Kicking off the yearly round up of 2018 with the Music category, here is looking at what were the Best Playback Performances both for Male and Female Singers for Hindi films of the year.

Though the overall music scenario looked relatively dull till the first half of the year, it beautifully picked up towards the second half courtesy some excellent soundtracks especially coming from films like Manmarziyaan, Andhadhun, Laila Majnu, Sui Dhaaga or Kedarnath. There was still a lot of noise coming in the form a deluge of remixes, but the following playback performances were all soul and made it permanently to the recurring playlists of the year.

Continue reading “Roundup 2018 : The Top 10 Playback Performances in Hindi Film Songs” →

In the wrap up for the segment of Bengali Cinema in 2018, here is looking at the best and worst of what was on offer this year. A disclaimer here is that this retrospection is based on around the twenty odd films of the year that I watched of the ones that got theatrical releases. I did not get an opportunity to catch up on some of the films that technically did festival circuits this year only, and will find a larger release only in 2019. 

Continue reading “Roundup 2018 : BENGALI FILMS OF THE YEAR” →

Bengali Films in 2018 had some good stories to tell, and saw some good writing at play to create a few memorable characters brought alive by some brilliant performances. At the same time, we saw some miserably poor or highly disappointing performances in multiple films as well. Let us find out more about who shined and who disappointed in their performances for both male and female actors ranked by preference. (Do note that this is based on theatrically released films that were watched. Hence outstanding performances in films that did the festival circuits only might have been missed out, since they are yet to be watched.)

Continue reading “Roundup 2018 : PERFORMANCES OF THE YEAR – BENGALI FILMS” →