Reason,Debate and Story

                                   Jukti,Takko aar Gappo

                                                (Reason,Debate &  story)

"All films are political,the question is which side do you choose?"-the words of a bengali film making legend,who contributed to initiate the meticulous display of social reality in the film industry.Along Satyajit Ray & Mrinal Sen,he charted the trajectory of parallel cinema as a counterpart to the main stream hindi and bengali cinema.The man who worked for the masses but was never noted by them until after his death,RITWIK GHATAK.

After the Partition of Bengal in 1947,a certain section of the leftist party believed that the Independence was fake and revolution was just around the corner.Use of artistic media to reach the society was considered to be the integral part of their scheme to revolutionize India and Bengal.In light of such events did Ghatak emerged with the idea to reach millions of people in one go,CINEMA.Aesthetically his works can be placed alongside with many renowned bengali novelists,poets and other artists.What was surprising about him was that his views and writings on cinema denounced a love for the medium.He mentioned it quite often that if he was handed some media that can reach more people than cinema,he would happily drop cinema.So what we,cinema enthusiasts are to make of this Director/writer/actor who declared no attachment for the medium we love so much?

"My first film was called a picaresque episodic film along the lines of  the eighteenth century Spanish novel Gil Blas De Santillane,second was called a film of documentary approach,the next was a melodrama,& the fourth,nothing at all,just no film."

His films were not followed by the masses,but they had a vast influence on students & intelligentsia.

His early works manifested documentary realism combined with formalised performance drawn from folk theatre,and a brechtian use of film apparatus.His first film NAGARIK(1952) is now considered to be the first bengali art film preceding Satyajit Ray's PATHER PANCHALI.The irony is that NAGARIK was not released until after his death.AJANTRIK(1958) was one of the first films to display an inanimate object(an automobile) as a character long before the HERBIE films.The film MADHUMATI(1958),a hindi film he wrote the screenplay for,was one of the earliest to deal with the theory of reincarnation.His most successful film commercially was probably MEGHE DHAKA TARA(1960),which dealt with the social impact on a middle class girl.Other notable films were KOMOL GANDHAR(1961),SUBARNAREKHA(1962) based on the conditions of refuge-hood which proved to be controversial at the time.His last films were epic TITASH EKTI NADIR NAAM(1973) which was one of the first in Hyperlink format,featuring multiple characters in a collection of interconnected stories preceding  Robert Altman's NASHVILLE(1975) and the revered autobiographical JUKTI TAKKO AAR GAPPO(1974).

This blog is merely to enlighten people about a legend who was never given the attention and admiration he deserved in his lifetime.Even after such a long time only a few people remember him.

Yes,it is true that his works were awarded but most of it was at a later stage when film making became extremely difficult for him due to extreme alcoholism,and mental instability.He was one of the most controversial filmmakers of his time as his films portrayed social reality contrary to the pseudo reality of main stream bengali and hindi movies.He concentrated on the day to day struggle of the people & focused on the true condition of bengal at the time.He could never accept the Partition of Bengal,and most of his films dealt with this theme.This legend passed away on February 6,1976.

Awards, honours and recognition

• Padma Shri for Arts in 1970 by The Government of India.
• Musafir had won the Certificate of Merit for Third Best Feature Film at 5th National Film Awards in 1957.
• Madhumati Nominated for Filmfare Best Story Award.
• National Film Award's Rajat Kamal Award for Best Story in 1974 for Jukti Takko Aar Gappo.
• Best Director's award from Bangladesh Cine Journalist's Association for Titash Ekti Nadir Naam.
• Ajantrik got special entry in the Venice Film Festival in 1959.
• In a critics' poll of all-time greatest films conducted by Asian film magazine Cinemaya in 1998, Subarnarekha was ranked at No. 11 on the list.
• In the 2002 Sight & Sound critics' and directors' poll for all-time greatest films, Meghe Dhaka Tara was ranked at No. 231 and Komal Gandhar at No. 346 on the list.
• In 2007, A River Named Titas topped the list of 10 best Bangladeshi films, as chosen in the audience and critics' polls conducted by the British Film Institute.
• Heerer Prajapati had won the Best Children's Film Award (Prime Minister's Gold Medal) at 16th National Film Awards in 1970.