Films of Ritwik Ghatak

In Nagarik (The Citizen-1952) we have the contemporary existence for Bengali refugees in post-Partition Calcutta. Ramu (Satindra Bhattacharya) is the citizen whom we see early on. On seeing the young man dutifully helping an elder stranger cross the street one might think he is of affluent circumstances. But nothing could be more farther from the truth. His suit and shoes are borrowed for a job interview. It has been dusted and straightened out since these belong to his father (Kali Bannerjee) who has shed them long ago. He is now blind and ailing and it is a matter of extreme importance he finds a job to support his family including his sister whose future has been long ago splintered to secure his.
In the above we have the predicament of one citizen representing the woes of a subcontinent. We shall see how pertinent is this in the sad case of his sister. She is undereducated since the scant fortunes of the school teacher has been invested on the boy than on her. Such gender discrimination is perpetuated as a matter of course in a society where Sita the wife of Lord Ram is worshiped as a sacred symbol of motherhood. Mother India or Sita may be for public consumption held up as a revered image by those who in practice humiliate her at every turn. It is what the conduct of those suitors tells us. Her parents have little hope for a better life for her except to marry her off to anyone who is able to provide for her. Ritwik Ghatak in exposing this hypocrisy must have touched a nerve of the powers that be. Herein lies a clue to the failure of a man who was second to none as a filmmaker.
Satyajit Ray seems to have once said of his contemprorary Ritwik Ghatak thus: Had Nagarik been released before his Pather Panchali, Nagarik would have been accepted as the first film of the alternative form of Bengali cinema. Nagarik (The Citizen), the first film Ghatak ever made, was completed in 1953 but in fact released posthumously in 1977. In this simple fact we may conclude why one got praises while the other was neglected with more than unjustified criticism. In this contrast of two, both first rate filmmakers undoubtedly we have the persona of Ritwik, whose ant-establishment attitude made him unacceptable while Ray was presentable for the powers that be. Yes he was difficult –edgy, uncouth and insulting and he made them uncomfortable. He was the product of his times and his cultural awakenings were a bruise, which he came to terms in his own way. In a film like Nagarik he narrates the slender fortunes of a Bengali family and much of it is invested on Ramu and his finding a job has a bearing on the future of his sister. Chronicling Ramu’s attempts to find a job and his family's disillusioning may be economic necessity but a family marginalized and dislocated must fend for itself as a mongrel that has found in the territory of others. Much of Ramu’s woes owe to dislocation. No single cause other than partition of Bengal of 1905 and of 1947 could be explained as the pulse that beat underneath his artistic vision. Dynamics of so many works derive from it but for his cinematic idiom of course we need to look elsewhere.
The bugbear of commercial cinema Ritwik Ghatak(
b. 4 November, 1925, Jindabazar, Dhaka, East Bengal now Bangladesh) remains despite of himself an icon whose influence we see in many younger film makers of India. There is a scene in Ajantrik in which two taxi drivers sit atop their car bonnets and belting away in a contrapuntal cacophony. What has this scene to do with the narration of the film? For that I can ask what has the chatter of grave diggers before the grave of Ophelia to do with the story of Hamlet? Does it not serve as a coda to the soliloquy of the prince holding the skull of poor Yorick? Films must visually lead us beyond the surface to put ourselves with the gusto of living which makes the two taxi drivers giving vent to their existence as the prince of Denmark must give his own life a context in terms of death confronting him at every turn. ‘Lalitha Gopalan's book on action genres in contemporary Indian cinema, Cinema of Interruptions, I came across a reference to the influence of a group of directors… in line with this account, we could say that Ghatak's legacy has been a kind of cinema that invites us …to contemplate “deeply of the universe” – to “focus more intently” rather than be “entertained.”(quoted from: archive.sensesofcinema.com- Megan Carrigy, October 2003)

The last film Ghatak completed was Jukti Takko Aar Gappo (1974) in which Ghatak played the lead role himself. Ghatak passed away on 6 February, 1976, at the early age of fifty, leaving many unfinished projects.
Meghe Dhaka Tara, 1960
[The Cloud-Capped Star]
Meghe Dhaka Tara is the first in a trilogy (the other two being Komal Ghandhar or E -flat -1961 and Subarnarekha-1965) and belongs to the genre of melodrama and has a parallel in poetic realism of the French cinema in the late 30s. Roots of melodrama in Indian context go further and has had played a vital role in rural Indian theatre and folk dramatic forms. In Bollywood films we have drama in real life ‘sexed up’ if we were to judge the way hero and heroine cavort around trees and melodrama is almost to the point of bathos. While Bengali filmmakers approach melodrama through the prism of their political standpoints art is an elusive element. It is true that Ritwik in Meghe Dhaka Tara had no use for such crudities found in Commercial films but in presenting the story extract as much pathos cinematically from the predicament of Neetu the film’s protagonist. Reality of characters and their circumstances helped to a great degree by cinematic techniques has become poetry of images. Sexed up, nevertheless, in a manner of speaking. This film is the best example of his genius. To quote Kumar Shahani ‘The three principal women characters embody the traditional aspects of feminine power. The heroine, Neeta, has the preserving and nurturing quality; her sister, Gita, is the sensual woman; their mother represents the cruel aspect. The incapacity of Nita to combine and contain all these qualities... is the source of her tragedy. This split is also reflected in Indian society's inability to combine responsibility with necessary violence to build for itself a real future. The middle-class is also seen in triangular formation, at the unsteady apex of the inverted form."
Synopsis

Neeta (Supriya Chowdhury) is the breadwinner in a refugee family of five. Her elder brother, Shankar (Anil Chatterjee) aspires to be a classical singer. Neeta postpones her marriage to the scientist Sanat (Niranjan Roy) to support the family and pay for her younger brother's and sister's studies. The father and younger brother both suffer accidents forcing Neeta to remain the sole breadwinner of the family in spite of her worsening tuberculosis. Her mother encourages Sanat to marry the younger sister Gita (Gita Ghatak). Finally, Shankar having realized his ambition , takes her to the hills for treatment. There terminally ill, having sacrificed her best years, Neeta cries out into the silence of the mountains her desire to live....

In Meghe Dhaka Tara, Ghatak tries to delve deep into our roots and traditions and discover a universal dimension within it. And for the first time, he says he experimented with the techniques of overtones. In the film, Ghatak succeeds in achieving a grand totality through an intricate but harmonious blending of each part with the whole in the inner fabric of the film. Meghe Dhaka Tara transcends into a great work of art that enriches and transforms the visual images into metamorphical significations...
The music in the film perfectly intermingles with the visuals, none dislodging the other be it a remarkable orchestration of a hill motif with a female moaning or a staccato cough with a surging song.
Lastly, the film is greatly helped by an absolutely stunning performance by Bengali Filmstar Supriya Choudhury as Neeta. Meghe Dhaka Tara is one of the rare instances when she was successfully able to break her star image and cover new ground as a performer. In the end as she cries out "I want to live", one cannot helped but be totally overcome by emotion. It is one of the greatest and most unforgettable moments in the history of Indian Cinema...

As with his other films we can see the socio-economic consequences of Partition.
benny