Nobel Chor

Plot

The first Asian Nobel Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore, is still revered as an icon in India. On 24 March 2004, his Nobel medal was stolen from Shantiniketan in Bengal, where it was housed in his residence turned museum. Subsequently, a nationwide furor started and a massive search operation was put in place to find the guilty. Ultimately the medal was not found and the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) dropped the case in 2010. With this in the backdrop "Nobel Chor" (The Nobel Thief) is a fictional account of a poor farmer, Bhanu, who circumstantially gets involved in the theft. He decides to embark on a journey to the City of Joy – Kolkata – to return or sell the prize with a view to improve his own quality of life as well as that of his impoverished village.

He becomes the hope of the entire village. On arrival in the city, Bhanu encounters myriad experiences with crooks, strange memorabilia collectors, entrepreneurs who want to exploit the poor man who just has a simple of dream of being able to give his son a better future and uplift the state of his impoverished village. Nobel Chor is the story of this journey through which the film explores contemporary India at its fullest – the encroachment of globalization, the rural-urban divide and the state of India's villages. More importantly it is a trenchant exploration of the relevance of Tagore's philosophy in modern India.

Cast

• Mithun Chakraborty as Bhanu
• Soumitra Chatterjee as Master Moshai
• Roopa Ganguly as Diya
• Saswata Chatterjee as Hori
• Soma Banerjee as Bhanu's wife
• Sankar Debnath as Manmatho Pagla
• Sudipta Chakraborty as Monu
• Arindam Sil as SP Birbhum
• Harsh Chhaya as Raj
• Swapnil Ghosh as Ratul
• Sujoy Ghosh as a civilian, who doesn't know who Rabindranath Tagore is (cameo)

Awards

• Official Selected at 55th BFI London Film Festival, 2011
• Official Selected at Busan International Film Festival 2011
• Best Indian Film Award at Bengaluru Film Festival for the film Nobel Chor (2012)

References

References

1. (10 Nov 2010). "Mithunda in Suman's 'Nobel Chor'". [[The Times of India]].
2. (14 July 2011). "The Tagore Effect in Suman Ghosh's NOBEL CHOR". washingtonbanglaradio.com.
3. (17 July 2010). "'Nobel Chor' has been invited at the 16th BIFF". [[The Times of India]].