''Kaal '' ( bn, কাল, ) is a

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 ...

film released in 2007. The film directed by

Bappaditya Bandopadhyay Bappaditya Bandopadhyay or Bappaditya Banerjee ( bn, বাপ্পাদিত্য ব্যানার্জী; 28 August 1970 – 7 November 2015) was an Indian film director and poet. Career Bandopadhyay was the recipient of the Mo ...

stars

Chandrayee Ghosh Chandrayee Ghosh (sometimes spelled Chandreye Ghosh or Chandreyi Ghosh) is an Indian actress, who appears in Bengali film and television series. Career Ghosh made her film debut in Sekhar Das's '' Mohulbanir Sereng'', followed by ''Tista'' ...

Rudranil Ghosh Rudranil Ghosh is an Indian actor who works primarily in Bengali films. Education Rudranil Ghosh completed his early education at Santragachi Kedarnath Institution, Howrah under West Bengal State Board. He graduated from the Narasinha Dutt Col ...

, Dola Chakraborty, Sandhya Shetty. It was selected for screening at the

Cairo International Film Festival The Cairo International Film Festival ( ar, مهرجان القاهرة السينمائي الدولي) is an annual internationally accredited film festival held in Cairo Opera House. It was established in 1976 and has taken place every year si ...

, 2007, the

São Paulo International Film Festival The São Paulo International Film Festival ( pt, Mostra Internacional de Cinema de São Paulo), also known internationally as Mostra, is an annual film festival held in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. A non-profit event, the festival is organized ...

2007 and the Stockholm International Film Festival 2007. Incidentally, this is the third successive year that Bandopadhyay's film is being screened at

. The film was already successfully screened at the

Osian's Cinefan Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema Osian's-Cinefan is one of Asia's leading film-festival devoted to Asian and Arab cinema, and is part of ''Osian's Film House Division''. The festival celebrated its 10th anniversary in July 2008. After a two-year break, the 12th staging of the f ...

, 2007, where it was one of the Indian films competing in the festival.

Plot

KAAL is about prostitution and call-girl services of Kolkata. The girls move from a rural area into a large city after being lured and offered lucrative money by the recruiter Ratan (

). They ultimately become call-girls for the sake of survival. Ranidi (the boss, played by Sandhya Shetty) grooms the depressed and oppressed girls and gives them a complete make over in a short time. The movie depicts the corruption associated with their entire business. The girls reasonably and rightfully accept the fact that money is better than sunshine and sweeter than honey because of poverty. They forget their miserable past. They get caught up in making more money and buying more fun. They understand that surviving in this treacherous world is not possible through love, honesty and humanity. Hence they let themselves drain away in the world of consuming and consumption. The girls are shown traveling to the top hotels in

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

. The middleman Ratan is shown trying to go to

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

. The village police inspector and the other partners in the game(Indian Border Security Force) continue to operate. ---

Director’s note

"In a way, this film is a sequel to my earlier film
Kantatar ''Kantatar'' ( bn, কাঁটাতার, Barbed Wire) is a 2005 Bengali language, Bengali film directed by Bappaditya Bandopadhyay, and featuring Sreelekha Mitra, Sudip Mukherjee, Rudranil Ghosh. It received Network for the Promotion of Asi ...
(Barbed Wire). The partition, at one point of time, caused human displacement in a large scale in our country. The present trend of globalization has once again unleashed a massive displacement of human beings. The backdrop is also even more complex. It was therefore impossible to maintain a linear narration. Kaal is a multilayered film dealing with human displacement."

Cast

... *

....Ratan * Dola Chakraborty ... * Sandhya Shetty... * Sankar Debnath... *

Samapika Debnath Samapika Debnath is an Indian film and television actress and model. She has mainly acted in Bengali and Hindi films. She made her debut in 2007 with film '' Kaal''. Works Films * '' Astra'' (2012) * ''Riwayat'' (2012) * '' Shatru Sanghar' ...

... * Rupsha Guha... * Nemai Ghosh... * Iqbal Sultan.... * Mishar Ray... * Partha Sarathi Deb...

Censorship

Bappaditya Bandopadhyay is in trouble with the regional Censor Board for some scenes in ''Kaal'' being ‘too graphic’. The scene is about the rape of an illegal migrant girl from

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

by personnel of the

Border Security Force The Border Security Force (BSF) is India's border guarding organisation on its border with Pakistan and Bangladesh. It is one of the seven Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) of India, and was raised in the wake of the 1965 war on 1 December 1 ...

. The director says that his film is on human trafficking and is based on NGO reports. He is now waiting for the revision committee to see his film. "The problem is that any criticism against any authority is met with iron clamps. The basic principles of democracy are being violated and the right to self-expression is either denied completely, or censored conveniently," says Bappaditya.

References

External links

www.citwf.com-Devakiwww.gomolo.in
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111004163226/http://www.gomolo.in/Movie/Movie.aspx?mid=15440 , date=4 October 2011
www.telegraphindia.com
2007 films Bengali-language Indian films 2000s Bengali-language films 2007 drama films Films set in Kolkata Films directed by Bappaditya Bandopadhyay