One of the most contested arena of today's socio-cultural political scenario is the battle between several identity formations, be that individual or microcosms of several individual identities. Hence, when we talk about a Bengali identity per se, it becomes difficult to conjure up a monolithic set of features that is congruous with the term "Bengali". Various strands of geographic, economic, political factors and their push and pulls have continuously contributed to the carving out of a

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... eneous identity structure that has been constitutive of an abstract "Bangaliana." But does this "Bangaliana" or the essence of being a Bengali equally permeate to different strata of a society that inhabit in a territory that we precisely call Bengal? As a way to comprehend the mobility of these diverse features that are collectively associated with a somewhat homogeneous Bengali essence, we have chosen to look into some iconic Bengali movies of late 20th century. Thus, in the beginning, this paper seeks to explore and accommodate all those accidental evidences of the evolution of the Bengali identity that has been captured by the directors in those films while their intention was not to invoke any monolithic Bengali identity but to celebrate, encapsulate and showcase different tensions, conflicts, and moments of joy and happiness through their lenses. In the latter half of the paper we focus on the 21st century rendition of several parochial societal customs which manifests itself through the several urban Kolkata elite family circles represented in these immensely popular Bengali serials. Hence, all these seemingly disconnected elements mingle together in this paper to present Bengali identity (as seen through the selected cinema and television representations spanning across a wide timeline from 1950s to late 2010s), as a tangible and still evolving social phenomenon which didn't exist from times immemorial but rather underwent and is still undergoi [...]