Remembering Nabarun Bhattacharya on his 70th birth anniversary today

Q, who made a docu on late author

Nabarun Bhattacharya

, took to social media to remember him on his 70th birthday today. Long back, in a joint interview with Q, the writer of Kangal Malshat and Herbert, had highlighted the sad state of independent filmmaking in Bengal. On his birthday today, we look back at excerpts from the special interview: “The state has not just moved away from education and health, it had distanced itself from culture long back. There was a time when

Costa-Gavras

and Tarkovsky films would be shown on TV. If you don’t see, how will you feel the hunger? If you don’t know there’s a food like this, you will only have chhatu, what else? Cinema has become daily drug. There are so many channels, but none show a European film or a documentary. Yes, there’s some Hollywood nonsense, spider chasing you, bats flying above you, bugs biting into you. Americans can perpetually live on a puerile diet, we cannot. We raise questions about social norms, social mores. It’s good to see that a few young men are still not succumbing to lures of death. If Q moves into commercial cinema, will he not succeed? Didn’t Ritwik know how to make commercial films? Didn’t he write the script of Madhumati? Didn’t he assist Bimal Roy? He knew everything, and still pursued his vision. His fate and that of these young men are no different. Back then, there was severe economic deprivation. I have seen how Ritwik could not shoot the night sequence of Subarnarekha because the raw stock didn’t arrive. Every night a train would come to Kolkata from Chakulia. All eyes would be on it. Baba (Bijon Bhattacharya) and Rabi Bhattacharya would be ready with makeup. The shoot was held up for at least three days. Under such circumstances, who wouldn’t drink, get angry, feel frustrated? To circumvent that, these youngsters are using new technology. But the approach and attitude are the same. They are suffering. No one is happy. Next you’ll see young filmmakers committing suicide. I live in a country which hasn’t seen Barin Saha’s Tero Nadir Pare. Someone who worked with Robert Bresson! Totally forgotten! Gautam Chattopadhyay made a brilliant film called Somoy. Where is it? Does the government even try to retrieve it? This callousness is criminal.