Aneek Chaudhuri: I would strongly relate Saadat Hasan Manto with Ritwik Ghatak

He never made films for money, and he used to see filmmaking as an important tool of mass media that could serve far reaching goals of change. Well, on Ritwik Ghatak’s birth anniversary, independent filmmaker Aneek Chaudhuri says for him Ritwik Ghatak is life. He is someone who does not project the plastic nature on screen, rather tries to portray the reality as it is.

“I would strongly relate

Saadat Hasan Manto

with Ghatak, at least for the way they have factually described things; both of them have been very close to my heart. Fortunately, I was very much influenced by Ghatak's excellence even in this era when materialism is governing the major part of the world.

However, I am still deeply hurt that he is not widely celebrated among the Commons. The reason lies underrated! Even while writing this piece, I cannot help myself imagining to be in the middle of a sanatorium with Nita consoled in her brother's arms. That's what the maestro has done and has compelled me to write the whole thing in present tense. He lives,” explains Aneek in an exclusive chat with ETimes.

Sharing his thoughts on the master filmmaker’s films, the young filmmakers adds: “Ritwik Ghatak’s films including

Meghe Dhaka Tara

and Subarnarekha, representations of “Woman” and “Melodrama” are inextricably intertwined in setting, sound, and song. Mixing and layering traditions with innovations infused with socio-historical observations and critiques.

Hamid Naficy

has observed: “But exile must not be thought of as a generalized condition of alienation and difference, or as one of the items on the diversity-chic menu. All displaced people do not experience exile equally or uniformly. Exile discourse thrives on detail, specificity and locality.”

Aneek believes Ritwik Ghatak has done it continually: “hrough his films by presenting a utopian and dystopian view of Bengal he has been on a trial to portray the contradictions of Bengali society in post-Partition Bengal. And as a refugee, Ghatak is compelled in his work to interrogate and continually reassess Bengal’s cultural memory, identity, and history. Say it the prolific process of understanding films or, the mannerism to find answers to his sufferings in the past, his contribution has been worth appealing.”