''Autograph'' is a 2010 Indian

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

by debutant director

Srijit Mukherji Srijit Mukherji is an excellent national award winning Indian film director and screenwriter who predominantly works in Cinema of West Bengal, Bengali cinema. His regular collaboration with veteran actor Prosenjit Chatterjee brought him into the ...

. The movie is a tribute to

Satyajit Ray Satyajit Ray (; 2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian director, screenwriter, documentary filmmaker, author, essayist, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligrapher, and music composer. One of the greatest auteurs of fil ...

's 1966 film '' Nayak'' and yesteryear Bengali actor

Uttam Kumar Uttam Kumar ( bn, উত্তম কুমার; born Arun Kumar Chattopadhyay; 3 September 1926 – 24 July 1980), popularly known as the Mahanayak, was an Indian actor, producer, director, Screenwriter, script writer, composer, and sing ...

, who portrayed the title role in the film. This was the First of the forthcoming Long Collaboration between Srijit Mukherjee &

Prosenjit Chatterjee Prosenjit Chatterjee (born 30 September 1962) is an Indian actor and producer. He is widely regarded as one of the leading actors in modern Bengali cinema. He predominantly works in Bengali cinema . He is the son of veteran Bollywood actor Bisw ...

. The movie is being remade in Malayalam.

Plot

The film starts with a proposal of remaking

's famous '' Nayak'' by a debutant director and storywriter Shuvobrata (

Indraneil Sengupta Indraneil Sengupta is an Indian film and television actor, and a model living in Kolkata since 2004. Career Sengupta was a finalist of the 1999 Gladrags Manhunt Contest in which John Abraham was the winner. He modelled for designer Rohit Ba ...

) to famous Bengali actor Arun Chatterjee (

Prosenjit Prosenjit Chatterjee (born 30 September 1962) is an Indian actor and producer. He is widely regarded as one of the leading actors in modern Bengali cinema. He predominantly works in Bengali cinema . He is the son of veteran Bollywood actor Bisw ...

). Arun approves Shuvobrata's proposal and agrees to finance the project. Shuvobrata requests his live-in girlfriend Srinandita or Shrin (

Nandana Sen Nandana Dev Sen (19 August 1967) is an Indian-born American actress, screenwriter, children's author and child-rights activist. Her first film role in Bollywood was Sanjay Leela Bhansali's ''Black'' (2005), starring Rani Mukherjee and Amitab ...

) to act opposite Arun. In the meantime, Arun and Shrin become close friends and Arun tells her about various incident from his past in an emotionally triggered condition. The exchange is videotaped accidentally and Shuvobrata on discovering it leaks it to the press, without Srinandita's consent, as a publicity stunt for the film. Srinandita leaves Shuvobrata on learning of this indiscretion. Arun, furious about the leak, bars the film from being released. Arun later learns that Shrin had no role in the leak and apologizes to her. The movie ends with Shrin leaving a note and a phone number for Arun at a roadside dhaba where they had met earlier.

Cast

as Arun Chatterjee *

as Srinandita *

as Shuvobrata Mitra *

Rudraprasad Sengupta Rudraprasad Sengupta (born 31 January 1935) is a Bengali Indian actor, director and cultural critic. Biography Sengupta was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata), Bengal, the son of Anant Sengupta and Usha Prabha Sengupta. He studied at the Scottish ...

Biswajit Chakraborty Biswajit Chakraborty, (born 29 October 1948) is an Indian film actor who appears predominantly in Bengali movies. He was born in Kolkata, West Bengal. His debut movie was '' Sunya Theke Suru'' directed by Ashoke Viswanathan. He has acted in more ...

as Manoj Sarkar *

Pijush Ganguly Pijush Ganguly (2 January 1965 – 25 October 2015) was a noted Bengali film, television and theater actor. In 2005 he received the Bengal Film Journalists' Association Award for the Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance in ' ...

as Ashish Chakraborty *

Dwijen Bandopadhyay Dwijen Bandyopadhyay (22 September 1949 – 27 September 2017) was a veteran Bengali actor and theater personality from West Bengal, India. He worked onstage from the 1970s. Bandyopadhyay has also been a professor in the department of Drama at Rab ...

as Parthapratim Nag *

Sohini Paul Sohini Paul (born 31 December 1986), born in Kolkata, India, is a Bengali film actress. She is the daughter of Tapas Paul. Career A student of Lakshmipat Singhania Academy in 2004 when she was in Class XII, she made her debut in the Anjan D ...

