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Looking around film theatres ahead of 2018

Published : Sunday, 31 December, 2017 at 12:00 AM  Count : 1152
Cultural Correspondent
At Dhallywood the arena was hot with debates over joint productions, film actors' election, Shakib dilemma and controversial Doob. Though box office hit is still a new trend to start here there were a number of critical hits. On the other hand performance of Hollywood movies at the box office last year was charming enough even though western critics think otherwise.
A brief look back
At the home market veteran director Shamim Akhter opened theatres with her comeback film Rina Brown. Released in Star Cineplex only on January 13 the story revolving  around the struggle up till the Liberation War, Love, alienation and modern day Bangladesh garnered critical appreciation. The second most important event perhaps was the unprecedented success of TV drama director Dipankar Dipen's debut venture Dhaka Attack. Capitalizing on realistic police action the film was a huge box office success both at home and abroad with biggest opening in Dhallywood history. The film brought into focus actors Arefin Shuvo and villain Taskeen.
Next would be perhaps Doob starring Irrfan Khan. The film by Mostofa Sarwar Farooki already had controversy in the back with speculation about being based on the life of Humayun Ahmed without family's permission. But things got worse with all out negative reviews from both viewers and critics at home though foreign portal Variety praised it. Animesh Aich's Bhoyonkor Sundor in the same way though had much anticipations amidst viewers failed drastically.
Bhuban Majhi debuting Parambrata Chatterjee of West Bengal in Bangladesh also reflected the Liberation War and present day Bangladesh like that in Rina Brown.
Country's first sci-fi film Porobashinee being a joint-venture failed to impress with VFX. However a trailer of a much sophisticated sci-fi is from animation studio Chalkdust.
To conclude the list Tauquir Ahmed directed Haldaa and Apu Biswas starring Rajneeti should be mentioned. While both got critical appreciation only Haldaa managed considerable box-office success as Rajneeti had to fight tightly against Indian releases Boss and Nawab-2.
2017 at foreign market
Superhero hits like Wonder Woman, Logan, Spiderman: Homecoming and Thor-Ragnarok left long memory marks even though some others like Justice League failed miserably. Horror flicks also starred with Stephen King adaptation It and Annabelle Creations doing the majority of the job despite some tactical drawbacks in the latter. Much anticipated Tom Cruise starrer The Mummy also fell flat, but that should not be depressing given the likes of animated dead land hit Coco and the wholesome thriller War for the Planet of the Apes. Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk might have been the most talked about film of the year, revisiting the corners of dungeons in WWII.
Next year though there would not be too much of horrors of It or realistic wars of Dunkirk but it has dinosaurs, VFX and a host of both singular and packed superheroes fighting the 'OTHER' and a lot of re-adaptations towards the  yearend dominated by Jungle Book, Mary Poppins and Robin Hood.
Nail biting thrillers and VFX
You've got Aaron Sorkin's poker biopic Molly's Game starring a tough-as-nails Jessica Chastain, gritty western Hostiles with Christian Bale, and Gary Oldman doing his best Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour. Also in January are Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep probing The Pentagon Papers in Steven Spielberg's The Post and Ridley Scott surviving last-minute reshoots to give us a Kevin Spacey-less All the Money in the World.
In February, Sally Hawkins will be in the sci-fi romance The Shape of Water while, in March, in another sci-fi giant robots battle even bigger monsters in Pacific Rim: Uprising. Steven Spielberg follows The Post with virtual reality spectacular Ready Player One.
In March There's also Peter Rabbit, an animation-live action hybrid that's nominally based on Beatrix Potter but whose trailer makes it look closer to Home Alone.
In April X-Men franchise will make viewers rethink about its scope with The New Mutants, which sees Maisie Williams and Anya Taylor-Joy play youthful misfits coming to terms with their nascent powers. On the other hand the makers of Gnomeo and Juliet will return with Sherlock Gnomes in May.
With inputs from BBC and Contactmusic





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Editor : Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury
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