SVF

How Director Raj Chakraborty Went From Making Masala Entertainers To A Children’s Film

Bengali cinema has a rich tradition of films for children or with the child as the protagonist in films for adults. Unlike many child protagonists in a number of Hindi films, the children in Bengali films come across as natural, with quirks relatable for their age. This goes back to not only masters like Satyajit Ray (the Felu-da films, Pikoo’s Diary) but also other mainstream films.

After a long lull in the 1980s and 1990s, films for young audiences have made a comeback of sorts in the last decade or so and SVF Entertainment’s Adventures of Jojo is the latest in that line. What makes one sit up though is the choice of Raj Chakraborty as the director. For those who know their Bengali cinema, Raj, who debuted with Chirodini … Tumi Je Amar in 2008, is one of the most commercially successful film-makers in the industry, but his oeuvre is characterized by mainstream entertainers (a number of them remakes of south Indian films) like Challenge, Joddha or mainstream love stories like Prem Amar and Bojhena Se Bojhena.

The director is quite unapologetic about his masala antecedents: “For me, the box office is most important – there is no value in making a film unless it scores at the box office.” Yet, he adds, “As a film-maker I want to try out different genres. After my success with love stories, action films and comedies, I wanted to do something different.”

The film has been described as a heart-warming, thrilling story for children which also presents the Bengali audience with its first child adventure aero: Jojo. Raj has long wanted to gift children with a film that they could cherish.