Indubala Bhaater Hotel (2023– ) User Reviews

Two BANGLAs served up on a plate in the most unique way

[towhid75 · 9/10 · 14 March 2023]

A woman's emotional journey in the backdrop of Bengali Partition in the early '70s, blended with Bengali's culinary supremacy. Based on Kallol Lahiri's phenomenally hit novella in Bengali literature in recent times. The stories and sentiments surrounding epar Bangla or what is now Bangladesh, and opar Bangla or today's West Bengal, play a pivotal role here.

This web series is not about a Hotel or Food. This is a story of a woman, and how she takes her life throughout. I think, this is the best work that Subhashree Ganguly has done so far.

With 'Indubala Bhater Hotel', Kallol Lahiri provides food for thought, indeed.

Made for Bengalis all around the world!

[SoumikBanerjee1996 · 7/10 · 31 March 2023]

A culturally enriched, intrinsically laid out tale that not only chooses to speak valiantly of all the difficulties & austerities endured by millions of refugees of war, but also sincerely connotes their daily struggles in reinstating themselves in a new community, reestablishing their roots in a new location, and the countless hurdles that came along.

Indubala Bhaater Hotel appears to touch on a variety of delicate subjects through a simple yet effective narration that brings a broad range of human emotions to the forefront, with its music serving as among its most major contributor.

The composition is impeccable, the songs are pure bliss, and they provide you with the much-needed comfort and notable groundedness that you don't even know you desperately desire until you take a listen.

And when you add some fantastic enactments to the mixture, this amalgamation becomes even more so special; a work of art dedicated to all the Bengalis around the world.

Brilliant !

[pirung · 9/10 · 30 August 2023]

Brilliant rendition and excellent direction. Outstanding performance by Shubhashree. Very well carved music and beautiful songs - so apt and lyrics are so deep and soothing. The sets, the lighting and social picture so well depicted. The flashback and the collage of old and new stories were so well merged. The story is not only strong but also rooted to the core. My grand parents would have enjoyed to the core. The childhood, youth and old age has been meshed so well. We actually binge watched the whole series. All the actors did tjier best. We all enjoyed and look forward to many more such magnificent endeavours.

Here is no food! The only recipe is the entire life of an aged woman

[ankur_lahiry · 10/10 · 25 March 2023]

Story:

This story is a bird eye view of a woman who has experienced India's partition, Bangladesh liberation war and present day India and Bangladesh.

There are a lots of emotions and sentiments of the woman who lost her contact with her childhood village - Kolapata. Alongside describing the socio-economic culture of the then India and Bangladesh, the story builds up with the emotion.

Cast:

Subhashree Ganguly as Indubala

• In one word, this is her best acting so far in her entire career. She played 3 different characters, so it is hard to express how fantastic her performance.

Sneha Chatterjee as Lachmi

• She helped Subhashree's character to be more polished.

Screenplay:

One of best web series from Indian Bangla. The animations are so natural that it seems like we were actually on the set.

A beautiful portray of a time

[rahul-guha · 10/10 · 1 April 2023]

If you liked old classics from Ritwik, Ray or Mrinal Sen - you will love it. It's a story about a woman standing up against the tide to live her life and embracing everything good without judgement. Heavily influenced by old bengali master film makers ( it's a compliment) - beautiful use of editing, lights and above all music.

It grows on you as you watch every episode. Especially for people who came from that world see the glimpse of their past there. It also blends the beauty of a lifestyle and value system in the struggle of Indubala.

It's a series that deserves to be saved and watched multiple times. Probably one of the best web series I ever watched so far !!!

Just a gem, period!

[ananyoslg · 10/10 · 1 May 2023]

Melancholy which makes one's throat choke and ache with silently accumulating tears, comes with a pensive slowly trickling happiness. After a long time of mediocre shallow rootless series both in television and OTT, Indubala takes us to our root- of a forgotten often avoided history. And that connects. Like it should have. Must watch.

Very well made, slowly built with parallel storylines converging in framing a comprehensive tale of different times and people. Brilliant acting and editing. What stands out is the background score and use of songs which intensifies all of the expressions which not only the director and author wanted to portray but rather create a symphony with the viewers. It will be a classic.

Best that you can grasp on Bengali OTT. A timeless tale of bangla & partition.

[gopisailen · 10/10 · 2 September 2023]

Depiction of the tales so enrooted in the Bengali lives who came from the other side of the border is in another level.

The direction is just superb, the timelessness of the pictures switching from an aged lady who lost all the bonds she made as she walked down her life one by one to a just married lady finding her way in an unknown land, Kolkata to an outgoing girl in a Kolapata, who enjoys her life with all the colours of a teenage village girl is just on another level.

The lady, Indubala, who is gentle, charming, caring yet the most prominent part about her is her battle of life. The struggles in her life, she faces one after another setbacks, each of those so gross that even a single of those can push one's life to the bottom of a deep sea, yet the most inspiring part is her simple, gentle never stopping way of fight which is not loud but yet so effective, never giving up to any of the circumstances. She marches on! She marches on! Comred Indubala devi !

Jugheads branded this as masterpiece

[adonisatyaki · 6/10 · 3 April 2023]

Post partition trauma faced by a young woman named indubala. Who later set up a hotel by her name. But, I don't get association of Muslim characters in this movie. And the ridiculous concept of a Hindu woman having Muslim boyfriend or in other words the promotion of love jihad to indicate communal harmony. Then, why not the contrary happens in this case i.e. A Muslim woman with a Hindu boyfriend. Was there a scarcity of Hindu boys in the village of kolapota? And moreover wasn't there anybody to notice the midnight arrival of indubala's naxalite lover? My ancestors also hail from the erstwhile East Bengal which is now presently called Bangladesh. But, I never heard them telling 'daawat' instead of 'nimantran' for inviting someone. Also Indubala's expression of sorrow for the demise of monirul seemed deeper than the death of her entire family. Sorry to say, but this isn't much respectful for indubala's character. Nevertheless, the storyline isn't very pondering either. An old lady reminiscing bygone days & occasionally tussling with younger her sons on the matter of renovating the hotel.

Yeah, the actors did good job on portraying the characters. But, this web series seemed to me a bit overrated & lacking the engagement.

Story is good, but acting ???

[amritoit · 1/10 · 1 July 2023]

Story is good. But I could not continue watching the unnatural acting of the characters. Specifically Subhashree in this series remembered me of Sohini in Mandar, none of them was fitting in their characters well. The voice, the languages was not at all going with the situation. It was feeling all fake. How come this series got so high ratings is something which is out of my knowledge.

One thing definitely degraded in this era of bengali web series is it quality of production. Well let me correct myself, I think good production are still making good contents , its just bad production has increased rapidly. I wish all the best for bengali web series.