Birthday Memory: Director Atanu Ghosh on unmade film with Soumitra Chatterjee
Director Atanu Ghosh’s last release, ‘Shesh Pata’, came out in 2023. Every time the correspondent has met him since, the question has come up naturally: when will the next film begin? In his characteristically subtle way, Ghosh responded with a gentle smile, as he always does. “My films take time. And I need producers too.” In the course of these conversations, he has often spoken about how Soumitra Chatterjee’s passing shook him and about the lingering ache of not being able to make more films with the legendary actor. That longing, it seems, has never quite left him.
On Chatterjee’s birth anniversary on Monday, Ghosh opened up on social media, speaking of a regret that still weighs heavily on his heart, the film they never made together. One of them was ‘Otolantic’. “I had dreamt of working with him one day. In the end, it happened… Four films and two television movies. And yet, the longing was never fulfilled. An endless regret remains. So many projects that never came to be. Among them was a script that had already taken shape. The story was called ‘Otolantic’,” Ghosh posted on social media.
The National Award-winning director, whose debut feature ‘Angshumaner Chhobi’ (2009) featured Chatterjee in a double role, revealed that in ‘Otolantic’, he had envisioned the iconic actor as Ananta Sengupta. “A renowned, successful man who, on the night before his 82nd birthday, leaves his home. He tells the doorman he is going to meet a friend. In truth, he is returning to old wounds and long-buried scars,” wrote Ghosh. The ‘Mayurakhi’ (2017) maker, which fetched Ghosh the National Award for ‘Best Bengali Feature Film’, informed that the seed of character came from a few lines of poetry Chatterjee had written.
Chatterjee even listened to the film’s story and screenplay. He was keen to do it, Ghosh revealed through his post. “Every now and then, he would ask, ‘Has that story moved forward?’ I would silently shake my head. He knew from a lifetime of experience that films like these are not easily made,” Ghosh wrote.
The director shared a close bond with the iconic actor, who passed away on November 15, 2020. He knew that Chatterjee had witnessed many failed attempts and unfulfilled dreams, yet he rarely spoke of them in detail, wrote Ghosh. “I knew he had witnessed countless failed attempts and shattered dreams; yet he never spoke of them in detail, perhaps fearing I might lose heart, give up. He was such a positive person. He would always say, ‘Keep trying… It will work out…’ It didn’t. And now it never will,” Ghosh posted. Till now, the idea hovers in his imagination and he cannot help but remember those eyes of the legendary actor… Eyes that could light up at any moment with the excitement of stepping into a new, unexplored character.
