Ritwik Ghatak: A legendary filmmaker
Saturday, 28 July 2012
Momtazur Rahman
I would like to portray Ritwik Ghatak, the great and legendary Bengali filmmaker and script writer. I first watched his last film 'Titash Ekti Nadir Naam' (A River Called Titas) in 2010. The film was based on a novel by the same name, written by Advaita Malla Burman. The movie explores the life of the fishermen on the bank of the Titash River in Brahmanbaria, Bangladesh and it topped the list of 10 best Bangladeshi films, as chosen in the audience and critics' polls conducted by the British Film Institute.
Since then I had been cherishing a fascination about Ritwik Ghatak although I gained a little knowledge about him when I was studying at Dhaka University. Afterwards, I had the opportunity to watch some of his movies. I am neither a cinema critic nor a writer and it is very difficult to describe his credentials and contribution in the field of the cinema with my scant knowledge about him. Hence, I further read some articles on Ritwik Ghatak, which consequently helped me write this article.
Ritwik Ghatak was born on November 04, 1925 in Dhaka in East Bengal (now Bangladesh) of then British India. Ghatak's father Suresh Chandra Ghatak was a district magistrate and also a poet and playwright; his mother's name was Indubala Devi. He and his twin sister Prateeti, were the youngest of nine children. He and his family moved to Calcutta (now Kolkata) in West Bengal, India just before millions of other refugees from East Bengal began to flood into the city, fleeing the catastrophic Bengal famine of 1943 and the partition of Bengal in 1947.
Identification with this tide of refugees was to define his practice, providing an overriding metaphor for cultural dismemberment and exile that unified his subsequent creative work. The 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, which led to more refugees fleeing to India, also influenced his work. Ghatak's elder brother Manish Ghatak, a radical writer of his time, was a professor of English and a social activist who was deeply involved with the IPTA theatre movement in its heyday and later on headed the Tebhaga Andolan of North Bengal. Manish Ghatak's daughter is the writer and activist Mahasweta Devi. Ghatak's wife Surama was a school teacher. His son Ritaban is a film-maker. Ritwik Ghatak breathed his last on February 06, 1976 due to tuberculosis when was only 50-year-old.
His cinema, along with prominent contemporary Bengali filmmakers Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen, is primarily remembered for its meticulous depiction of social reality. Although their roles were often adversarial, they were very enthusiastic admirers of each other's work, and in doing so, the three directors charted the independent trajectory of parallel cinema, as a counterpoint to the mainstream fare of Hindi cinema in India. Ghatak received quite a few awards in his career, including National Film Award's Rajat Kamal Award for Best Story in 1974 for his film Jukti Takko Aar Gappo, Best Director's Award from Bangladesh Cine Journalist's Association for Titash Ekti Nadir Naam. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri for Arts in 1970.
Ritwik Ghatak entered the film industry with Nimai Ghosh's 'Chinnamul' as actor and assistant director in 1950 though he wrote, directed and acted in plays earlier. Two years later, he first completed film 'Nagarik' in 1952. Both the films made the major break-throughs for the Indian cinema. Ghatak's early work sought theatrical and literary tradition in bringing together a documentary realism and a stylised performance often drawn from the folk theatre. Ghatak's first commercial release was 'Ajantrik' in 1958. The film was a comedy-drama film with science fiction themes. It was one of the earliest Indian films to portray an inanimate object, in this case an automobile, as a character in the story. Ghatak's greatest commercial success as a script writer was for 'Madhumati' (1958), which was one of the earliest films to deal with the theme of reincarnation. It was a Hindi film directed by another Bengali filmmaker Bimal Roy. The film earned Ghatak his first award nomination for the Filmfare Best Story Award.
Ritwik Ghatak directed eight full-length films. His best-known films include 'Nagarik '(The Citizen) in 1952 'Meghe Dhaka Tara' (The Cloud-Capped Star) in 1960, 'Komal Gandhar' (E-Flat) in 1961, and 'Subarnarekha' (Golden Lining) in 1962 and 'Titash Ekti Nadir Naam' (A River Called Titas) in 1973. In these films, he used a basic and starkly realistic storyline. Ghatak was not so fortunate while other neo-realist directors like Satyajit Ray succeeded in creating an audience outside India during their lifetime. His films were appreciated primarily within India while he was alive. Satyajit Ray did what he could to promote his colleague, but Ray's generous praise did not translate into international fame for Ghatak. For example, Ghatak's Nagarik (1952) was perhaps the earliest example of a Bengali art film, preceding Ray's Pather Panchali by three years, but was not released until after his death in 1977.
Ghatak's work as a director also had an impact on many later Indian filmmakers, including those from the Bengali film industry and elsewhere. For example, Mira Nair has cited Ghatak as well as Ray as the reasons she became a filmmaker. In conclusion, Ritwik Ghatak is the shining star and the pioneer of the Bengali art films. His realistic creation will remain in the hearts of his movie-lovers in India and Bangladesh alike and Bangladeshi filmmakers can enrich their films analyzing and reviewing these films.
