Dui Prithibi (; ) is a 2010 Bengali-language road drama film co-written and directed by Raj Chakraborty. Produced by Shrikant Mohta under the banner of Shree Venkatesh Films.The film is a remake of 2008 Telugu movie Gamyam. It stars Jeet, Dev, Koel Mallick and Barkha Bisht in lead roles. The film revolves around a rich man who acknowledges the means of life, setting out on a journey to the rural Bengal with a bike, and befriends with a thief.
Announced in November 2009, the film marks Chakraborty's collaborations for the first time with both Jeet and Koel, and with Dev for the second time; it is also Jeet and Koel's tenth film as a lead pair. Principal Photography commenced in March 2010 and wrapped by in August 2010. Majorly shot in Kolkata, Purulia, Bankura, Birbhum, Bardhaman and Paschim Medinipur, portions were filmed in Italy, Australia and Switzerland. The soundtrack of the film is composed by Jeet Gannguli and Samidh-Rishi, while Indraadip Dasgupta provided its score. Somak Mukherjee and Sirsha Ray handled its cinematography, with editing by Rabiranjan Maitra.
Dui Prithibi was theatrically released on 14 October 2010, on the occasion of Durga Puja. Opening to huge critical and commercial response, the film ran for over 50 weekes in theatres, emerging as the highest-grossing Bengali film of 2010. Eventually attaining a cult status for the only collaboration between Jeet and Dev, the two acting giants of Bengali cinema. The film's dialogue and certain characters became extremely popular, contributing to numerous cultural memes and becoming part of Bengal's daily vernacular.
Rahul Roy is the son of a multi-millionaire brought up in comfort and luxury. To him, life is just a game and he is accustomed to a lavish lifestyle. He is portrayed to be a happy go lucky character and quite popular with the female kind. He comes across Nandini, a young & charming doctor. Rahul challenges his friends that he would make her fall in love within few days. Nandini, being an orphan, is very kind towards the poor people and is a good Samaritan. But, Rahul hates those people. However, Nandini's free-spirited nature takes him very near to her and he develops an intimate friendship. When Nandini wants to express her love, she learns that Rahul has challenged his friends about his love and decides to keep herself off. While dropping her at her hostel on his car after a party, Rahul tries to convince her that he is truly in love with her but she does not listen to him. In the process, Rahul has an accident, where a woman dies and her son is orphaned. Nandini survives the accident, while Rahul wakes up from injuries in hospital. After gaining consciousness, Rahul cannot find Nandini and he decides to go in search of her on his bike.
In the process, he meets a motorbike thief Shibu. The journey Rahul takes changes his life drastically, as he is exposed to the hard realities of rural life and yet its simple joys.
A teacher, who supports orphan kids, helpless pregnant lady, an ex-militant Binoy, a prostitute and his own companion Shibu, they all aid in his journey to self-discovery. One rainy night they got captured by the militants of the Naxalite leader, who wants to execute renegade Binoy. Cross-firing started to happen between the Naxalites and Police. While escaping the bike got trapped in mud, Shibu succeeded in getting the bike out but got shot in the back and died. Rahul got devastated by Shibu's Death, He got to know that Nandini was in Railway Station to move to Kolkata. Rahul finally met Nandini and express his feeling and fault, Nandini got emotional, Rahul told to Nandini that he doesn't care about Nandini coming or not, He thanked Nandini.
Due to her Rahul got to Know the outside world. Nandini finally accepts him and hugs him. The movie ends with both hugging each other.
