It is 1 of life's greatest ironies that Ritwik Ghatak who is these days some thing of a cult figure in Bengal was so small understood and appreciated throughout his lifetime. Regardless of the reality that right now his films have won a lot crucial acclaim, the reality remains that in their time they ran to primarily empty homes in Bengal. Ghatak's films project a distinctive
sensibility. They are frequently brilliant, yet nearly usually flawed.
Born in Dhaka (these days in Bangladesh), the partition of Bengal and the next division of a culture was some thing that haunted Ghatak forever. Joining the left-wing Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA), he utilized to function for a couple of years as a playwright, actor and director. Even though IPTA split into factions, Ghatak turned to filmmaking.
By and big Ghatak's films revolve about two central themes: the encounter of becoming uprooted from the idyllic rural milieu of East Bengal and the cultural trauma of the partition of 1947. His 1st film, Nagarik (1952) weaved the oppressive tale of a young man, his futile search for a job and the erosion of his optimism and idealism as his loved ones sinks into abject poverty and his love affair too turns sour. Ghatak then accepted a job with Filmistan Studio in Bombay however his 'various' tips did not go down effectively there. He did on the other hand create the scripts of Musafir (1957) and Madhumati (1958) for Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Bimal Roy respectively, the latter getting an all time evergreen hit.
Immediately after this short stint followed by his comeback to his fantastic old Calcutta, he created Ajantrik (1958) around a taxi driver in a little town in Bihar and his automobile, an old Chevrolet jalopy. An assortment of passengers offers the film a wider frame of reference and offered scenarios of drama, humor and irony.
On the other hand, his "magnum opus" takes place to be none other than Meghe Dhaka Tara (1960), the 1st film in a trilogy, examining the socio-financial implications of partition. The protagonist Nita (played by Supriya Chowdhury) is the breadwinner in a refugee loved ones of 5. Every person exploits her and the strain proves too significantly. She succumbs to
tuberculosis. In an unforgettable moment, the dying Nita cries out "I want to reside...", when the camera pans across the mountains, thereby accentuating the indifference and eternity of nature even as the echo reverberates over the shot.
Complexities notwithstanding, Meghe Dhaka Tara reaches out to the audience with its directness, its simplicity, and its special stylistic use of melodrama. Melodrama as a genuine dramatic kind has continued to play a critical role in rural Indian theatre and folk dramatic types. Ghatak goes back to these roots in his presentation of a familiar struggle for survival, which has lost its dramatic force and pathos through repetition in real life.
In Meghe Dhaka Tara, day-to-day events transform into higher drama: Nita's tormented romance is intensified with the harsh sweep of the whiplash on the soundtrack; Shankar's song of faith in a moment of despair reaches the height of emotional surrender with Nita's voice joining his and Nita's urge to reside becomes a universal sound of affirmation reverberating in Nature, amidst the distant peaks of the Himalayas.
The 3 key ladies characters in this film embody the conventional elements of feminine energy. The heroine, Nita, has the preserving and nurturing high quality; her sister, Gita, is the sensual lady; their mother represents the cruel part. The incapacity of Nita to combine and include all these qualities is the imminent supply of her tragedy.
In addition to, here Ghatak tries to delve deep into our roots and traditions and uncover a universal dimension inside it. And for the very first time, he says he experimented with the methods of overtones. In the film, Ghatak succeeds in reaching a grand totality through an intricate however harmonious blending of each part with the entire in the inner
fabric of the film. Meghe Dhaka Tara transcends into a great function of art that enriches and transforms the visual pictures into metamorphic significations...
The music in the film completely intermingles with the visuals, none dislodging the other be it a outstanding orchestration of a hill motif with a female moaning or a staccato cough with a surging song.
Here, it would be relevant to mention that Ghatak weaves a parallel narrative evoking the celebrated Bengali legends of Durga who is believed to descend from her mountain retreat every single autumn to go to her parents and that of Menaka. This double concentrate, condensed in the figure of Neeta, is rendered however much more complex on the level of the
film language itself through elaborate, at occasions non-diegetic sound effects operating alongside or as commentaries on the image ( e.g. the refrain Ai go Uma kole loi, i.e. Come to my arms, Uma, my kid, employed through the latter part of the film, esp. on the face of the rain-drenched Neeta shortly just before her departure to the sanatorium).
This strategy permits the film to transcend its story by opening it our towards the realm of myth and to the conventions of cinematic realism (e.g. evoked in the Calcutta sequences).
"Meghe Dhaka Tara" was followed with Komal Gandhar (1961), regarding two rival touring theatre corporations in Bengal and Subarnarekha (1965). The final is a strangely disturbing film working with melodrama and coincidence as a kind rather than
mechanical fact.
His subsequent film, Titash Ekti Nadir Naam (1973), accomplished for a young Bangladesh producer takes place to be focusing on the life and eventual disintegration of a fishing neighborhood on the Titash. Nonetheless, this epic saga was accomplished Immediately after quite a few challenges at the shooting stage which includes his collapse due to tuberculosis and was a industrial failure.
Notably, Jukti Takko Aar Gappo (1974), the most autobiographical and allegorical
of his films, was created just prior to his untimely demise. Here, he himself played the main role of Nilkanta, an alcoholic intellectual. The film has been spoken around in critique circle for Ghatak's spectacular use of the wide-angle lens to most potent effect.
Regrettably for Ghatak, his films have been largely unsuccessful. Several remaining unreleased for years, he abandoned virtually as several projects as he done. Eventually the intensity of his passion, which gave his films their energy and emotion, took their toll on him, as did tuberculosis and alcoholism. On the other hand he has left behind a restricted, however
subtly rich and intricate body of function that no severe scholar of Indian Cinema can dare ignore.
Lopa Bhattacharya is a content material writer/developer functioning on web sites for overseas/Indian clientele. Has worked for numerous corporate web site projects, CD-Rom presentations, brochures, flyers and other communication supplies on varied themes ranging from travel, hotel business, photography, internet style and software program improvement to US-primarily based clubs and network communities. Was previously an editorial associate for a news, culture and entertainment portal primarily based on the life and instances of Kolkata.
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