Director Pritam D. Gupta's " Shaheb Bibi Golaam " is not the stroy from writer Bimal Mitra, this 1 written by the director..n very nicely portrait the thrilling storyline by him..here shaheb is an Anlgo Indian contract killer but with a strong moral who never kill women n children n also was a ex police commissioner, golam a taxi driver who love a girl who is a rich kid n Bibi a housewife who is going through extremely unfulfilling sexual life from her husband..other then thz 3 there is another card(character) in this thriller game..n that role played by Vikram, who is villain of this film...may b this 1 is 1st negative role acted by Vikram n he done it well..generally he play n carry a chocolate boy next door image but here he tried very welly a bratty sexist boy who thinks women r his toy...other lead actor Anjan Dutta, Swastika Mukherjee n Ritwik, what to say about them..we all know they are always perfect in every role...Storyline is awesome n very compact..not too long to bore those,who cant sit long in theatre for more thn 2 hrs movie..screenplay is also very nicely arranged and camera work is good n also the cinematography...mostly I love the background score of this film..n I think every viewer will love the climax scene..but I think the story was going too fast...but overall it is a nice treat for movie lovers...so i vl give 3n1/2 star out of 5
4 Reviews
Good points and bad - read the whole review
ziggaziggaah7 September 2016
Warning: Spoilers
OK, I just saw this movie, and I think I have yet to absorb it fully. The storytelling is extremely deft and well done, with each separate story weaving into each other seamlessly - this is brilliantly done. But let me go more in depth. I think I'll start with the negative, cause I'd like to end with the positive.
There are plot holes aplenty. The minister's son is capable of r---g a woman, but whimpers like that, like a little girl, in front of his father? The taxi driver gives Parno a couple of rides, and 2 days later falls so deeply in love that he's besotted like that? This story needed to be developed a bit more in the movie, it's not impossible that such a thing may happen, we needed to be shown How - it would have added a lot more depth. If she has a car, what's she doing catching a cab home in any case, why doesn't she just drive home in her own car, or if she's too drunk, get one of her friends to drive? And most of all, we're supposed to believe that someone is *married* to Swastika Mukherjee AND DOESN'T GIVE HER SEX, LOL!! :) Is this *possible*? Is this guy MAD, or impotent or something??!! :) (actually something close to that IS suggested, isn't it? :)) But why did she have to become a *prostitute*?? If she wants to have sex, well, all she has to do is to go out into the street and snap her fingers at the nearest boy/s, and 10 of them will be ready to jump on her...? :) Why do it for *money*??
But leaving these things aside, the Positive - FINALLY SOMEONE HAS ADDRESSED THE ISSUE OF A BENGALI HOUSEWIFE'S SEXUAL DESIRE!! FINALLY!! In 2016, Bengali culture just *couldn't remain* what it is any. more. (I'm a guy, so I have a vested interest in as many Bengali housewives being sexually liberated as possible! ;) ) It's done BRILLIANTLY - the scenes with her and the various men were MIND BLOWING!! I think Bengali TV is still meant for the old woman who has opinions on somebody going to a FU*KING GYM!!! Thank GOD that won't exist anymore!!
I thought, when I first heard about the movie, that it would have a more philosophical bent - I thought Swastika would find solace from that husband of hers in a *lover* - someone whom she finds *emotional sustenance* in - this was not attempted in the movie. It's just a thriller. It's not that it doesn't make a statement, it does, but not with the Swastika part of the story line. What's more disturbing is the *point of view* behind it - even now, the minister's son is shown to be the decadent, Westernised, elite drunkard and womanizer, and the taxi driver is the dutiful, loving, good guy - so good he carries his father to the toilet, for God's sake! How many people reading this have heard about *taxi drivers* raping people? What, every fourth or fifth day in the paper? And believe it or not, I'll bet that there are some *minister's sons* in India, maybe even in Kolkata, who are clean, make their money honestly, and have never even come close to harming a woman - not many LOL! :) , but some. *This point of view has been removed from the movie*!! Even now, poor means good and rich means bad. In 20 bloody 16, Kolkata STILL hasn't got rid of communism. Why'd you do this, Pratim? There are some people who go to nightclubs, and drink, and so on, who are NOT stupid - what are we supposed to do, apologize because we use Ipads and Twitter?? I guess the sad reality is that there ARE people like the minister's son in Kolkata - I don't know many myself, but there is at least one person I can think of who is almost the ditto copy of that character - and also that recent Sambia case springs to mind. By the way, that acting was AWFUL - he says "bitch" more times that anyone I've heard - he *says* it wrong. I didn't feel he was evil - when he was attempting to smash the windscreen of Parno's car, I didn't feel scared at all (which is a good thing - it shows that Bengali men can never be rapists in real life). He SHOULD have smashed it in - would have lent more weight to the character.
