Awards, exhibition to mark film critic Chidananda Dasgupta's birth centenary
Kolkata: A trust named after renowned film critic and director Chidananda Dasgupta is set to celebrate his birth centenary year in November with screenings, memorial lectures and exhibition of his works.
The celebratory events, slated for November 20-21, will also comprise a best debut film competition and best writing on cinema in the past five years, a spokesperson of the Chidananda Dasgupta Memorial Trust told PTI.
The trust, created by his family members including director-actor daughter Aparna Sen, friends and admirers, aims at not only paying tribute to Dasgupta but also encourage debutant filmmakers and practitioners of critical writing of cinema .
The best debut director will receive Rs 1 lakh and the entries would be judged by an august panel comprising filmmakers Adoor Gopalakrishnan and Goutam Ghosh, and veteran actor Shabana Azmi.
Sen said her father was not merely a film critic and director, but a true historian of cinema.
"It is such a joy and privilege to be on the jury of a film competition associated with the name of Chidananda Dasgupta. I have had the pleasure of knowing him," Azmi said in a message.
"He was a true film scholar who read film as a text in its social and historical context and brought reviewership to a global scale, she added.
Ghosh said Dasgupta was one of the pioneers of the film society movement.
"I had the opportunity to discuss works of great masters with him; he was such an erudite scholar. His films like Bilet Ferat' need restoration for future generations," the Paar' director said.
The centenary celebrations will also include a best costume designer award instituted under the name of Supriya Dasgupta, who had designed the costumes of Dasgupta's Amodini'. It will carry a cash prize of Rs 50,000, the spokesperson said.
Dasgupta, one of the founders of the Calcutta Film Society along with Satyajit Ray in 1947, was born on November 20, 1921 in Shillong and breathed his last on May 22, 2011 in Kolkata.
