From ‘Unishe April’ to ‘Utsab’: A Rituparno Ghosh Retrospective

When he broke into the film world, the state of Bengali cinema was all but dead. The evergreen Uttam-Suchitra days were gone, cheap remakes of Southern films were popular, the music was abysmal, so the educated Bengali people started to avoid the Bengali movie theatres. This is when Rituparno Ghosh launched his career with ‘Heerer Angti’ and ‘Unishe April’. And the ‘Bangali bhadraloks’ were enthralled. They were more than happy to flood back to the theatres. Bengali cinema had found a new lifeline. And the rest is history. Scroll down to have a look at some of the classic directorial works by Rituparno Ghosh as we pay our homage to the master filmmaker on his 7^th death anniversary.

It’s been one of the most important films by Rituparno Ghosh which even received Golden Lotus Award for Best Director. On the backdrop of Durga Puja, the film is a nice commentary showing many emotional currents passing among a family and relatives. Some of the industry’s big names like Madhabi Mukherjee, Mamta Sankar and Prosenjit Chatterjee played key roles alongside Rituparna Sengupta. The charming actress excelled in her role as the younger daughter of the family.

This Rituparno Ghosh directorial doesn’t have a positive ending but presents the realities well. When some antisocial elements molest newly married Romita (Rituparna Sengupta), nobody dares to stand beside her except a brave school teacher Jhinuk (Indrani Haldar). But, Jhinuk gets victimised, facing obscene questions in the courtroom when Romita's family, fearing social stigma, hides behind social status. 'Dahan' interpreted a burning instance of victim-shaming and led us to many moral questions.

This black and white film featuring Prosenjit Chatterjee (Kaushik) and KonKona Sen Sharma in the lead follows the life of a couple and how their life changes forever after an accident kills Mita, Kaushik’s mistress and lives him injured. Prosenjit Chatterjee received two awards for this black and white drama including the National Award - Special Jury Award / Special Mention (Feature Film) for his lead role portrayal and the Best Actor award at the Bengal Film Journalists Association Awards.

This National Award winning film (Best Feature Film in Bengali) follows two parallel narratives. The present portrays Rohini (brilliantly essayed out by Debashree Roy), a renowned actress who is an emotionally vulnerable and addicted to sleeping pills. She is trying to cope with her mother’s illness but ends up forming a subtle schism with her father (Soumitra Chatterjee). Flashbacks, on the other hand, highlight the slow disintegration relationship with her fiancé as he gets involved with a younger upcoming actress, which in ends up clarifying her present vulnerability.

In ‘Titli’, Rituparno Ghosh pays attention to every detail and beautifully captures the essence of a simple so-called happy family with a compelling story. In this film, Mithun Chakraborty is a popular film star, whereas Konkona Sen Sharma portrays his die-hard fan. Her admiration for the film icon changes when she meets him in person. This is no doubt an interesting narrative. But what makes this film special is the portrayal of a complex mother-daughter relationship, which is further enhanced when we see that the girl's mother (Aparna Sen) was actually her idol's love interest in his early days. The equation changes quickly when a divine love represented by a relationship between fan and stardom faces the ultimate test.

It’s Rituparno’s first National Award winning film. The complexity of a mother-daughter relationship is superbly picturised in this Rituparno Ghosh directorial. The complexity between Sarojini (Aparna Sen) and her late husband is literally the harsh picture of our society. The same thing happens to Aditi as her boyfriend doesn’t want her as wife because she is a daughter of a dancer. Aparna Sen excelled in her role. Both the personality of a professional dancer and motherly love has superbly bloomed in the character Sarojini. Debashree Roy as the daughter Aditi amazed the audience winning a National Award for Best Actress.

Based on Rabindranath Tagore’s famous novel with the same name, Rituparno Ghosh superbly did justice to every character in the story as it won National Award for Best Feature Film in Bengali. The plot weaves around a widow Binodini’s mental growth. You can also relate to all the shades of traditions that suppress a woman’s sexuality and the unique bonding between two women which stand still against all odds and prevents things from falling apart.

A veteran actress dies while she was giving an interview to renowned entertainment journalist Mallika Sen played by Nandita Roy. Due to the mystery surrounding the death it becomes a police investigation and unlocks many facades of Bengali film industry’s celebrated and forgotten faces. The journalist plays a symbolic bridge between all the incidents and her Ranga Pishima who solves the murder mystery just sitting at her place in this supreme Bengali adaptation of Agatha Christie's popular work 'The Mirror Cracked from Side to Side'. Shubho Mahurat bagged two National Awards in Best Supporting Actress (Rakhee) and Best Feature Film in Bengali categories.

Revolving around the story of a lonely landlady (played by Kirron Kher) who falls in love with a film director, the movie grabbed a national award and recognition at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2000.

The last film of Rituparno which grabbed the National Award for Best Direction was ‘Abohoman’. He initially planned to make it in Hindi, but finally made it into a Bengali one casting Dipankar De and Mamata Shankar in the lead. This Rituparno directorial is all about the relationship between a filmmaker with his wife, actress and his muse. As the story progresses, these three relationships starts to interchange as the climax of the movie left open for interpretation. ‘Abohoman’ won three National Awards – Best Film, Best Director and Best Actress (for Ananya Chatterjee).