Anyway, at the end of it - 1) I'm glad that someone finally brought up the topic of Bengali women's desires, as I said. and 2) I'm glad about the ending - when Anjan Dutt cut off that son of a b**ch's d*ck, *I* WAS CLAPPING AND CHEERING LIKE MAD!! (actually when he sat on top of him, for a second I thought he was going to r**e him, but that didn't happen!) EXCELLENT!
The director somewhere said, the issue of whether to go and see a Bengali movie has a question mark at the end of it - his job is to turn that into a exclamation point. He has been successful. I will definitely go and see more Bengali movies if stuff like this comes out. And I will keep an eye out specifically for more movies from *him*.
There are plot holes aplenty. The minister's son is capable of r---g a woman, but whimpers like that, like a little girl, in front of his father? The taxi driver gives Parno a couple of rides, and 2 days later falls so deeply in love that he's besotted like that? This story needed to be developed a bit more in the movie, it's not impossible that such a thing may happen, we needed to be shown How - it would have added a lot more depth. If she has a car, what's she doing catching a cab home in any case, why doesn't she just drive home in her own car, or if she's too drunk, get one of her friends to drive? And most of all, we're supposed to believe that someone is *married* to Swastika Mukherjee AND DOESN'T GIVE HER SEX, LOL!! :) Is this *possible*? Is this guy MAD, or impotent or something??!! :) (actually something close to that IS suggested, isn't it? :)) But why did she have to become a *prostitute*?? If she wants to have sex, well, all she has to do is to go out into the street and snap her fingers at the nearest boy/s, and 10 of them will be ready to jump on her...? :) Why do it for *money*??
But leaving these things aside, the Positive - FINALLY SOMEONE HAS ADDRESSED THE ISSUE OF A BENGALI HOUSEWIFE'S SEXUAL DESIRE!! FINALLY!! In 2016, Bengali culture just *couldn't remain* what it is any. more. (I'm a guy, so I have a vested interest in as many Bengali housewives being sexually liberated as possible! ;) ) It's done BRILLIANTLY - the scenes with her and the various men were MIND BLOWING!! I think Bengali TV is still meant for the old woman who has opinions on somebody going to a FU*KING GYM!!! Thank GOD that won't exist anymore!!
I thought, when I first heard about the movie, that it would have a more philosophical bent - I thought Swastika would find solace from that husband of hers in a *lover* - someone whom she finds *emotional sustenance* in - this was not attempted in the movie. It's just a thriller. It's not that it doesn't make a statement, it does, but not with the Swastika part of the story line. What's more disturbing is the *point of view* behind it - even now, the minister's son is shown to be the decadent, Westernised, elite drunkard and womanizer, and the taxi driver is the dutiful, loving, good guy - so good he carries his father to the toilet, for God's sake! How many people reading this have heard about *taxi drivers* raping people? What, every fourth or fifth day in the paper? And believe it or not, I'll bet that there are some *minister's sons* in India, maybe even in Kolkata, who are clean, make their money honestly, and have never even come close to harming a woman - not many LOL! :) , but some. *This point of view has been removed from the movie*!! Even now, poor means good and rich means bad. In 20 bloody 16, Kolkata STILL hasn't got rid of communism. Why'd you do this, Pratim? There are some people who go to nightclubs, and drink, and so on, who are NOT stupid - what are we supposed to do, apologize because we use Ipads and Twitter?? I guess the sad reality is that there ARE people like the minister's son in Kolkata - I don't know many myself, but there is at least one person I can think of who is almost the ditto copy of that character - and also that recent Sambia case springs to mind. By the way, that acting was AWFUL - he says "bitch" more times that anyone I've heard - he *says* it wrong. I didn't feel he was evil - when he was attempting to smash the windscreen of Parno's car, I didn't feel scared at all (which is a good thing - it shows that Bengali men can never be rapists in real life). He SHOULD have smashed it in - would have lent more weight to the character.
