Experiments in Bengali cinema

By Rajesh N Naidu
India’s regional cinema has been largely advanced in terms of experiments with content, medium, music or visuals. There have been major breakthroughs in technical aspect of filmmaking, more substance and richness in content and higher path-breaking innovations in terms of feel and texture of films. 
Since the birth of cinema in India, besides Marathi cinema, Bengali cinema has been very advanced in terms of experimentation with content and the medium. Directors such as Nemai Ghosh, Ritwik Ghatak, Mrinal Sen, Tapan Sinha and Satyajit Ray have been stalwarts whose works have inspired future filmmakers across India. Interestingly, a substantial part of the works of these luminaries contributed to the vocabulary of Indian cinema and such has been their impact that every new generation finds new meanings and relevance in their works. This is a testimony to the fact that they were experimental in every department of filmmaking. Some prominent experiments are as follows:

Udayer Pathey (1944)
After making a documentary on Bengal Famine (1943), this first feature film of legendary Bimal Roy is one of the early films in New Theatres which showed the sharp divide between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ due to famine, and economic problems of war times. It talks about how the dispossessed maintain their dignity and self-respected as opposed to decline in values of the moneyed class. Critic Ashok Rane says, “The New Theatres concept literally meant new theatre, where there was a conscious effort to create cinema that would be devoid of theatrical gestures and would be realistic.” And this film adheres to this philosophy quite well. 

Chinnamul (1950)
Directed by Nemai Ghosh (not the photographer), this was the first film that deal with the partition of India. The film’s story is about a group of farmers from East Pakistan who had to migrate to Calcutta because of the partition of Bengal in 1947. This was the early attempt at partition theme even before it became a leitmotif in auteur Ritwik Ghatak’s oeuvre.  

Nagarik (1952)
This film was the first film of Ghatak which was made before Pather Panchali (1955) and considered by critics as Bengali cinema’s first art film. Unfortunately, the film was released twenty four years after its making. Ghatak was dead by that time. It is a story of an unemployed person and repercussions of Bengal partition on people around him. 

Pather Panchali (1955)
This film is an epoch in Indian cinema. It provided ‘template’ for future filmmakers not only in Bengali language but also other languages in Indian cinema. Be its deeply meditative frames, acute but appropriate use of music, enormous sense of subtlety in dealing with delicate emotions or that rare and formidable ability to weed out the ‘superfluous’, this film is hermitic observations of Indian ethos with utmost dispassion. Based on the novel by the same name by Bengali writer Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay, the film is a journey of a family that goes through economic hardships and struggles to eke out a living in their rural ancestral home and the growing up years of their son Apu.  
Critic Ashok Rane says, “Ray had already started his film project in 1945 by shooting in real locations with natural rains, fog and clouds. It was in 1949, when he saw Bicycle Thieves, he got the template for his film and the rest is history.” Being humanistic in true sense, the timelessness is explained better in what director Shyam Benegal said in an interview, “It is this ability of great work to make you see the ‘particular’ in the general and the ‘particular’ in the general…the unique selling point of Pather Panchali is Ray succeeded in providing an experience of life in a way that can be experience by the entire population of the world.” 

Aparajito (1956)
This film was the continuation of the association of Ray and his path-breaking cinematographer Subrata Mitra. It is a technical breakthrough not only in Indian cinema but also in world cinema. It introduced the concept of ‘bounce lighting’ in Indian cinema. As light became too harsh for shooting in Benares, when it was decided to create a set in a studio in Kolkata, Subrata stumbled upon the innovation of using reflectors that would fall on the white cloth on the set to give a real look of ‘sky.’ Satyajit Ray had reportedly said when asked about this innovation, “You know, about seven or eight years after Pather Panchali was made, I read an article in American Cinematographer written by Sven Nykvist — at the time of Ingmar Bergman's Through a Glass Darkly, I think — claiming the invention of bounced light. But we had been using it since 1954.”  One can see this innovation in diffused lighting also in cinematographer V K Murthy work in Guru Dutt’s Kagaz Ke Phool.  

Ajantrik (1958)
This film by Ghatak is an experiment in its truest sense. Using an inanimate object as a character in a story was an experiment ahead of its times. Saibal Chatterjee says, “Making a car, which is an inanimate object, a character of a story and creating a gripping and sensitive narration out of it was quite an experiment by Ghatak for its time.” 

Meghe Dhaka Tara (1960)
This is a milestone in Indian cinema. Using epic approach and coincidence device of Bertolt Brecht, this film is absolute experiment in every sense. Ghatak’s deep understanding of mythology and contextualizing it in problems, hardships and struggles of Bengal partition, all of Ghatak’s works have been experimental. This film for which he is widely known uses melodrama to tell a story about a woman’s sacrifice for the sustenance of her family. In this tradition of filmmaking, Ghatak’s Subarnarekha (1962) is also an experiment in different way of interpreting Indian society in a socialist way. In his book Cinema and I, Ghatak says about Subarnarekha, “Here is a film in which I tried to deal a straight knock-out blow on the nose. It pulls no punches. It has been called melodramatic, and probably rightly so. But critics should remember the name of one gentleman called Bertolt Brecht. Who dealt with coincidences and who developed a thing called 'Alienation effect'. His epic approach to things has influenced me a lot. I have tried in my little way to work out with the tools of my profession, some similar works. To me, this is experiment.”

Baishey Shravana (1960)
This is Mrinal Sen’s first film of which received international acclaim. It is known for the struggle of a couple to survive in Bengal famine and other calamities in their lives. The film depicts loss of values and emotions in people who beset by famine. A scene in the film shows Priyanath, after three days of starvation, eating greedily some rice and without leaving some rice for his wife who resents more his selfishness than the starvation.

Jhinder Bandi (1961)
This historical romance was shot in Madhya Pradesh was based on the novel The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope. This is one of the early films to be shot outside Bengal. It brought together Bengal’s two matinee idols Uttam Kumar and Soumitra Chatterjee. It was known for capturing natural landscapes very well along with exquisite performances of its actors.

Jukti Takko Aar Gappo (1974)
This is one of the biggest technical innovations in Indian cinema in terms of narratives, themes and presentation. Here Ritwik Ghatak amalgamates the Jatra folk theatre and epic theatre in cinematic medium and successfully creates a deeply sensitive narrative. It deals with creation of plight of people after creation Bangladesh, decline in values in society and Naxalism along with various other themes of Bengali society. 

Ek Din Pratidin (1979)
This is one of most experimental films of Mrinal Sen. It is a successful depiction of how in times of crisis, the deep and long-suppressed biases of people come to fore. It is a story of woman who is a sole breadwinner of the family and her missing one night, brings forth the suppressed emotions of the family and neighbours.    

Shob Charitro Kalponik (2009)
This Rituparno Ghosh film was experimental in bringing out the complexities of man-woman relationship. It is quite experimental in showing how emotions and attachment to things, people and memories don’t separate a woman even if after her husband is dead. 

Shabdo 2013
This film is quite experimental in its content. The story is about a foley artist who is consumed by the needs of his job that hears only background sounds even when he is surrounded by people. This alienates him with his wife and the people around. He believes and makes understand people around him that he is normal. In a society so dependent on listeners, his tendency of listening only to the background sound is frowned upon and that adds to his misery.