The American pop icon in Bengali cinema - yes, you read it right!
The American pop icon in Bengali cinema - yes, you read it right!
When we say Angelina Jolie is a global phenomenon, we’re not just throwing around big words. Her influence stretches across the world, seeping through fashion, pop culture, humanitarian work, or even the storytelling scene in Bengal! Recently, a well-known Bengali filmmaker, while searching for the perfect idea to make a sequel to one of his biggest hits, came across a real story from Jolie’s life. And it had everything—drama, emotion, and that spark of cinematic feel. He knew right away that this was the story he had to tell. Well, that’s the power of a story well-lived.
Today, as Jolie turns 50, let’s explore how one chapter from her life inspired a Bengali film you may have already seen—without knowing its Hollywood connection.
Angelina Jolie was 19 at that time. Rich, famous, and all — everything a Hollywood dream should be. But inside, she was slipping. Not into a scandal or controversy, but a kind of numbness that made her want to disappear.
“I tried to hire someone to end it,” the pop star revealed years later in an interview with The Face. However, she wasn’t really trying to make headlines with this. She was simply trying to make sense of a heaviness that had lived inside her for so long, it had almost convinced her she didn’t belong here.
Jolie didn't want her death to appear self-inflicted, fearing it would devastate her loved ones. “If someone takes your life, he’ll take your life and you can imagine that he’s saving you from yourself,” she said in that conversation.
Now, "kahaani mein twist" is the man gave her a two-month window. He told her to think it over. And in that time, Jolie began to find her footing again. That one human connection helped pull her back from the edge.
Over time, she started working through the darkness. And as life often does, it transformed her. From that low, Jolie rose to become not just a global icon but a fighter for children, a voice for the voiceless, and one of the most compelling women in the world.
But little did she know that years later, her story would land on the screen with Bengali filmmaker Srijit Mukherji.
Fast forward to 2024. Srijit Mukherji, one of Bengali cinema’s most acclaimed directors, was on the hunt for a story that would make a worthy sequel to his cult 2012 hit 'Hemlock Society', which centered on a man who runs an institution for people wanting to end their lives. One day, while scrolling online, he came across Jolie’s long-forgotten quote about the “hitman plan.”
When he read Jolie’s story, it struck him like lightning. “It was so unbelievable that it had to be true,” he later said. That surreal blend of intent and intervention — of someone willingly seeking the end, and someone else gently delaying it — became the seed of 'Killbill Society'. “If I had written such a story myself,” Mukherji said, “people would’ve laughed it off as too far-fetched. But it’s real. And deeply human.”
Srijit Mukherji, one of Bengal’s most prolific and genre-fluid filmmakers, is back with Killbill Society, a long-awaited sequel to his 2012 cult classic Hemlock Society pic.twitter.com/1riz2jUVy5
— Indiawood Updates (@IndiawoodUpdate) April 17, 2025
Credit: Indiawood Updates
In the film, released a few months ago, we meet Poorna, a woman who’s decided to exit life with full clarity. She isn’t impulsive, she isn’t hysterical. She’s calm — disturbingly so. Mrityunjoy, played again by Parambrata Chattopadhyay, comes as the hitman, who once ran the infamous Hemlock Society. Now older and perhaps more fragile, he sees in Poorna a shadow of all those he couldn’t save. And so he does the only thing he can: he buys her time.
Just like Jolie’s hitman.
‘Killbill Society’ is not about Angelina Jolie. It’s about what happens when someone on the edge is handed a pause instead of a solution. “What drew me to her story was how one moment of kindness — even from a hired killer — can shift a person’s direction,” Mukherji said in an interview. “That’s cinema. That’s life.”
Set against the backdrop of Bengali sensibilities and culture, the film absorbs the soul of the story and retells it in a voice that’s local yet universal. The film doesn’t romanticize the darkness — it faces it with honesty, reminding us that running away isn’t the answer, even when it feels like the easiest one.
Credit: SVF
However, the film isn’t without its flaws. The first half draws you in with promise, but somewhere along the way, it starts treading in circles. It begins to feel repetitive, and the chemistry between the leads doesn’t quite land the way you hope it would. And if you’ve seen "Hemlock Society', you might feel the sequel does not add anything new and rarely steps out of its predecessor's shadow.
Credit: SVF
Still, it’s a story that deserved to be told — and Mukherji made sure it finds its way to the screen. Because, well, some stories need to be heard, and remembered!
Happy Birthday, Angelina Jolie!
