Mandaar teaser: Anirban Bhattacharya’s directorial debut is an adaptation of Macbeth

Earlier this year, Dileesh Pothan, an acclaimed Malayalam director, adapted Macbeth into a family drama involving a patriarch and his disgruntled family members. This time, a Bengali web series, Mandaar, situates the Shakespearean tragedy in the coastal areas of Bengal. Set in a fictional village named Geilpur, Mandaar narrates how the lust for power drives people to commit heinous acts.

This new Hoichoi series stars Debashish Mondal, Sohini Sarkar and Debesh Roy Chowdhury in main roles. While Anirban Bhattacharya and Sohini Sarkar have earlier shared the screen in Manjbhanjan (2019) and Bhumikanya (2019), this time, they have teamed up as director and lead actress.

Ahead of its release, here's all you need to know about Mandaar.

What's Mandaar about?

Shakespeare’s Macbeth, albeit the shortest of his tragedies, is perhaps one of his most popular plays. Concerned with the deleterious impact of power, Macbeth charts the rise and fall of its protagonist, Macbeth. While the plot hardly requires further elaboration, Mandaar isn’t set in Scotland, but in Geilpur, a small fishing village in West Bengal.

From the teaser, it is fairly evident that it remains faithful to the spirit of the original play. It opens with a god’s eye view shot of a deserted beach. A coup d'œil of a man lying face-down on a beach sets the stage for the external narration.

In the voiceover, a man explains the sea is a silent spectator in a fish-eat-fish world. But like the sea, the land also brims with unpredictability. Here too, there is no semblance of normalcy.

A fish is shown hooked to a spear, and in the next shot, we get a glimpse of murder. Sohini, embodying Lady Macbeth, appears only for a few seconds in the end. But her face is smeared with drops of blood. Her distant and gaping eyes leave room for interpretation that can only be validated once the trailer is dropped.

Where and when to watch Mandaar on OTT?

The makers of the show have not yet revealed the date of release. The teaser dropped on Hoichoi’s official YouTube channel on October 6.

In which languages is Mandaar going to be released?

Mandaar, the first production of World Release, is a Bengali adaptation of Macbeth. But, the dialect is that of the Midnapore district of West Bengal.

Who will star in Mandaar?

The Hoichoi original Mandaar boasts an ensemble cast of Sohini Sarkar, Debasish Mondal, Debesh Roychowdhury and Shankar Debnath, among others.

While Bengali audiences are familiar with Anirban Bhattacharya-the actor, Mandaar’s teaser shows the first glimpses of him as the director. Although he has directed plays in Kolkata, Mandaar marks his debut in web series direction.

In an interview with Times of India, the renowned thespian revealed that directing a film and a play are drastically different. But from the rich visuals of the teaser, his command over the cinematic language is evident.