Mirza: Part 1 - Joker

Mirza: Part 1 – Joker is a 2024 Indian Bengali-language  action thriller film co-written and directed by Sumeet-Saahil. Produced by Ankush Hazra under the banner of his production house "Ankush Hazra Motion Pictures", the film marked his first venture as a producer. It stars Ankush Hazra, Oindrila Sen, Kaushik Ganguly, Rishi Kaushik, Priya Mondal and Shoaib Kabeer in the lead roles. The action sequences are directed by RP Yadav.

Production difficulties, ranging from script disagreements and reshoots with Nexgen Ventures, postponed Mirza's release several times. Finally, Ankush decided to produce the film under the banner of his own production house. The first installment of a two-part film, it was released in the theatres on 11 April 2024, on the event of Eid. The film received mixed to positive reviews from critics and audiences alike. But the film underperformed at the box office. A sequel titled Mirza: Part 2 - Tiger was announced at the post credit scene.

Synopsis
The plot revolves around a child named Mirza (Ankush). He joins the underworld of crime to take revenge of his foster father Murshid Sheikh's (Shantilal Mukherjee) death and gradually rises to the pinnacle of power. Already there is a king, Sultan (Kaushik Ganguly), who controls the whole drug mafia syndicate with his son Azhar (Shoaib Kabir). At first Mirza misguided them to join hands with them. Brutal violence and vengeful fights erupt as Mirza clashes with Sultan & other ganglords who try to bring him down. A police officer Kaustav (Rishi Kaushik) has begun his mission to make a drug free society. He faced Sultan, Azhar as well as Mirza. On the other side, Mirza falls in love with Muskan, (A fisher). Finally Mirza was able to bluff everyone & flee from the battle. At last there is a cameo of Tiger (Jissu Sengupta).

Cast

 * Ankush Hazra as Mirza
 * Oindrila Sen as Muskan (Undercover Police Officer)
 * Kaushik Ganguly as Sultan
 * Rishi Kaushik as NCB officer Kaustav Sen
 * Priya Mondal
 * Shoaib Kabeer as Azhar Bhai
 * Shantilal Mukherjee as Murshid Sheikh (Foster father of Child Mirza)
 * Sankar Debnath as Malik Bhai
 * Rajat Ganguly as Malay Bhowmick
 * Krishnendu Chakraborty
 * Sumit Ganguly
 * Jammy Banerjee
 * Kunal Bhandari
 * Moulik Ghosh
 * Sankhadeep Banerjee
 * Beas Dhar
 * Mina Ghosh
 * Ratan Sarkhel
 * Ayush Majumder
 * Tamaghno Paul
 * Tarit Byabarta
 * Rahul Barui
 * Biswaroop Biswas
 * Arup Kumar Deb
 * Bonnis Chakraborty
 * Rishaan Chakraborty
 * Ryan Guha Neogi
 * Jisshu Sengupta as Tiger Bhai (Cameo Appearance)

Development
In 2022, Ankush announced the title of the film and the director. On 8 September 2022, the announcement teaser of the film was released, revealing his first look. On the event of Mahalaya 2023, the teaser of the film was released. Later, due to some difference and disagreement, Ankush decided to produce the film completely under his production house. He accused Raktim Chatterjee, the owner of Nexgen Ventures, for his mentality and background.

On 9 December 2023, he released a new announcement teaser under the banner of his own production house's YouTube channel. On 13 February 2024, he released the teaser of the film.

Filming
After detaching with Nexgen Ventures, the filming started on 13 December 2023. Most of the filming was done in Kolkata, Kumortuli and Odisha.

On 31 December 2023, Ankush succumbed to an injury in the patella of his knee bone. He had to take bed rest and started shooting for the action sequences almost one and a half months later. He shot for the other scenes in that time. On social media, he mentioned that while shooting for an action film after almost six years, he realised why commercial action films are rarely made in Tollywood. Later, Hazra said that he is using a body double for shooting a huge part of the action scenes. He also went under a surgery of his patella, after the release of the teaser.

Marketing
On 13 February 2024, the teaser of the film was released on Ankush Hazra Motion Pictures Youtube channel, which gathered appreciation from the critics as well as the audience. For marketing, ground level promotional events have been conducted in Medinipur, Berachampa, Barasat, Madhyamgram, Bardhaman, South Kolkata and Berhampore. He has also given interviews with Oindrilla Sen to all the major Bengali film critics, youtubers and Bengali media including ABP Ananda and Sangbad Pratidin. The music of the film was launched at an event at New Town, Kolkata.

The trailer of the film was released on 31 March 2024 on Ankush Hazra Motion Pictures Youtube channel. In total, the trailer has been released on the Youtube channels of 6 other large production houses of West Bengal, which is the largest ever trailer release for any Bengali film.

Soundtrack
The music of the film is composed by Ishan Mitra and Aneek Dhar. The lyrics are written by Barish and Pranjal Das.

The first single "Ghalib" was released on 15 March 2024. The second single "Elo Mirza" was released on 24 March 2024.

Release
The film was initially scheduled to release on 10 April 2024, on the occasion of Eid. Three days prior to release the film was postponed and released on 11 April 2024.

Critical Reception
The film received mixed reviews from critics. Poorna Banerjee of the Times of India rated the film 3 out of 5 stars. Reviewing the film on a positive note, she wrote that the film is an action-packed commercial entertainer with good performances and possibility of a sequel. Although she criticised certain loose connections in the plot, she praised the acting of the whole cast, the fast paced screenplay, the songs, well shot action sequences and witty dialogues.

Shamayitaa Chakrabborty of OTTplay rated the film 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "Despite being imperfect, Mirza is a valiant effort to bring commercial Bengali films back into business. She criticised the weak writing, loud BGM, songs and the stretched ending. But also praised the comic punchlines, fight sequences, acting of the whole cast and cinematography.

Agnivo Niyogi of The Telegraph rated the film on a mixed note. He praised the director duo, the acting of Ankush and Oindrila but also criticised the length and weak writing. He wrote "It has the feel of 90's action dramas where the protagonist is smart and unbeatable but is still not unnecessarily larger-than-life. But the film tends to lose its grip in the second half due to lack of logical consistency certain times."

Suparna Majumder of Sangbad Pratidin wrote "The music is good but not up to the mark. The movie lacks logic at certain parts. Neither the action nor witty dialogues are the USP of this film. It is the storyline along with the performance of Ankush and Oindrila." Overall, she praised such an attempt of commercial potboiler in Bengali cinema.

Box office
Made on a budget of INR 4.5 crores, the film collected around ₹ 0.66 crores in it's lifetime. The producer informed that they have already recovered 60% of costs from digital and satellite rights after its 1 week run. As per the producer, the film earned 1.63 lakhs on the opening day and around 8 lakhs in the 1st week from the national multiplex chains only.