BANGLADESHI FILM '' TOOFAN '' : REVIEW

'' Braving The Storm '' : The Bangladeshi film Toofan is a showcase of how utterly indebted its narrative and stylistic choices are to the Indian film industry.

If it moves like a Bollywood movie, and looks like a Bollywood movie, chances are that it may just be a Bengladeshi film. Case in point :

Toofan, the Urdu dubbed Bangladeshi blockbuster that is both the definition of success - it is superstar-actor Shakib Khan's 250th role and the highest grossing Bangladeshi film of all time - and a case of diluted cultural identity.

Toofan is set on the 1990s - though with the costume and production design, one is fooled into thinking that it is the 1970s [ note the phones with the rotating dials, the bell-bottom pants, and the black-and-white TV sets].

The tale is of the infamous Toofan Khan, a '' gangsta'' mob-boss, whose introduction shows him  mowing down a room full of politicians and hoodlums with a Gatling gun [ to be fair, these corrupt men and women were boasting that anyone who has killed less than 50 people deserves to grovel and sit at their feet.]

Toofan who flaunts his supremacy by walking up to the politicians on their podiums and shooting them point blank in front of people, is also a really bad guy who has a cosmetic and predictable origin [ his father was killed by a local bad guy when he was young, and then was brought up under another nefarious gangster's wing].

Toofan grows up with a plan; he climbs up the ladder and becomes the biggest baddie in the country,  killing all rivals and forcing politicians and governments to his will.

He also has a Moll [ Mimi Chakraborty ] - an A-list actress who doesn't care about the continuity of her clothes when shooting scenes, especially when these attires dial down the sultriness.

Her attitude rattles Julie [ Masuma Rahman Nabila ], the assistant costume designer, who fancies Shanto [ also Khan ], a struggling junior artist struggling to make it big.

The World Students Society thanks Mohammad Kamran Jawaid.