Anyway, at the end of it - 1) I'm glad that someone finally brought up the topic of Bengali women's desires, as I said. and 2) I'm glad about the ending - when Anjan Dutt cut off that son of a b**ch's d*ck, *I* WAS CLAPPING AND CHEERING LIKE MAD!! (actually when he sat on top of him, for a second I thought he was going to r**e him, but that didn't happen!) EXCELLENT!
The director somewhere said, the issue of whether to go and see a Bengali movie has a question mark at the end of it - his job is to turn that into a exclamation point. He has been successful. I will definitely go and see more Bengali movies if stuff like this comes out. And I will keep an eye out specifically for more movies from *him*.
Best film from Bengal in a long time
indrochatterjee27 August 2016
One of the best films to come out of Bengal in a long, long time, Shaheb Bibi Golaam is a mind-bending film which hops from one genre to another with as much ease as it moves from one great performance to another. Without an iota of pretension or constantly trying to mislead the audience, which the other recent Bengali thrillers have mastered, Shaheb Bibi Golaam is a work of pure passion and honesty from the director. Playing with structure, the film connects different story strands through one catastrophic event. All the actors, even the ones in bit roles, are the top of their game. The background score is incredible even though the songs sound from a different film. But overall it's a groundbreaking film which should travel well in the rest of the country given the quality and class of storytelling and treatment.
Innocence lost
sesht14 September 2016
Warning: Spoilers
When a tale as predictable as this one, with a few sequences and scenarios that demand suspension-of-disbelief (not to the extent demanded by mainstream B/Hollywood mainstream potboilers, thankfully) still turns out to be like a breath of fresh air, it IS a pleasant surprise.
The overall package that's this movie, 'Shaheb Bibi aur Ghulam' is something like that.
Btw, the title is a misnomer of sorts, and even watching the trailer, I was thinking this was a reboot of the Guru Dutt-Waheeda Rehman- Rehman classic, that everything that unfolded in this movie, was a surprise (this, in spite of all the predictability within all the tales unfolding)..
So...Anjan Dutt's character is a superhero-hit-man of sorts, with a past and family trouble that becomes a thread we don't revisit as much as I thought we would, who kinda relates to the main tale unfolding, which is about a crime committed against a lady, and its repercussions. Not fond of superhero-hit men characters on screen, but Dutt makes the character his own, displaying a range of emotions, including a strange propensity for humanity, considering his chosen profession, and empathy, for quite a few characters. In a way, refreshing.
Swastika Mukherjee (Ebar Shabor, Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!) has never been better than she's here, given a fully-fleshed role, in spite of the character almost being a walking 80s/90s-cliché. The degree of dignity she brings to a very well-written character (kudos to the writer/director for allowing us to see how very human she really is, and I have to say this here - it is a testament to a well-behaved audience when there were absolutely no jeers at moments I expected those kinda reactions, but instead got silent respect, something extremely rare these days at the cinema).
Rithvick Chakraborty (I've seen him earlier in 'Apur Panchali', 'Ebar Shabor', 'Open Tee Bioscope'..) absolutely nails it as the innocent (or not so innocent?) Ghulam-of-sorts-but-not. He's given enough meat to play with, and we get to see more of that as the tale progresses, wherein he's allowed to make a few character transitions that will both endear him to, and sometimes creep-out audiences. Surprisingly, those transitions, save the one which happens in his penultimate sequence, are gradual and smooth. Strongly evoked, in me, good memories of Nawazuddin Siddiqui's powerful screen-presence and performances.
Anjan Dutt is a seasoned performer (though I've only seen him in 'City of Joy' and 'Mr & Mrs. Iyer' before this), along with being multi-talented (he sings in this one, though neither the role, nor the scenarios call for that talent to be utilized within the context of this movie) and absolutely owns his character, right from the beginning to end, and even when he's off-screen, his screen-presence is such that we know he will be making a huge impact whenever he appears.
