds the images savage and is also attacked by monkeys. She returns home to embrace Ronny and tells him that she was wrong to reject him. Ronny and Adela get engaged. On the day of the expedition, Fielding and Godbole miss the train when they arrive late due to Godbole's prayers. After the train, Aziz had arranged elephants to transport Mrs Moore and Adela to the hills. Just outside the caves, Aziz sets up the furniture and serves port wine to the ladies. The initial exploration of the caves shows that the size of the party should be limited when Mrs. Moore suffers from claustrophobia and the noise from the large entourage echoes exponentially inside the caves. Mrs. Moore encourages Adela and Aziz to continue their exploration of the caves alone with just one guide. They reach the caves at a higher elevation some distance from the group and, before entering, Aziz steps away to smoke a cigarette. He returns to find Adela has disappeared. Shortly afterwards, he sees her running headlong down the hill, disheveled. She is picked up by the doctor Major Callendar's (Clive Swift) wife, Mrs. Callendar (Ann Firbank) who had arrived at the caves with Fielding, and taken to the Callendars' home. Adela is bleeding and delirious. Dr. Callendar medicates Adela with a hypodermic syringe. Upon his return to Chandrapore, Dr. Aziz is accused of attempting to sexually assault Adela inside the caves, is jailed awaiting trial, and the incident exposes clear fault-lines between the Indians and the British. It is reported that Adela herself accused Aziz of sexual assault. Ali and Hamidullah volunteer to be Aziz's legal counsel. Adela is kept sedated as her entire body is riddled with cactus spines when she ran into while running down the hill. Godbole tells Fielding that no matter what he does, the outcome of the trial against Aziz is already decided. Mrs. Moore firmly believes Aziz did not commit any offense and departs India for England. Seemingly enjoying her passage at sea, Mrs. Moore suddenly suffers an apparent heart attack and dies. Hamidullah and Ali bring in noted advocate Amrit Rao (Roshan Seth) from Calcutta to defend Aziz. Fielding declares under pressure to Turton that he will resign from the college if Aziz is found guilty. In court, Adela is questioned by the prosecutor, who is stunned when Adela replies that Dr. Aziz never entered the cave, where the supposed attempt took place. It becomes clear to Adela that her earlier signed accusation of attempted sexual assault was false, so she recants. Aziz is freed and celebrated for his innocence. Adela is abandoned to her own devices by the British, except for Mr. Fielding, who assists her to safety at the college. She plans to return to England at the earliest moment. Hamidullah plans to sue Adela for damages of Rs 20,000 but Fielding talks Aziz out of it. Aziz rids himself of his western associations and vows to find a new job in another Indian state; he opens a clinic in the lake area near Srinagar, Kashmir. Meanwhile, through Adela, Fielding has married Stella Moore (Sandra Hotz), Mrs. Moore's daughter from her second marriage. Fielding brings Stella to meet Aziz in Kashmir. Aziz eventually reconciles with Fielding, and Aziz writes to Adela asking her to forgive him for taking so long to come to appreciate the courage she exercised when she withdrew her accusation in court.

A landowner's wife emerges from seclusion through education, defying social norms. Her newfound freedom leads to political awakening when her husband's old friend brings revolutionary ideas to their door. When the movie opens, a woman is recalling the events that molded her perspective on the world. Years ago, her husband, a wealthy Western-educated landowner, challenged tradition by providing her with schooling, and inviting her out of the seclusion in which married women were kept, to the consternation of more conservative relatives. Meeting her husband's visiting friend from college, a leader of an economic rebellion against the British, she takes up his political cause, despite her husbands warnings. As the story progresses, the relationship between the woman and the visitor becomes more than platonic, and the political battles, pitting rich against poor and Hindu against Moslem, turn out not to be quite as simple as she had first thought. —Anonymous

Gauri, a simple village girl, and her wealthy lover must tackle a series of problems.

Set on the eve of the Indian rebellion of 1857, the film depicts two noblemen who devote themselves to endless rounds of chess, while their kingdom gets annexed.