The film was the 42nd venture of Bengali production house Shree Venkatesh Films. It was the fifth film of director Raj Charaborty and the tenth film for Dev and the Jeet-Koel pair. It was Raj's first film with Jeet-Koel, fourth with "SVF" and the third with Dev after "Challenge" (2009) and "Le Chakka" (2010). It was also the first time that the two reigning Bengali superstars, Dev and Jeet had come together. For the first time a budget of 3.5 crore was commissioned for a Bengali film as this was the first road movie in the industry which was required to be shot on a large-scale and canvas. The 'muhurat shot' was canned on 2 March 2010. The film was extensively shot in Kolkata and the rural belt of West Bengal like Lalgarh and Gopiballavpur (Maoist-infested areas), Purulia, Bantala, etc., and the songs were filmed in Venice. It was the first Bengali film to be shot in Italy and only the second mainstream Bengali film to be shot in Europe, after "Bhalobasa Bhalobasa" (2008) was shot in Austria. While the main film was shot by cinematographer Somak Mukherjee; Sirsha Ray came on board for the Venice-leg as Somak couldn't allot his dates. Bollywood item-girl Barkha Bisht, famous for her "Ishq Barse" dance-number from the film "Raajneeti", was roped in for an item-number "Pyarelal". The film's lead composer Jeet Gannguli was also supposed to do the background score of the film. But a leg-injury rendered him indisposed; resulting in another leading composer Indradeep Dasgupta performing the duties. The first-look of the film was launched on 17.9.10 with the song "O yaara ve", filmed on all the four leads that was aired on the leading Bengali entertainment channel "Sangeet Bangla".
The film was shot in India and Italy (Apulia), at Alberobello, Santa Cesarea Terme and Fasano.
The soundtrack of the film is composed by Jeet Gannguli and Samidh-Rishi, in their respective collaborations with Chakraborty for the fourth and first time. It consists five tracks, three of which are penned by Prasen and Samidh Mukerjee.
The film released in an unprecedented 209 theatres across West Bengal on a Thursday during 'Saptami' of the 'Durga Puja'. It ran for 5 weeks in the city, after which it had to make space for another big release Mon Je Kore Uru Uru; though according to "The Telegraph", the film managed to complete a 6-week run in the city. The film had its longest multiplex run of 4 weeks at 'Bioscope', Axis Mall in Rajarhat and 'Inox Burdwan'. "Dui Prithibi" completed an extraordinary run of 50 weeks at the distant rural theatres of 'Basanti' at Dantan and 'Haraparbati' at Jhatipahari. It is understood, that the producers, 'SVF' deliberately withdrew the film from the city for "MJKUU" since they share extremely friendly relations with their producers, 'Surinder Films'. They in turn returned the favour to 'SVF' by withdrawing "MJKUU" from city-halls within 5 weeks to make room for the next 'SVF' offering, "Sedin Dekha Hoyechilo". Without this friendly gesture from the producers, "Dui Prithibi" could have been expected to continue its successful city-run for a longer period of time.
The digital streaming rights of Dui Prithibi were acquired by Hoichoi and Jio Hotstar.The post-theatrical satellight rights are purchased by Star Jalsha, in a combo-package of all ensuing films produced and distributed by Shree Venkatesh Films. It had its premiere on the channel on 13 February 2011.
Dui Prithibi received acclaim from critics who praised its cast performances, direction, themes, musical score, screenplay, and cinematography.
Roshni Mukherjee of The Times of India gave it a rating of 4/5 stars and opined "An examination to determine whether the two worlds of movie-goers are ready for stuff that go beyond the run-of-the-mill. RahulâÂÂs initial arrogance that gradually gives way to one of self-realization and makes him more humble and down-to-earth could not have been portrayed any better than Jeet. Dev also blows one away as Shibu" Yajneni Chakraborty of Hindustan Times gave it 3.5/5 stars and wrote "The film is totally driven by Jeet and Koel's unbeatable chemistry. In the journey of self-discovery, Dev also maintained his performance through his comic timing". She also praised Chakraborty's direction and the cinematography. Sudipta Dey of WordPress reviewed the film on a positive note, quoting "RajâÂÂs expertise in weaving the story is undoubtedly good; but in the process of storytelling he misses out on the finer details that would have struck a chord with his audience. In the climax, the stormy rainy night in the forest has been shot beautifully and conceptualised well. If not for anything else, just grab a ticket to watch the three heartthrobs of Tollywood come together in one film."
