Buddhadeb Dasgupta: Five unforgettable Bengali films directed by the iconic director

There are only few Indian filmmakers left now who bring in as much admiration among the film fraternity as noted director Buddhadeb Dasgupta. With his latest offering ‘Urojahaaj’ (2018) recently screened at the International Film Festival of Kerala, Dasgupta is once again in the limelight. He has created a genre completely his own. He loves to blend the rhythm and imagery of poetry with those of cinema, and continues to experiment with both form and content. Here’s a list of Bengali films directed by Buddhadeb Dasgupta which are a must-watch.

Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s ‘Tahader Katha’ revolves around Shibnath Mukherjee (Mithun Chakraborty), a freedom fighter who was once sent away to the Andaman for eight long years. Solitary confinement in Andaman’s central jail was touted to be the most harrowing punishment given by the Britishers. Tortured brutally, Shibnath’s mental condition gets deteriorated rapidly, and after Independence, he had to be kept in a mental asylum for another three years. As the film begins we see him being released into a post-independence India. However, he is far from being normal, just like his country is far from normal. This film is another classic example of Mithun Chakraborty’s versatility. While watching ‘Tahader Katha’, you couldn’t help but think why he hasn’t been used in Bengali art films more often.

This is Mithun Chakraborty’s second film with Buddhadeb Dasgupta and he plays his age, suits the part. Every Bengali movie buff just has to see him in this one. Even though he has been portrayed as a shadowy figure, it’s his pain and regrets that mostly touch the viewer despite the central character being Rahul Bose. Rahul plays the character of a struggling man with memories of his powerful father. It’s true that the social drama moves at a slow pace but the characters are so nicely etched that you won’t really feel the absence of ‘events on the screen.

Based on a brilliant story by Narayan Gangopadhyay, it has all the ingredients of a typical Dasgupta film – surrealistic images, visual poetry as cinematic metaphors, and collage of characters that are not always related and parallel narrative structures. Deep inside rural Bengal, eccentric faded aristocrat Raja (Sudipto Chaterjee) lives in palatial splendor with his mistress Rekha (Ananya Chatterjee). But their relationship is almost doomed. While he dances to old songs, she dreams of escaping to faraway lands with strangers. Both look stranded in antique fantasy versions. When a modern film crew comes from Kolkata with laptops and digital cameras and urges Raja to help them track down a tiger for a documentary the film takes a swift turn.

Starring Indraneil Sengupta, Swastika Mukherjee, Tapas Pal, Manoj Mitra, Shankar Chakraborty in the lead, 'Janala’ (The Window) is another masterpiece from Buddhadeb’s coruscating body of work. It explores the layers of dreams, memories and imagination, juxtaposed against realities that are thick and fast. An education system, a rotten health care scenario, problems of old age, village politics, an oppressive contractual labour structure that flouts basic human rights, and even the global politics of racism and discrimination find their place in this film.

Grihajuddha is a gritty political thriller set against the backdrop of the violent Naxalite movement in 70’s Calcutta. The storyline shows to what lengths big business can go to destroy factors that aren’t in favour of them. A giant steel company, which has corrupted many spheres of the society, eliminates Prabir, a popular labour union leader and makes his death look like an accident. Bijon (Anjan Dutt), an idealistic young associate of Prabir, who’s also in a relationship with Prabir’s sister Nirupama (Mamata Shankar), is forced to escape leaving her in emotional dilemma. Meanwhile, Sandipan (Goutam Ghose), a young journalist, who is preparing a report on the incident, starts putting all the pieces together and it leaves the powers in grave discomfort. What happens next forms the crux of the film.