Amidst lockdown in June, when the Federation of Film Societies of India launched the 1st edition of their online film festival, they chose ‘Ahaa Re’ as the inaugural film. The film went viral within a few days of the release. In April, this year, international magazine Asian Movie Pulse had included ‘Ahaa Re’ in the coveted list of 25 all-time Great Asian Films on Food, along with Ang Lee’s ‘Eat Drink Man Woman’ and Juzo Itani’s ‘Tampopo’.
The film was first released in theatres in the year 2019. Ahaa Re is the third feature film of Director Ranjan Ghosh. Before Ahaa Re, he has directed two more films, ‘Hrid Majharey’ (2014) and ‘Rongberonger Korhi’ (2018).
Ahaa Re is a simple and beautiful story of two lovers, who are torn from inside because of the circumstances in life, but what bought them together is their common love for food and its understanding. Stars Rituparna Sengupta and Arifin Shuvoo plays the main protagonists in the film. Both of them are National Award winners in their respective countries, India and Bangladesh respectively.
Veteran DOP Hari Nair who had previously shot Rituparno Ghosh’s National Award-winning film ‘Dahan’, for which Rituparna Sengupta had won her National Award, shot the film. ‘Ahaa Re’ is Hari Nair’s second Bengali film. The film is produced by Bhavna Aaj O Kal, and presented by Rituparna Sengupta herself.
Last year “Ahaa Re” had its Asia Premiere at the Singapore South Asian International Film Festival, and was screened at the International Film festivals of Dhaka and Kunming. It had its Australian Premiere at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne. It further screened at the Indian Film Festival of Rome. In India, it was screened with repeat shows at the Habitat Film Festival, Delhi, Guwahati International Film Festival, Jagran Film Festival (Indian Competition) in Mumbai, Global Cinema Festival (inaugural film) organized by the Film Federation of India in Siliguri, and also in Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
Director Ranjan Ghosh was conferred with the ‘Best Director 2019’ award for the film by the Satyajit Ray Film Society Bengaluru, with Sandip Ray doing the honors, while Rituparna won the Best Actress award at the Indo Bangla Film Awards in Dhaka for the film.
