PART 1
Ritwik made three documentaries in 1955. The life journey
of Oraon tribal community 'Oraon', the life of the tribal of Bihar 'Adivasiyon
Ka Jeevan Srot' and the spectacular places of Bihar 'Bihar Ke Darshaniya Sthan'.
He married Surma Devi after returning from Bihar. She was also a theatre worker
and they came to know each other through theatre. After some days, Ritwik found
a job at Filmistan Studio of Bombay with the help of Salil Chowdhury. To start
with, Ritwik used to stay with Hrishikesh Mukherjee and wrote the screenplay of
the cinema 'Musafir' under his direction. The best commercial success of
Ritwik's life came from the screenplay of the cinema 'Madhumati' made by Bimal
Roy in 1958. It was the first line cinema made with the concept of reincarnation.
Later he wrote screenplays for some other films that includes 'Swaralipi'(1960),
'Kumari Mon'(1962), 'Dwiper Naam Tiarong'(1963), 'Rajkonna'(1965) and 'Hirer Projapoti'(1958).
In spite of his business in writing essays and screenplays the constant
pressure of writing screenplays for commercial style cinemas of Bombay
gradually became unbearable for Ritwik. So he left the job of ensured income of
Bombay and reverted to Calcutta.
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| Kali Banerjee as Bimal in Ajantrik, 1958 |
Ritwik's second film was released in 1958 name
'Ajantrik'(The Unmechanical / The Pathetic Fallacy). He made this film from a
short story of Subodh Ghosh. This cinema deals with the relationship created
between a man and a machine. Bimal is a taxi driver in a small hilly village.
In this world his only dear one is ramshackle, an old 1920 Chevrolet taxi he
named it 'Jagoddol'(an extremely heavy burden) by love. He refuses to admit Jogoddol
as a machine, so he says, 'They don't understand that Jogoddol is also a human
being'. It is known that Jogoddol is with Bimal since the year he lost his
mother. As if Jogoddol is like his mother, looks after him in hard times. But
even the machine wears out, his heart stops just like a human being. The
businessman of iron materials dismantled Jogoddol and took by pushcart in front
of helpless Bimal. By showing the cemetery cross in the frame this time Ritwik
wanted to resemble the funeral journey of the machine. When there is dark of
despair in front of helpless Bimal, then Ritwik completes his circle. The
abandoned horn of the broken vehicle horned by a child astonishing Bimal. This
incident expresses the desire to move forward, announces a new beginning that
is circulated in the expression of Bimal in the last scene.
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| 'Jogoddol' in Ajantrik, 1958 |
Ritwik used an inanimate object in this cinema as a
character, not much examples are found before this. Similarity with the
character Ritwik portrays of taxi driver Bimal is found later with taxi driver
Nara Singh of Satyajit Ray's 'Obhijan'(1962) and Travis Bickle of 'Taxi
Driver'(1976) of Martin Scorsese. 'Ajantrik' was shown in Venice film festival
in 1959. Renowned film critic Georges Sadoul elaborated his experience of
viewing this film there in this way, 'What does 'Ajantrik' mean? I don't know
and I believe no one in Venice Film Festival knew... I can't tell the whole
story of the film... there was no subtitle for the film. But I saw the film
spellbound till the very end'. Satyajit Ray commented to Ritwik after viewing
this film, 'Ritwik Babu, you would have become pioneer if the cinema was
released on time'.
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| Bari Theke Paliye, 1958 |
In the same year Ritwik released his third film 'Bari
Theke Paliye'(The Runaway). Original story was of Shibram Chakraborty. Children
and woman characters have important roles in each film of Ritwik. This time he
showed us the whole cinema through the eyes of a child. Small boy Kanchan,
dreams of El Dorado. He fled to Calcutta by train being afraid of his father. He
found no uniformity of the city with his dream after watching different types
of people there. In all around he only sees scarcity, despair and sorrows. His
straight question to chanachurwala Haridas for not being able to understand the
reasons for this, 'Why is there so much sorrows in this city?'. At last he
returns home from this city cage with full of experiences. His parents, anxious
for him greets him with much affection. The reunion of Kanchan with his family results
in the completion of Ritwik's circle.
The real picture of the then Calcutta could be seen
through the eyes of Kanchan. Enormous arrangements of marriage party and the
search of food in the dustbin by some people in the next morning depict
horrible picture of poverty of lower class people of that time. Use of Deep
Focus is noticeable in Cinematography. This cinema has resemblance with the
story of famous French Nouvelle Vague film 'Four Hundred Blows'(1959) of François
Truffaut.
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Ritwik Ghatak & Utpal Dutt,
Koto Ojanare(Imcomplete, 1959) |
In 1959 despite completing most of the works of a cinema
'Koto Ojanare', Ritwik could not complete it due to economic reasons. The year
after he made his next film 'Meghe Dhaka Tara'(The Cloud-Capped Star) after the
story of Shaktipada Rajguru. This was the most profitable film of all the films
he directed. The subject matter of the cinema was the life struggle of a
refugee family repatriated from East Bengal after partition. The protagonist of
the cinema is Nita, the eldest daughter of the family. Father is a school
teacher, mother is a housewife. Jobless elder brother Shankar dreams of
becoming a famous singer. Younger sister Geeta wants cosiness and younger
brother Montu understands nothing but his self interest. The key earning member
of the family is Nita, her mother is reluctant to solemnize her marriage due to
poverty. Still Nita dreams about her lover Sanat, elder brother Shankar. In
turn of events Nita's father became bedridden, lover Sanat married younger
sister Geeta, Montu incurred accident in the factory and was lying on a
hospital bed. The vigour of Nita starts to wear out due to the mental and
physical oppression but still she doesn't give up, diseased Nita remains alive
in her own house in self exile. At times the days of happiness came in the
family, Shankar returns becoming renowned singer, there is a news of the
arrival of new child in the house. But nobody remembers Nita during this time
of happiness, she became a victim of kindness in the family. At last Shankar
gets Nita admitted in a hospital on a mountain top. There, coming to the verge
of life and death Nita shouts at Shankar, 'Brother, I wanted to live'. Nita's
urge to live echoes from mountain to mountain. The tearing of the sandal of
another girl at the last scene as was happened with Nita at the first scene of
the cinema manifests the ever-existence of the incidence and creation of
Ritwik's circle is accomplished.
