Ritwik Ghatak Remembered

The legendary filmamker would have been 80 this year. Saibal Chatterjee writes:

Ghatak rarely tasted commercial success. Ironically, he had set out to make films because of the reach of the medium. He had begun his creative career in the theatre as a member of the Indian People’s Theatre Association. He even dabbled in a bit of literature before homing in on filmmaking as the medium of choice.

Ghatak had much to say about the pain of deracination and its social, economic and moral fallout – the Dhaka-born filmmaker was a victim of the Partition – and he needed a medium of the power and penetration of cinema.