It’s big day for Kaushik Ganguly. His critically acclaimed national award-winning film ‘Nagarkirtan’ has swept away four awards at the South Asian Film Festival of SAARC. These are Best Film – ‘Nagarkirtan’, Best Director - Kaushik Ganguly, Best Original Score - Prabuddha Banerjee and Best Actor - Riddhi Sen.
Riddhi himself took to his social media handle to share the good news.
‘Nagarkirtan’ stars Riddhi Sen and Ritwick Chakraborty in the lead. While Riddhi Sen delivers a career-defining performance (one that earned him the Best Actor award at the 2018 National Film Awards), Ritwick exceptionally matches the young actor note for note. There are only a few actors in Bengali cinema who can bring such a delicate poignancy to dialogue as simple as ‘Is it really possible – this idea of a man falling in love with a man?’
It’s not the first time Kaushik Ganguly has worked on issues dealing with sexuality and gender. In his 2003 telefilm Ushnatar Janye lesbianism was explored brilliantly, and then he directed Rituparno ghosh in Arekti Premer Golpo in 2010 and it was hailed for not only its bold theme but also for having the guts to explore the areas only few mainstream films do.
However, with Nagarkirtan, he sets the bar even higher and arguably it’s the finest Indian film that speaks for transgender identity and our society’s blatant approach towards it.
—Times of India