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Janowar
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Wikipedia article
'Janowar' is a crime thriller Bangladeshi film directed by Raihan Rafi released in 2021. The film is produced by Tamjid Atul under the banner of Turn Communications for 'Cinematic'. The screenplay of the film is based on a true story of robbery, gangrape and murder occurred in Gazipur on 23 April 2020. The story depict a police officer comes to investigate a crime scene and goes to every room of murder scene, imagine the brutalities happened there by heinous gangs. Taskeen Rahman, Rashed Mamun Apu, Elina Shammi, Jamshed Shamim, Farhad Limon, Munmun Ahmed and others have played the title role of the thriller. In August 2020, the main shoot of the film continued for 10 consecutive days in Uttara, Dhaka. Film was announced later in September 2020. After a limited promotion, on 14 January 2021, the film was released on the streaming service 'Cinematic'. It creats stir among audiences and received positive reviews critics.
Plot
On 23 April 2020 after noon; an investigating police officer arrived at the crime scene. Crime scene is a two storied residential pink colored building at a suburb. He was informed that there were three victims including a child, however, the nature of the crime was not revealed. He would be the first person to investigate and sketch out the foundlings. He entered the exact spot of the crime all alone, refused to take help from his fellow polices. He started viewing every room of floor, where there are three females including a girl in every single room. Eventually, he moved from room to room and started questioning the victims to describe the details of the incident. The family includes a mother, two daughters and a physically challenged younger brother. Their father is Malaysian expatriate who lived there for work purposes. It was the birthday of the middle child, Hawarin. They planned to celebrate sometime after midnight. During the night, an intruder trespassed into their home while everyone was asleep and let a few other goons in. They started robbing and looking for more precious objects. Gaged and tied the victims for sometimes. Bandits were unhappy when they failed to get a satisfying amount of money and valuables from the house. They asked the mother to cook for them. The mother cooked for them and ask them to leave them harmless. However family's trusted rickshaw pullers who used to serve them regularly was unmasked and revealed his identity. The robbers turned mad at them, start torturing and finally raped and killed them, just to keep their identity secret, also slashed throat of that boy and leave home. Police officer discover the boy's deceased body in washroom and eventually he were questioning some dead bodies in his imagination. After investigation, he was mentally shocked and started feeling concerned about his own family.
Cast
Cast listing is adopted from the end credit scene of 'Janowar'.
The Cops
* Taskeen Rahman as Investigating police officer.* Javed Gazi as supporting police.
* Arnob as supporting police.
* Khan Maruf as supporting police.
The Families
* Elina Shammi as Mother of three children.* Moonmoon Ahmed as elder daughter of the family
* Ariya Arittra as Hawarin, younger daughter of family.
* Md. Tanjid Hossain Akash as 8 years old physically challenged son.
The Robbers
* Rashed Mamun Apu as Leader of the robbers.* Jamshed Shamim as Robber
* Farhad Limon as Robber
* Jahangir Alam as Robber
* Mahfuzur Rahman Limon as Robber
* R. A. Rahul as Robber
Production
The conceptualization of making 'Janowar' was started just after releasing 'Oxygen', a short film made by same director. Rafi directed 'Poran' for production house Live Technologies. They gave consent for making another film for their studio. The screenplay is based on a tragic case of murder and gangrape of four members of a family in Sreepur, Gazipur; occurred during the lockdown amid the COVID-19 epidemic. Rafi wrote the screenplay based on his visit to original crime scene at Gazipur, interviewing the eyewitness, meet and talk the criminals detained in Kashimpur central jail. There were changes made and added some elements of the original event to shape the screenplay. According to Rafi the film is, "Not a feel-good movie. It's a movie to hate (rapists)!". Stage actors were given preferences to select the casts. Casting for the character of Hawarin was difficult due to find a child actor, Ariya Arittra was chosen for 'Hawarin' after at least 50 child artists had been went through screen test. The cast rehearsed for three weeks before the starting of principal photography. Filming set was rearranged according to the actual crime scene; repainted, installed more lights for better filming.
Entire principal photography is done in inside a house in Uttara, over a period of 2 weeks in August 2020. Prior to the principal filming, to check for errors The some raw footage were filmed. The cast and crew did not leave the house for 10 consecutive days until filming was completed. Most of the scenes was taken in one shot. Sanu Sandhi composed music and background score and produce only song used in film after filming was done. The film was announced after principal photography on September 10, 2020, along with 7 new film projects from the studio.
Release and reception
Janowar's promotion was largely limited to release of hand-drawn poster and trailer. The film was released on January 14, 2021, on the production company's 'over the top' streaming service, Cinematic.
Audience viewership
4,24,961 viewers watched the film within first 4 days of availability. By the second week of March 2021, Cinematic's subscribers had 'hit' the film's link 3 million times. The film became the most-viewed content on Cinematic since their inception to 16 March 2021.Earning
While Cinematic does not disclose grosses of their films, Raihan Rafi told to The Business Standard that film earned three times the cost.Critical response
'Janowar' received a positive reception from the audience on social media. In two different critic published in Bengali language; Aranya Anwar on 'Prothom Alo' commented positively on the film's production and screenplay. In Bangla Movie Database, critic Rahman Moti wrote about Janoar - "(The director) is shown a certain class of people as beasts. A lot of hatred will filled towards them, watching the film. The director has managed to create social reality and awareness through hatred." He gave Janwar an overall star rating, praising the film's production, story delivery and each of the actors. Sarika Sabha from the Dhaka Apologue praises Rashed Mamun Apu's acting, sound effect and make-up. She called "'Janowar' will be considered a landmark in our film industry, as it has multiple points to ponder over." Kawsar Md Sayem of 'United News of Bangladesh', praises Ariya Arittra's performance as 'Hawarin.' Sifat Bin Ayub of 'The Business Standard' stated " Janowar is not just a film that we can just watch and forget. It is a sign, a sign to take more precautions, to make decisions more consciously, and to be more aware of our surroundings because the horror that this movie showcases can happen to anyone at any time."References
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