as Ahona Dasgupta * Dhruv Mookerji as Moloy Dasgupta * Dilip Roy as Tarun Mukherjee *

* Sanghasri Sinha Mitra as Nandini *

Rii Sen Rii Sen (born Rituparna Sen) is an Indian actress who works in Bengali cinema. She started her career as a freelance model and television actress. Her debut film was ''Tepantorer Mathe'', but it was not released in theatres because of obscene ...

as Rupali Gupto

Soundtrack

The music of the film is composed by

Debojyoti Mishra Debojyoti Mishra (born 30 April 1963 at Kolkata) is an Indian music director and film composer. He became popular with his minimalist classical compositions for the Hindi film ''Raincoat'', directed by Rituparno Ghosh. He also worked on Bengali ...

and Anupam Roy. The lyrics have been penned by Anupam Roy,

Srijato Srijato Bandopadhyay is an Indian poet of the Bengali language. He won the Ananda Puroskar in 2004 for his book ''Udanta Sawb Joker: All Those Flying Jokers''. In 2014, he won the Filmfare Awards East for Best Lyricist for the song 'Balir Sho ...

and

. The song ''Aamake Aamar Moto Thakte Dao'' turned out to be a popular amongst the Bengali audience. ''Chal Rastay'', ''Uthche Jege Sokalgulo'' and ''Beche Thakar Gaan'' also received wide critical acclaim.

Trivia

The central character of the film is called Arun Chatterjee (

’s real name). Srijit's touches make this film and the central story significantly different from '' Nayak.'' The film makes a few references to great filmmakers like

Ingmar Bergman Ernst Ingmar Bergman (14 July 1918 – 30 July 2007) was a Swedish film director, screenwriter, Film producer, producer and playwright. Widely considered one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time, his films are known ...

and films like '' Wild Strawberries''. It alludes to the music of

R.D. Burman Rahul Dev Burman (27 June 1939 – 4 January 1994) was an Indian music director who is considered one of the most influential composers of India. From the 1960s to the 1990s, Burman composed musical scores for 331 films. Burman did major work ...

Red Sky at night Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondary ...

David Gilmour David Jon Gilmour ( ; born 6 March 1946) is an English guitarist, singer, songwriter, and member of the rock band Pink Floyd. He joined as guitarist and co-lead vocalist in 1967, shortly before the departure of founding member Syd Barrett. P ...

and ''

The Godfather ''The Godfather'' is a 1972 American crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who co-wrote the screenplay with Mario Puzo, based on Puzo's best-selling 1969 novel of the same title. The film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, ...

''. There is also a sequence which uses the instrumental track "Yumeji's Theme" from

Wong Kar Wai Wong Kar-wai (born 17 July 1958) is a Hong Kong film director, screenwriter, and producer. His films are characterised by nonlinear narratives, atmospheric music, and vivid cinematography involving bold, saturated colours. A pivotal figure ...

's film

In the mood for love ''In the Mood for Love'' is a 2000 romantic drama film written, produced and directed by Wong Kar-wai. A co-production between Hong Kong and France, it portrays a man ( Tony Leung) and a woman (Maggie Cheung) whose spouses have an affair toget ...

. There are pictures of Bengali film maestro Ritwik Ghatak and stills of

Chhabi Biswas Chhabi Biswas (''Chabi Biśbās'') (13 July 1900 – 11 June 1962) was an Indian actor, primarily known for his performances in Tapan Sinha's '' Kabuliwala'' and Satyajit Ray's films '' Jalshaghar'' (''The Music Room'', 1958), '' Devi'' ( ...

from his most memorable role in '' Jalshaghar'' on the wall of the studio featured in the film. ''Autograph'' is one of the highest grossing Tollywood film of 2010.

Recognition

The film premiered internationally at the

Abu Dhabi Film Festival The Abu Dhabi Film Festival (ADFF; ar, مهرجان أبو ظبي السينمائي), formerly the Middle East International Film Festival, was an international film festival held in the city of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates from 2007 to 20 ...

on 17 October 2010. The movie was showcased in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

at the MIAAC (Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council) film festival, 2010 where it won a nomination for Prosenjit Chatterjee for the Best Actor award. It was also an official selection at the Glasgow International Film Festival and

London Indian Film Festival London Indian Film Festival is a film festival established in 2010 to showcase Indian independent film.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Autograph 2010 films 2010s Bengali-language films Films scored by Anupam Roy Films scored by Debojyoti Mishra Bengali-language Indian films Films set in Kolkata Films directed by Srijit Mukherji