Jagori Bannerjee, from the leading Bengali daily, Anandabazar Patrika, gave it 6.5/10. Swapan Mullick from The Statesman gave it 2.5 stars, but described it to be 'fulfilling expectations'. Sudipta Dey, from The Bengal Post, rated it as 'average' but mentioned the film 'has a strong social message' and 'Raj's expertise in weaving the story is undoubtedly good.'. Veteran film-critic, Shoma A. Chatterji gave the film 5/10 on the web-portal, "Upperstall.com"; but on "Calcuttatube", she increased it to 6/10. Aditya Chakrabarty, from another web-portal, "Washington Bangla Radio" highlighted that Dev had delivered his best performance till then and Jeet and Koel also lived up to the hype. Debabrata Chowdhury, from "Bartaman" opined people should like the film. The leading Bengali magazine, "Anandalok" believed the film created a new world in Bengali commercial cinema. Mahua Duttamitra, from "Ekdin" certified that the director along with his full team had passed with distinction. Samrat Mukherjee, from "Aajkaal" wrote the director has mixed commerce with experimentation. Bidisha Chatterjee, from Sangbad Pratidin, considered the director had hit bull's-eye. "Sakalbela" depicted the film to be a must-watch. Another leading English daily, The Telegraph, also hailed the film's cinematography.
"Dui Prithibi" was the highest grosser of 2010, according to a study conducted by FICCI & Deloitte. The film had the highest ever opening week collection for a Bengali film. It grossed almost Rs.29 million in its 1st week, while the producers raked in almost Rs.20 million. The film continued a steady run in the city till the 3rd week. The rural collections though witnessed a fall from the 2nd week itself. Ultimately, after the less-than-expected 5-week city-run, the producers earned an impressive Rs.50 million, as reported in the dailies 'Gulf Times', 'The Statesman' (23.12.11), 'Economic Times' (30.4.11); the web-portals 'Golden Reel' (28.1.11), 'The Indian Express' (19.12.11) and the annual report of Deloitte in 2011. In another isolated report in 'The Times of India' on 15.6.12, it was reported that the film was made on a budget of Rs.35 million and did 'tentative business' of Rs.40 million. Considering the budget (it was the most expensive Bengali film at that time) and the massive cast & crew of the film, nothing less than a 'blockbuster' was expected. The overall collections would have been good enough to merit a 'superhit' status for any other film, but the film's huge budget of Rs.35 million, proved a determining factor. "Dui Prithibi" fell short of delivering a 'superhit/blockbuster'; but the collections were good enough to adjudge the film a 'hit' and a considerable success.
"Dui Prithibi" won three awards at the prestigious 'Star Jalsha Entertainment Awards 2011' held at the Science City Auditorium on 28.5.11. The results were calculated solely on the basis of audience votes sent through SMS and the channel's official website. The following is the list of awards won by the film :-
(1) 'Best Superhit Film'. The other nominations were : "Autograph", "Amanush", "Josh" and "Le Chakka".<br /> (2) 'Best Superhit Music'. The other nominations were : "Autograph", "Amanush", "Moner Manush" and "Le Chakka".<br /> (3) 'Best Superhit Heroine': Koel Mallick for "Dui Prithibi". The other confirmed nominations were : Srabanti Chatterjee for "Wanted", Payel Sarkar for "Le Chakka" and Priyanka Sarkar for "Jodi Ekdin".
Other than these, Jeet was also nominated from this film for 'Best Superhit Hero' which was eventually won by Prosenjit Chatterjee for "Autograph", Dev was nominated from this film for 'Best Supporting Actor' which was in the end won by Saswata Chatterjee for "Byomkesh Bakshi" and Jeet-Koel were nominated from this film for 'Best Pair Award' which was ultimately won by Dev-Payel for "Le Chakka". Barkha Bisht Sengupta won the 'Best Newcomer Award' for this film in the "Anandalok Awards 2010".