Amazon Obhijaan

Amazon Obhijaan (lit. The Amazon Expedition) is a 2017 Indian Bengali-language action-adventure film written and directed by Kamaleshwar Mukherjee and produced by Shrikant Mohta and Mahendra Soni under the banner of Shree Venkatesh Films. Starring Dev in the lead role of Shankar, it is the sequel to 2013 film Chander Pahar and the second installment of Chander Pahar film series. The film revolves around Shankar, an adventurer who, along with a lady and her father, travels to Amazon in search of the City of Gold, El Dorado.
Amazon Obhijaan marked the 100th film of the production house. Released in the theatres on 22 December 2017, it is the highest-grossing Bengali film of all time. On 5 January 2018, the film was dubbed and released in five languages: Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Odia and Assamese. It also became the first Bengali film to release theatrically in United Kingdom on 12 January 2018, in 30 years.
The sequel to the Chander Pahar film, the story shifts to 5 years after the incidents of Chander Pahar. In 1915, Shankar living in his hometown when he is approached by a young Italian woman named Anna Florian to accompany her and her father, Marco Florian, in finding mythical El Dorado, the city of gold in Amazon. Thus, the journey of Shankar begins.
In earlier 2014, according to a Bengali magazine, director Kamaleshwar Mukherjee has already penned the script, taking the story forward from where it left and Dev has been quoted as saying that the next location, after the African safari, will be the dense forests of Amazon rainforest. The film has been titled Amazon Obhijan.
Initially, the makers planned to shot the film in Siberia. But the director decided to shift the film to a rainforest. Although Malaysia was considered for the shoot, Amazon rainforest was finalised owing to its adventurous landscapes. The shooting was started from May 2016. The initial parts of the film which depicted Dev aka Shankar's home in India, was shot in Bolpur. The remaining majority of the film was shot across different locations in Brazil and the Amazon. The underwater sequences were mostly shot in the rivers Rio Negro and Rio Solimões.
While filming for a scene, Dev hurt his right foot. In an interview with The Telegraph, he said that he stepped around the sharp edge of a branch, which went through his boot and pierced his foot. The injured part got swollen and took painkillers and injections as primary treatment. Despite pain, he resumed filming the next day and shot for those scenes, where he was sitting down. He also spoke about a near escape while they were shooting under a tree. Hearing a branch snapping sound, they jumped away from under the tree and the tree fell down the very next moment.
The first poster and teaser released on 21 September 2017. A 320 feet long and 190 feet wide poster was launched on 4 November 2017, at the Mohun Bagan Ground and made a Guinness World Record of the biggest film poster in the history of India, breaking the record previously held by Baahubali. The trailer of the film was released on 1 December 2017 in Bengali, Assamese, Odia, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu languages.
As a part of the promotional material, the makers released a graphic novel titled the same as the film, Amazon Obhijaan, on 11 November 2017. Written by the film's director Kamaleswar Mukherjee, it is available in English and Bengali.
Indraadip Dasgupta was signed to compose the music of the film. (The songs as well as the background score). The lyrics were penned by Prasen.
The film included only one song in the album. "Chol Naa Jai", sung by Arijit Singh and back vocals by Ishan Mitra, Sayan Ghosh, Amit Chatterjee was released on 16 December 2017.
The film was released theatrically on 22 December 2017 in the original Bengali language. On 5 January 2018, the dubbed versions were released in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Odia and Assamese languages.
The film had its television premiere in Bengali on 27 May 2018 on Star Jalsha. The Hindi version was premiered on Star Plus on 16 September 2018.
Ronita Goswami of Zee 24 Ghanta rated the film 4 out of 5 stars and wrote "Amazon Obhijaan is a remarkable feat in Indian cinema in the genre of jungle adventure." She praised the direction, narration, sets, cinematography, background music and acting of the lead cast, specially Dev.
Bhaswati Ghosh of Ei Samay rated the film 3.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "Amazon Obhijaan is the big scale Bengali commercial film and Bengal's answer to South Indian biggies like Baahubali." She praised the cinematography but criticised the narration, screenplay, VFX, background score and the dialogue delivery. She additionally praised the director and production house for their attempt to take Bengali cinema "one step further."
Shamayita Chakraborty of The Times of India rated the film 3 out of 5 stars, writing, "One must watch the film. Not only because of its grandeur but also to savour Kamaleswar’s imagination. The mythic city of El Dorado is pretty much the same as we had imagined in childhood. And finally, the film ends where it all began — with a reference to National Geographic, the book that opened up the idea of Shankar’s first adventure, Chander Pahar, many years ago."
Bhaskar Chattopadhyay of the Firstpost rated the film 1 out of 5 stars and wrote "While lavishly planned and mounted, the film is ruthlessly slaughtered by its absolutely shoddy writing and equally cringe-worthy execution." He crticised the film for the unnecessary excesses in every department - the editing, dialogues, cinematography, art direction, background score, sound design, costumes and the makeup.
Sayantan Mondal of The Quint reviewed the film and wrote "‘Amazon Obhijaan’ is insipid, boring, lethargic and absolutely avoidable just like linking your Aadhar card." He mentioned how the cringe dialogues made the character of Shankar look more like an insurance agent and less of an explorer as if he was trying to sell an insurance policy to Anna.