Ritwik Ghatak's films dwelt on 'collective refugee experience' : participants at KIFF seminar

Kolkata, Nov 12 (PTI) The films by auteur Ritwik Ghatak bring to the fore a 'collective refugee experience' and retains their relevance even today, participants at a seminar said on his birth centenary at the 31st Kolkata International Film Festival have said.

They also rue that Ghatak, known for making films on India's partition in the eastern border, did not get any acknowledgement despite his films talking about human displacement.

Supriyo Sen, eminent independent film maker and director of acclaimed documentaries, recalled how he came to know Ghatak through his movies.

"I heard from my father how we left East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, in the early 1950s and settled here. When I first watched Ritwik's films, the words of my father and the experience of my family members - as I heard from them - echoed in my mind," said Sen at the seminar held on Tuesday.

The maker of documentaries and films like 'Way Back Home', 'The Nest', 'Hope Dies Last in War' and 'Wagah', said his association with Ghatak was through his "partition-related films that brought to the fore a collective refugee experience".

"His films acted as spark as it narrated the tale of the displaced like it is about an unrealised promised land," Sen said.

Ghatak could not reach that promised land before he went to Bangladesh and made 'Titash Ekti Nadir Naam' (A river named Titash,1973), produced by Habibur Rahman of that country, Sen said.

Coming to the present political situation "where partition still haunts us", Sen said during his visit to Bangladesh with his father, he could meet the fictional characters in Ritwik's film like Ramprasad and Kader during interaction with the people there and sensed the bonding that is intrinsically embedded.

Actor-director Parambrata Chatterjee, who is the grandnephew of Ghatak, said that when he was 15 or16 years of age, he came to watch Ritwik's film 'Komol Gandhar' (1961) with his mother and "it remained with me." Describing the phase, preceding and succeeding the partition era, as the "biggest human displacement in modern history," Chatterjee said apart from Ghatak's, there was not much reflection of the turbulent times, of bloodshed and violence in movies made other film makers of the time.

"I am a proud Indian, I am also fundamentally a Bengali. Not a Hindu Bengali, as I believe Bengalis of all communities were shuddered by the jolt of partition. Ritwik Ghatak dwelt on this partition-riddled past and his films were much impactful. There should be more studies and research on his works," Chatterjee said.

Eminent director Ashoke Viswanathan said that unlike several others, Ghatak was very little influenced by any film movement and followed his own path.

"In 'Jukti Takko Aar Goppo" (1974), he shunned narratives and the way he positioned camera added more depth to the frames," he said.

Referring to the rebellious streak of Ghatak, Viswanathan, the Dean (Film) of Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI), said, "Ritwik used to curse his films and himself. He was instinctive. Even during acting, he showed his intense emotion and passion in every shot." Ghatak, who was born in 1925 in Dhaka in present-day Bangladesh, had debuted in film making from 'Ajantrik' (1958) and then went on making 'Bari Theke Paliye' (1958), 'Meghe Dhaka Tara' (1960), 'Komal Gandhar' (1961), 'Subarnarekha' (1965), 'Nagraik' (1977) and 'Jukti Takko Aar Gappo' (1974). PTI SUS NN