The key evil character also, it has to be mentioned, vacillates between being a wimp in the presence of a more-powerful character, and evil personified when his character knows that he's in the presence of other characters who he thinks are in awe of what his char stands for, or are plainly in fear for their lives around him. He's like a powder keg, waiting to go off at any time. Many might miss the nuances of his characterization, but I thought it was refreshing.
There's another character, who's painted shallow, to such an extent that you expect nothing meaningful from that person, and then voila! Transition-time!
The background score, and about 3 of the songs that play in the background, contextually, are fantastic-sounding, and I'm gonna pick up the album on iTunes soon. The link -
The trailer (but I went in without watching the trailer, and I think that works better, this almost just gave the twists away, imho) -
Absolutely for adult-only though, in spite of the fact that the mature content on display is, not, considering the local movie- screening environment. 1 refreshing thing with this and 'Eagoler Chokh', which screened last week, the WB movie industry's decent way of using the mandated disclaimers on alcohol and tobacco use.
Worth a watch, for sure.
The overall package that's this movie, 'Shaheb Bibi aur Ghulam' is something like that.
Btw, the title is a misnomer of sorts, and even watching the trailer, I was thinking this was a reboot of the Guru Dutt-Waheeda Rehman- Rehman classic, that everything that unfolded in this movie, was a surprise (this, in spite of all the predictability within all the tales unfolding)..
So...Anjan Dutt's character is a superhero-hit-man of sorts, with a past and family trouble that becomes a thread we don't revisit as much as I thought we would, who kinda relates to the main tale unfolding, which is about a crime committed against a lady, and its repercussions. Not fond of superhero-hit men characters on screen, but Dutt makes the character his own, displaying a range of emotions, including a strange propensity for humanity, considering his chosen profession, and empathy, for quite a few characters. In a way, refreshing.
Swastika Mukherjee (Ebar Shabor, Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!) has never been better than she's here, given a fully-fleshed role, in spite of the character almost being a walking 80s/90s-cliché. The degree of dignity she brings to a very well-written character (kudos to the writer/director for allowing us to see how very human she really is, and I have to say this here - it is a testament to a well-behaved audience when there were absolutely no jeers at moments I expected those kinda reactions, but instead got silent respect, something extremely rare these days at the cinema).
Rithvick Chakraborty (I've seen him earlier in 'Apur Panchali', 'Ebar Shabor', 'Open Tee Bioscope'..) absolutely nails it as the innocent (or not so innocent?) Ghulam-of-sorts-but-not. He's given enough meat to play with, and we get to see more of that as the tale progresses, wherein he's allowed to make a few character transitions that will both endear him to, and sometimes creep-out audiences. Surprisingly, those transitions, save the one which happens in his penultimate sequence, are gradual and smooth. Strongly evoked, in me, good memories of Nawazuddin Siddiqui's powerful screen-presence and performances.
Anjan Dutt is a seasoned performer (though I've only seen him in 'City of Joy' and 'Mr & Mrs. Iyer' before this), along with being multi-talented (he sings in this one, though neither the role, nor the scenarios call for that talent to be utilized within the context of this movie) and absolutely owns his character, right from the beginning to end, and even when he's off-screen, his screen-presence is such that we know he will be making a huge impact whenever he appears.
The key evil character also, it has to be mentioned, vacillates between being a wimp in the presence of a more-powerful character, and evil personified when his character knows that he's in the presence of other characters who he thinks are in awe of what his char stands for, or are plainly in fear for their lives around him. He's like a powder keg, waiting to go off at any time. Many might miss the nuances of his characterization, but I thought it was refreshing.
There's another character, who's painted shallow, to such an extent that you expect nothing meaningful from that person, and then voila! Transition-time!
The background score, and about 3 of the songs that play in the background, contextually, are fantastic-sounding, and I'm gonna pick up the album on iTunes soon. The link -
The trailer (but I went in without watching the trailer, and I think that works better, this almost just gave the twists away, imho) -
Absolutely for adult-only though, in spite of the fact that the mature content on display is, not, considering the local movie- screening environment. 1 refreshing thing with this and 'Eagoler Chokh', which screened last week, the WB movie industry's decent way of using the mandated disclaimers on alcohol and tobacco use.
Worth a watch, for sure.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
