Shubho Mahurat
Encyclopedia
Shubho Mahurat is an award-winning India
n Bengali
feature film directed by Rituparno Ghosh
. The film is based on Agatha Christie
's Miss Marple
story The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side
.
producer, Padmini Chowdhury (Sharmila Tagore
), has come to India to invest in a film. An out-of-work director is assigned the job of direction.
The out-of-work director had a shady past. The witness to his shady past was an aspiring actor, who was subsequently thrown out of the acting circuit. Thereafter, this actor started a catering service for the film unit.
The NRI producer insisted on casting a retired actress in a prominent role. The retired actress, a drug addict, subsequently died under mysterious circumstances. The journalist Mallika Sen (Nandita Das
) was the only person present at the time of the death. The suspicion naturally fell on the husband of the actress.
The husband reportedly has an amorous relationship with another lady. The unnatural death of the actress made the police come into the scene. An IPS
officer took up the investigation. During the course of investigation, this IPS officer befriends the journalist. Meanwhile, the journalist caught the fancy of a still photographer who, incidentally, is closely related to the NRI producer.
This NRI producer had a past no less interesting than the other protagonists. The NRI producer was an actress of repute in her heyday. She divorced her husband and left the country to settle abroad. Before that, she had given birth to an abnormal child. The course of the film revealed that she bore a grudge against an actress of her time for spreading the contagious in her.
Another amorous affair runs parallel to the main theme: The camera assistant was repenting for his past affair with the hairdresser. The hairdresser had her problems and she was extracting money very often from the camera assistant. All through the movie, the aunt of the journalist, Ranga Pishima (Rakhee Gulzar), gave vital leads to the investigation through deductive logic. She was able to read the mind of the niece correctly. Her valuable inputs finally leads to solving of the murder mystery.
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n Bengali
Bengali cinema
Bengali cinema refers to the Bengali language filmmaking industries in the Bengal region of South Asia. There are two major film-making hubs in the region: one in Kolkata, West Bengal, India and the other in Dhaka, Bangladesh .The history of cinema in Bengal dates back to the 1890s, when the first...
feature film directed by Rituparno Ghosh
Rituparno Ghosh
Rituparno Ghosh is a Bengali film director. He has won 8 National Film Awards in India and several awards at international film festivals abroad.- Early life and background :...
. The film is based on Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...
's Miss Marple
Miss Marple
Jane Marple, usually referred to as Miss Marple, is a fictional character appearing in twelve of Agatha Christie's crime novels and in twenty short stories. Miss Marple is an elderly spinster who lives in the village of St. Mary Mead and acts as an amateur detective. She is one of the most famous...
story The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side
The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side
The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on November 12, 1962 and in US by Dodd, Mead and Company in September 1963 under the shorter title of The Mirror Crack'd and with a copyright date of 1962...
.
Plot
The phrase "shubho mahurat" is associated with the beginning of shooting for a feature film. The first day of shooting is usually marked by a grand reception, followed by a token shooting or vice-versa. This Miss Marple-esque film began with this event. An NRINon-resident Indian and Person of Indian Origin
A Non-Resident Indian is an Indian citizen who has migrated to another country, a person of Indian origin who is born outside India, or a person of Indian origin who resides permanently outside India. Other terms with the same meaning are overseas Indian and expatriate Indian...
producer, Padmini Chowdhury (Sharmila Tagore
Sharmila Tagore
Sharmila Tagore is an Indian film actress. She has won National Film Awards and Filmfare Awards for her performances.She has led the Indian Film Censor Board from October 2004 till March 2011...
), has come to India to invest in a film. An out-of-work director is assigned the job of direction.
The out-of-work director had a shady past. The witness to his shady past was an aspiring actor, who was subsequently thrown out of the acting circuit. Thereafter, this actor started a catering service for the film unit.
The NRI producer insisted on casting a retired actress in a prominent role. The retired actress, a drug addict, subsequently died under mysterious circumstances. The journalist Mallika Sen (Nandita Das
Nandita Das
Nandita Das is an award-winning Indian film actress and director. As an actress, she is known for her performances in Fire , Earth , Bawandar , Kannathil Muthamittal and Aamaar Bhuvan . As a director, she is known for her directorial debut Firaaq , which has won a number of national and...
) was the only person present at the time of the death. The suspicion naturally fell on the husband of the actress.
The husband reportedly has an amorous relationship with another lady. The unnatural death of the actress made the police come into the scene. An IPS
Indian Police Service
The Indian Police Service , simply known as Indian Police or IPS, is one of the three All India Services of the Government of India...
officer took up the investigation. During the course of investigation, this IPS officer befriends the journalist. Meanwhile, the journalist caught the fancy of a still photographer who, incidentally, is closely related to the NRI producer.
This NRI producer had a past no less interesting than the other protagonists. The NRI producer was an actress of repute in her heyday. She divorced her husband and left the country to settle abroad. Before that, she had given birth to an abnormal child. The course of the film revealed that she bore a grudge against an actress of her time for spreading the contagious in her.
Another amorous affair runs parallel to the main theme: The camera assistant was repenting for his past affair with the hairdresser. The hairdresser had her problems and she was extracting money very often from the camera assistant. All through the movie, the aunt of the journalist, Ranga Pishima (Rakhee Gulzar), gave vital leads to the investigation through deductive logic. She was able to read the mind of the niece correctly. Her valuable inputs finally leads to solving of the murder mystery.
Cast
- Sharmila TagoreSharmila TagoreSharmila Tagore is an Indian film actress. She has won National Film Awards and Filmfare Awards for her performances.She has led the Indian Film Censor Board from October 2004 till March 2011...
as Padmini Chowdhury - Rakhee Gulzar as Ranga Pishima
- Nandita DasNandita DasNandita Das is an award-winning Indian film actress and director. As an actress, she is known for her performances in Fire , Earth , Bawandar , Kannathil Muthamittal and Aamaar Bhuvan . As a director, she is known for her directorial debut Firaaq , which has won a number of national and...
as Mallika Sen - Sumanta Mukherjee as Sambit Roy
- Kalyani Mandal as Kakoli
Awards
- 2003 - National Film Award for Best Supporting ActressNational Film Award for Best Supporting ActressThe National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress winners:...
for Raakhee GulzarRaakhee GulzarRaakhee is an Indian film actress, who has primarily appeared in Hindi films, as well as several Bengali films. She is popularly known as Raakhee Gulzar after her marriage with lyricist-director Gulzar .... - 2003 - National Film Award for Best Feature Film in BengaliNational Film Award for Best Feature Film in BengaliThe Indian National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Bengali winners:...