The film is set in 1856 on the eve of the Indian rebellion of 1857. The British are about to annex the Indian State of Awadh (also spelled Oudh). The daily life of two wealthy men who are devoted to chess is presented against the background of scheming officials of the British East India Company, the history of its relations with the Indian ruler of Awadh, and the ruler's devotion both to his religious practice and the pursuit of pleasure. the Indian princely state of Awadh (whose capital is Lucknow) and its Nawab, Wajid Ali Shah (Amjad Khan). He lives with the Queen (Veena), Mother of Wajid Ali Shah. Awadh is rich and prosperous. The population is satisfied and have a large disposable income. Wajid Ali is a languid artist and poet (Dresses up like Krishna, composes his own songs, praising himself, and has 400 concubines and 29 Muta (enjoyment wives)), no longer in command of events and unable to effectively oppose the British demand for his throne. Wajid was not interested in ruling his kingdom but loved his crown none-the-less. Lord Dalhousie had his eyes on the Kingdom of Awadh and wanted to swallow it within the British empire. He also already swallowed Punjab, Burma, Nagpur, Satara and Jhansi. Historically Awadh's ruler Shuja-Ud-Daulah allowed the Brits in for trading. Eventually the Brits went to war and Awadh lost. But Brits allowed Shuja-Ud-Daulah to keep his crown for a penalty of Rs 50 MM and a promise to fund Brit wars, as and when needed. General James Outram (Richard Attenborough) is plotting against Wajid at the behest of Dalhousie. The role of Captain Weston (Tom Alter), Outram's aide De camp, so British in his ways, but in love with Urdu poetry, is also worth noting. Outram declares Wajid to be an incompetent ruler and gets Weston to support him by promising a plum position post the takeover. Parallel to this wider drama is the personal (and humorous) tale of two rich, indolent noblemen of this kingdom, Mirza Sajjad Ali (Sanjeev Kumar) and Mir Roshan Ali (Saeed Jaffrey). Inseparable friends, the two nobles are passionately obsessed with the game of Shatranj (chess). Munshi Nandlal (David Abraham) reaches out to both nobles and tells them that a British takeover of Awadh is imminent. Brits are bringing railways and wireless to India to speed up transportation and establish control over all of India. Mirza and Mir think this is only another ploy for the Brits to demand more money from the King. Both effectively neglect their wives (Khurshid (Shabana Azmi), Mirza's wife & Nafisa (Farida Jalal), Mir's wife). Khurshid is angry that Mirza won't spend time with her even though he is at home. She also curses Mir, that his wife is having an affair and yet he spends all of his time with Mirza. Khurshid wants to have sex with Mirza and calls his away from his game with Mir. But Mirza can only think about his unfinished game and goes back to Mir, after failing to perform in bed with Khurshid. She thinks that Mirza doesn't love her. In retaliation Khurshid steals Mirza's chess pieces. Hirya (Leela Mishra), Khurshid's maid helps her in this. Meanwhile on 31st Jan 1986, Dalhousie makes his moves and issues orders for the takeover of Awadh, from Calcutta. Outram delivers the orders to Prime Minister "Madar-Ud-Daula" (Victor Banerjee). The orders are justified by the "misrule" of Awadh by the King and include taking Wajid's title away from him. The orders are backed by the British armies at Cawnpore, who are straining at the least to be let lose against Awadh. Meanwhile Mir and Mirza are dying to play chess and decide to borrow pieces from their lawyer Abbajani (Bhudo Advani). But when they get to his house, they realize he is on his death bed, and quietly make their exit. It is Friday and the market is closed. PM delivers the news of the takeover to Wajid. The nobles decide to play chess with condiments and vegetables as their pieces, much to the disappointment of Khurshid. She throws the pieces back at Mirza. Mirza decides to play at Mir's going forward. Now Wajid is distraught at losing his titles and laments that he got rid of his formidable army at the insistence of the Brit officials a few years ago. Wajid contemplates his position (The Brits have an earlier treaty with Awadh in which they explicitly agree to let the King remain on the throne) and refuses to vacate the throne. The Brits, including Outram, know of the treaty and feel Wajid is entitled to challenge this forced abdication of the throne. Outram knows that a 100,000 pounds a month is generous compensation, but Wajid may decide to fight the abdication. Wajid has 5 days to respond and Outram is worried that there has been no response yet. Outram decides to meet the Queen mother. Meanwhile Mir's wife Nafisa is worried that Mir is playing chess with Mirza at home. Her lover is Aqueel (Farooq Sheikh). Mir catches them red-handed when he enters Nafisa's room, but they are able to convince him that Aqueel is hiding from the King's army, as they are forcibly taking youth to fight against the British. Queen mother refuses the compensation and demands justice for Wajid. She says she will advise Wajid to fight for his throne. The 2 nobles fail to fight the takeover of their kingdom by the East India Company. Instead, they escape their harangued wives and responsibilities, fleeing from Lucknow to play chess in a tiny village untouched by greater events. they are trying to find an abandoned mosque, where they can play in peace, but can't find it. They are invited to rest at the house of poor farmer. Ray's basic theme in the film is the message that the self-centered nature, detachment and cowardice of India's ruling classes catalyzed the annexation of Awadh by a handful of British officials. Wajid meanwhile agrees to meet Outram at 8 am the following morning. Outram presses Wajid to sign the new treaty. Wajid is willing to give up his crown, but refuses to sign the new treaty, which he feels is unjust. Meanwhile the chess match rages on and Mirza is losing for a change. He blames the mosquitoes for distracting him. Mirza then dawns on Mir that Nafisa is cheating on him, to throw him off his game. In the last scene, after which Mir shoots at Mirza and complains out loud "(If you die) I won't have a partner to play chess with", Mirza responds to him "but you have one in front of you!" (thus, making him understand that he forgives him). He finally concludes that "after nightfall, we will go back home. We both need darkness to hide our faces."