In what is clearly a continued launch vehicle from the Eskay banner for Ankush Hazra (taking on the role originally played by Jeeva in the Tamil original), 'Kanamachi' does a fairly decent job of transporting the story and its characters to Kolkata. Ankush is believable as Abir, the photo-journalist caught in a very messy political entanglement, with good support from both the female leads. One of contemporary Bengali cinema's most versatile actors, Abir Chatterjee, takes on his first negative role and succeeds brilliantly re-affirming his status as one of the most interesting actors around in that industry. As with most commercial releases from West Bengal, the film is on the long side and could've done with a tighter edit (a common criticism of mine with Bengali "big banner" releases). The original is still stronger but I was expecting a much lesser film in this remake and was pleasantly surprised. This is in part due to Raj Chakraborty taking the director's seat; he has a proved track record (with or without big named stars to back him up in the past) and this film is no exception. With the right nurturing, Ankush Hazra may even start to eat into Dev and Jeet's pie one day soon. Definitely worth a look in if you missed it.
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