All in the family

Is it a record of sorts that a director makes a film with an actor who has also worked with his grandfather? If not a record, this sure is a rarity in the film industry. And that perhaps is also a reason why director Birsa Dasgupta was so excited about shooting with Madhabi Mukherjee for his debut feature film titled 033.
Says Birsa, whose movie is the only Bengali film in competition at the 11th anniversary edition of Osian���������������������������s-Cinefan Film Festival, ���������������������������I may probably be one the very few film-makers in this country who said ���������������������������action��������������������������� to a legendary heroine of the silver screen whom my very own grandfather, Harisadhan Dasgupta, also said ���������������������������action��������������������������� to.She was there, glamorizing the screen with her sublime beauty in that generation, and three generations down the line, she is still doing the same in my film. As a child, I had the privilege of spending time with my legendary film-maker grandfather. From working in Hollywood to being the king of documentaries in India; from his illustrious times spent in Bombay to making his mark as a feature film-maker in Tollywood, I was mesmerized by it all. The crew that he had for his first few documentaries and ad films is something none of us can ever achieve now. Imagine this: Satyajit Ray ��������������������������� scriptwriter, Hrishikesh Mukherjee ��������������������������� editor, Pt Ravi Shankar ��������������������������� music director, Claude Renoir and Bulu Dasgupta ��������������������������� director of photography, Bansi Chandra Gupta ��������������������������� art director, Chidananda Dasgupta ��������������������������� production head, so on and so forth. It is this man who made his debut as a feature film-maker in 1965 with Eki Onge Eto Roop starring Madhabi Mukherjee, Soumitra Chatterjee and Basanta Chowdhury. It went to the Edinburgh Film Festival, probably one of the first that took Indian cinema to such a stage.���������������������������
Forty five years down the line, life came a full circle when Birsa cast Madhabi in 033 in the role of thamma. ���������������������������It was a small yet a very crucial role. My film-maker father, Raja Dasgupta, suggested Madhabi���������������������������s name. She agreed and even gave the first clap for the film!��������������������������� Birsa says. Later on, while shooting with her, Birsa even made Madhabi sing Aji jhorer raat e ��������������������������� a song that was filmed on Madhabi in EOER! ���������������������������Many had suggested that I get the song dubbed by someone else. But I never paid any heed to that. Her singing style might not be perfect but for me, perfection means feeling and passion. Nothing else matters if that���������������������������s achieved.
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What, however, doesn���������������������������t seem perfect for Birsa is the way the nation has forgotten his grandfather and his work. ���������������������������There is only one print left. No DVDs have been made. Such is the state of our archives that no library has it. I wonder if the film would have got the same treatment had it been a Satyajit Ray film! It���������������������������s in our culture to forget and bury the catalyst, and Harisadhan Dasgupta was a true catalyst in changing the milieu of Bengali cinema in the early 1960s.���������������������������
Forgetfulness never has been a virtue. And certainly not, if it concerns the doyen of Indian cinema.