KOLKATA: As surreal as it sounds, around the time Bengal rolls out the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) drive, which the ruling party has dubbed a “backdoor NRC”, it also happens to be the birth anniversary of maverick filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak. Ghatak’s cinema was steeped in the pain of Partition, the loss of home, and the erosion of identity.
Mixing realism with myth and melodrama, he captured the struggles of people caught between tradition and modernity. Films like ‘Meghe Dhaka Tara’, ‘Komal Gandhar’ and ‘Subarnarekha’ echo themes of exile, longing, and the collapse of values. Filmmaker Suman Maitra, who made his debut with ‘Doshhomi’ in 2012, is now paying homage to Ghatak on his birth centenary through his new Bengali film ‘A2’. Starring Raunak Bhattacharya, Ankita Brahma, Mehuli Sarkar and Shreyasi Roy Banerjee, the film will be screened in the Bengali Panorama section at the 31st Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF).
Interestingly, this year KIFF will also screen six of Ghatak’s classics like ‘Bari Theke Paliye’, ‘Meghe Dhaka Tara’, ‘Ajantrik’, ‘Titas Ekti Nodir Naam’, ‘Subarnarekha’ and ‘Komal Gandhar’, along with a special exhibition on the filmmaker. On Tuesday, Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee paid respect to the legendary filmmaker. Taking to social media, she wrote about the films of Ghatak which will be screened at KIFF on his birth centenary and also highlighted about the exhibition.
In ‘A2’, Maitra attempts to connect Ghatak’s vision with today’s world. Much like ‘Meghe Dhaka Tara’, his story revolves around two siblings. “The film questions women and society the way Ghatak did,” said Maitra.
While Ghatak often explored physical displacement, Maitra turns the lens on the displacement of the mind of thought and identity.
Unlike Ray or Mrinal Sen, Ghatak never got his due during his lifetime.
Though tributes pour in through plays and retrospectives like Sujan Mukherjee’s play ‘Meghe Dhaka Ghatak’, few mainstream Bengali filmmakers have stepped into his complex world. “His films had a difficult grammar… they are layered, intense and intellectual. But his contribution to cinema is unparalleled,” said Maitra.