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Supriya Choudhury as Nita in
Meghe Dhaka Tara, 1960 |
Ritwik performed many experiments on sound in this
cinema. He used South Indian 'Hangshodhonni Ragh'(A musical mood named
Hangshodhonni) and Ragh based Kheyal as the background music of the cinema.
Ritwik for the first time used Tagore Songs in his film, moreover the use of
folk song of Bangladesh was remarkable. Ritwik also experimented Effect
music/sound along with background music. Increasing the feed of the sound of
boiling rice he expressed the mental condition of the mother, using the sound
of whip during the moment of Nita's grief resembled her agony, again using the
recitation of multiplication table of the children in the background during
mother rebuking Shankar created a different atmosphere. Much use of deep focus
in cinematography is noticeable. There are some remarkable compositions also. Specially
change of composition as a result of the movement of the characters and
creation of another new composition due to that is wonderfully filmed by
Ritwik. Moreover the issue of Geeta becoming pregnant in near future is
expressed through a montage.
+in+Shillong.JPG) |
Ritwik Ghatak at the shooting of
Meghe Dhaka Tara(1960) in Shillong |
Ritwik was under criticism for using melodrama but he
said that the use of melodrama is his birthright and declared it as a cinematic
form. This formation of Ritwik happened in IPTA through different national and
international theatrical philosophy. As he was influenced by the theatrical
philosophy of Brecht and Stanislavsky, similarly he had influence of the
Bengali folk culture song and Jatra(A traditional form of Bengali theatre).
Along with this mixture of cinematic philosophy of the directors like
Eisenstein, Buñuel, there formed a melodramatic form of Ritwik of his own. The
endeavor to make a melodramatic form bringing together Indian mythology, Upanishads,
the philosophy of Carl Jung and Marxism consciously was in Ritwik. For
publication of his statement, he would deliberately use repetition of
incidences and coincidental events. He himself admitted the influence of Brecht
on him in using epic approach, alienation effect and use of coincidence. Again
in his cinematic style, there are the frequent use of a wide angle lens, taking
shots from uncommon angles, expressionistic acting style and experimentation
with songs and sound effects etc. Many critics did not like this melodramatic
style of Ritwik alongside the real form of Bengali Cinema. Experiencing that
Ritwik says, 'I will push you every moment to make you understand that it is
not an imaginary story or I have not come to give you cheap pleasure. I will
hammer you every moment to express what you are viewing is an imaginary event.
But what I am trying to let you understand in it, understand that thesis of
mine, that is a complete fact, I will persuade you every moment to have your
attraction on that. If you become aware, involve yourself to change that social
obstacle, corruption, if I can impose my protest on you, that will be my
success as an artist'.
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| Opening shot of Meghe Dhaka Tara, 1960 |
'Meghe Dhaka Tara' is not out of this style of Ritwik.
The character of Nita symbolized many things in this cinema. Ritwik portrayed
the character of Nita in resemblance of the mythological character of Durga. So
we see, Nita is all enduring, she sacrifices her life for the happiness of
others. For the same reason Nita is the only earning member of the family and
her birthday falls on the day of Jagaddhatri(The protector of the world) Puja.
Again Nita's character has similarity with the character of Uma or Parvati.
Ritwik says, 'For a hundred years Bengali women and brides are personifying
Uma'. So we see, the womanhood and motherhood of Nita could not manifest itself
due to her family. Ritwik has made it more vivid by using the folk song 'Ai go
Uma'(Come Uma) to relate to the sequence when Nita's father asked her to flee. Nita
represented not as a new bride but an exiled person here. It is also understood
through this song that Uma's time has come for the great reconciliation with
her husband Shiva. According to Hindu mythology this reconciliation took place
on the Himalayans. So in next shot, Nita is seen on a mountain. But reversing
the mythological incidence, Ritwik replaces union with upcoming death of Nita,
and by doing this he tries to glorify the death of Nita. Basically Ritwik
wanted to represent the greater Bengal through the character of Nita whom the
Bengali society slaughtered through partition. But undefeatable Ritwik still
envisions a new beginning. So in an interview Ritwik said, 'The decadence of
human being attract me. As because through this I see the speed of life,
health. I believe in the continuity of life. The characters of my film shout
and say 'Let me live'. He/she wants to live standing on the verge of death―
This is not death, the announcement of victory of the very life'.
30th December 2012 — 21st January 2013
Translated from Bengali by Dr. Apu Lawrence Biswas with
help from Auditi Bridget Biswas and Arindam Gustavo Biswas.
23rd August 2013 — 1st September 2013
+in+Shillong.JPG)