(Dr Momtazur Rahman is Faculty Member and Coordinator, Department of Languages, IUBAT-International University of Business Agriculture and Technology, Dhaka. E-mail: momtazur@iubat.edu)
I would like to portray Ritwik Ghatak, the great and legendary Bengali filmmaker and script writer. I first watched his last film 'Titash Ekti Nadir Naam' (A River Called Titas) in 2010. The film was based on a novel by the same name, written by Advaita Malla Burman. The movie explores the life of the fishermen on the bank of the Titash River in Brahmanbaria, Bangladesh and it topped the list of 10 best Bangladeshi films, as chosen in the audience and critics' polls conducted by the British Film Institute.
Since then I had been cherishing a fascination about Ritwik Ghatak although I gained a little knowledge about him when I was studying at Dhaka University. Afterwards, I had the opportunity to watch some of his movies. I am neither a cinema critic nor a writer and it is very difficult to describe his credentials and contribution in the field of the cinema with my scant knowledge about him. Hence, I further read some articles on Ritwik Ghatak, which consequently helped me write this article.
Ritwik Ghatak was born on November 04, 1925 in Dhaka in East Bengal (now Bangladesh) of then British India. Ghatak's father Suresh Chandra Ghatak was a district magistrate and also a poet and playwright; his mother's name was Indubala Devi. He and his twin sister Prateeti, were the youngest of nine children. He and his family moved to Calcutta (now Kolkata) in West Bengal, India just before millions of other refugees from East Bengal began to flood into the city, fleeing the catastrophic Bengal famine of 1943 and the partition of Bengal in 1947.
Identification with this tide of refugees was to define his practice, providing an overriding metaphor for cultural dismemberment and exile that unified his subsequent creative work. The 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, which led to more refugees fleeing to India, also influenced his work. Ghatak's elder brother Manish Ghatak, a radical writer of his time, was a professor of English and a social activist who was deeply involved with the IPTA theatre movement in its heyday and later on headed the Tebhaga Andolan of North Bengal. Manish Ghatak's daughter is the writer and activist Mahasweta Devi. Ghatak's wife Surama was a school teacher. His son Ritaban is a film-maker. Ritwik Ghatak breathed his last on February 06, 1976 due to tuberculosis when was only 50-year-old.
His cinema, along with prominent contemporary Bengali filmmakers Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen, is primarily remembered for its meticulous depiction of social reality. Although their roles were often adversarial, they were very enthusiastic admirers of each other's work, and in doing so, the three directors charted the independent trajectory of parallel cinema, as a counterpoint to the mainstream fare of Hindi cinema in India. Ghatak received quite a few awards in his career, including National Film Award's Rajat Kamal Award for Best Story in 1974 for his film Jukti Takko Aar Gappo, Best Director's Award from Bangladesh Cine Journalist's Association for Titash Ekti Nadir Naam. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri for Arts in 1970.
Ritwik Ghatak entered the film industry with Nimai Ghosh's 'Chinnamul' as actor and assistant director in 1950 though he wrote, directed and acted in plays earlier. Two years later, he first completed film 'Nagarik' in 1952. Both the films made the major break-throughs for the Indian cinema. Ghatak's early work sought theatrical and literary tradition in bringing together a documentary realism and a stylised performance often drawn from the folk theatre. Ghatak's first commercial release was 'Ajantrik' in 1958. The film was a comedy-drama film with science fiction themes. It was one of the earliest Indian films to portray an inanimate object, in this case an automobile, as a character in the story. Ghatak's greatest commercial success as a script writer was for 'Madhumati' (1958), which was one of the earliest films to deal with the theme of reincarnation. It was a Hindi film directed by another Bengali filmmaker Bimal Roy. The film earned Ghatak his first award nomination for the Filmfare Best Story Award.
Ritwik Ghatak directed eight full-length films. His best-known films include 'Nagarik '(The Citizen) in 1952 'Meghe Dhaka Tara' (The Cloud-Capped Star) in 1960, 'Komal Gandhar' (E-Flat) in 1961, and 'Subarnarekha' (Golden Lining) in 1962 and 'Titash Ekti Nadir Naam' (A River Called Titas) in 1973. In these films, he used a basic and starkly realistic storyline. Ghatak was not so fortunate while other neo-realist directors like Satyajit Ray succeeded in creating an audience outside India during their lifetime. His films were appreciated primarily within India while he was alive. Satyajit Ray did what he could to promote his colleague, but Ray's generous praise did not translate into international fame for Ghatak. For example, Ghatak's Nagarik (1952) was perhaps the earliest example of a Bengali art film, preceding Ray's Pather Panchali by three years, but was not released until after his death in 1977.
Ghatak's work as a director also had an impact on many later Indian filmmakers, including those from the Bengali film industry and elsewhere. For example, Mira Nair has cited Ghatak as well as Ray as the reasons she became a filmmaker. In conclusion, Ritwik Ghatak is the shining star and the pioneer of the Bengali art films. His realistic creation will remain in the hearts of his movie-lovers in India and Bangladesh alike and Bangladeshi filmmakers can enrich their films analyzing and reviewing these films.
(Dr Momtazur Rahman is Faculty Member and Coordinator, Department of Languages, IUBAT-International University of Business Agriculture and Technology, Dhaka. E-mail: momtazur@iubat.edu)