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Baishe Srabon

Baishe Srabon (Bengali: ২২শে শ্রাবণ, "the twenty-second of Srabon") is a 2011 Bengali-language psychological thriller directed by Srijit Mukherji, in which a serial killer stalks Kolkata and leaves verses of Bengali poetry beside each victim while two police officers, a suspended veteran and a rookie, work the case.¹ It was Mukherji's second feature film, made after his debut Autograph (2010), and was produced by SVF Entertainment (Shree Venkatesh Films).² The film shares its name with an unrelated 1960 film directed by Mrinal Sen.³

Key fact	Detail
Film	Baishe Srabon (২২শে শ্রাবণ), 2011 Bengali psychological thriller directed by Srijit Mukherji¹
Premise	A serial killer murders according to verses of Bengali poems; suspended cop Probir Roy Chowdhury and rookie Abhijit Pakrashi investigate¹
Lead cast	Prosenjit Chatterjee, Parambrata Chatterjee, Raima Sen, Abir Chatterjee, Goutam Ghose, Rajesh Sharma⁴
Runtime and rating	2 hours 18 minutes (138 minutes); rated A (18+) in India⁵
Release	Late September 2011; sources give 27, 28, or 30 September 2011⁴^•⁶
Budget and box office	Around ₹14.5 million (₹1.45 crore) budget; approximately ₹35 million (₹3.5 crore) collected by conservative trade estimates⁷
Music	Songs written and composed by Anupam Roy; background score by Indraadip Dasgupta²

Spoilers

Plot and premise

The story follows a serial killer terrorizing Kolkata, leaving behind verses of Bengali poetry as clues at each murder.¹ The police seek the help of a retired officer to unravel the case.⁸ Suspended cop Probir Roy Chowdhury, played by Prosenjit Chatterjee and known for his temper and brutal methods, teams up with the young officer Abhijit Pakrashi, played by Parambrata Chattopadhyay, to catch the killer before another life is lost.¹^•⁹

A central character is Nibaron Chakraborty, an eccentric poet of the Hungryalist Movement (1960s avant-garde Bengali poetry movement defying literary establishment) of Bengali poetry, a movement notorious for its anti-Establishment stance, played by the filmmaker Goutam Ghose; his poetry recitations make him a target of police suspicion.¹⁰ The film is described as the first mainstream film incorporating the Bengali Hungry Generation movement of the 1960s into its plot.¹¹ The Times of India's review framed the film as a Bengali murder mystery that also dwells on relationships and on how far a person can go when denied basic recognition and respect despite being true to one's calling.¹²

Production

Origins of the script. Mukherji wrote the script in 2008 at the request of Parambrata, who wanted a story for a telefilm to be broadcast on the STAR Jalsha Bengali channel and to direct himself; circumstances prevented that version from being made.⁶ The script was finalized in January 2011, shooting began in March, and the shoot wrapped in 40 days.¹³ Apart from a small outdoor sequence in Sikkim, the film was shot entirely in Kolkata.¹³

Mukherji has described the film as being about the dark underbelly of Kolkata, a history of violence, and Bengali poems, deliberately darker in tone than Autograph. Because the thriller structure demanded tightness in incidents, evidence, and turn of events, he kept actors' room for improvisation limited and pre-determined the edit pattern within the script; the areas he experimented with were cinematography and shot-making, shooting parts of the film digitally and using a body rig, or Snorricam, probably for the first time in Bengali films.¹³^•¹⁴ Much of the crew from Autograph was retained, including cinematographer Soumik Haldar and editor Bodhaditya Banerjee.² Casting Goutam Ghose, a noted filmmaker, in an acting role was publicized as his return to acting in film after twenty-nine years.²

Music

The songs were written and composed by Anupam Roy, with background score by Indraadip Dasgupta.² Playback singers included Rupam Islam, Anupam Roy, Srikanto Acharya, Raghav Chatterjee, Saptarshi Mukherjee, Anindya Chatterjee, and Shreya Ghoshal.² The soundtrack album runs 32:29 and includes "Ei Srabon" and two versions of "Gobhire Jao", a Tagore song sung in male and female versions.¹¹^•¹⁵ Parambrata also directed the music video "Ei Srabon" for the film.⁶

Reception and box office

The film released in late September 2011 around Durga Puja; a press meet announced 30 September 2011 as the release date, timed to Prosenjit Chatterjee's birthday, while the review aggregator Bengalimoviereviews lists 28 September and Digit Binge lists 27 September 2011.⁶^•⁴^•¹⁵ It received positive reviews and was one of the highest-grossing Bengali films of 2011.¹¹ Made at a budget of around ₹14.5 million (₹1.45 crore), it collected approximately ₹35 million (₹3.5 crore) according to conservative trade estimates.⁷ The daily Anandabazar Patrika rated it 8.5 out of 10.¹¹ On IMDb it holds 8.1 out of 10 from about 6,900 votes.⁴ The Indian Express review praised the film but judged the focus on the Hungryalist Poetry Movement too intellectual for a mainstream audience unfamiliar with it.¹⁰

Legacy

In September 2018, SVF announced a web-series adaptation with an entirely new cast for the Hoichoi streaming platform.⁷ The film remains available for streaming on JioHotstar, Hoichoi, and the Hoichoi Amazon Channel in India.⁵ An academic study of socio-political discourse in Bengali cinema lists the film's dialogues as addressing corruption in the administrative system, insufficiency of democracy, and education becoming a business.¹⁶

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Indian films (individual works) › Bengali films of the 2010s and 2020s

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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