{"id":1671,"date":"2014-05-24T12:36:46","date_gmt":"2014-05-24T12:36:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/?p=1671"},"modified":"2015-05-05T12:51:34","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T12:51:34","slug":"rituparno-ghosh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/rituparno-ghosh\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Rituparno Ghosh"},"content":{"rendered":"

May has a very special connotation in the Bengali psyche. It is in this month when two of the brightest stars in Bengal\u2019s cultural sky were born \u2013 Rabindranath Tagore and Satyajit Ray. It is on a rainy day in the end of the same month when Bengal lost its most versatile filmmaker of contemporary times.<\/p>\n

\"Rituparno

Rituparno Ghosh
(1963 – 2013)
(Pic Courtesy: dearcinema.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

As I drove to my workplace through a drizzle and an overcast sky, the FM radio was tuned on and that is when this shocker of news almost hit me numb. Rituparno Ghosh is no more. <\/span><\/p>\n

It came as a blow as probably a month back I edited\u00a0an interview of him for my magazine Silhouette<\/em>\u00a0and the interview has become quite popular for the intense and intimate answers by the director. And more importantly, I was supposed to meet and talk to him about a project of mine in the near future. All these now rest \u2013 in peace.<\/span><\/p>\n

Looking back, it is difficult to decide where to start from about Ritu, as he was popularly known. His first film was a children\u2019s film\u00a0Hirer Angti<\/i>\u00a0in 1992, which though not commercially successful, was quite a well- made one.<\/p>\n

\"Buy<\/a>

Unishe April (1994) straight away put him to success<\/p><\/div>\n

His biggest break came with\u00a0Unishe April<\/i>\u00a0in 1994 which straight away put him to success \u2013 National award for Best Feature Film and Debashree Roy bagging the one for the Best Actress. Notwithstanding the national awards,\u00a0Unishe April<\/i>\u00a0became a blockbuster hit.<\/p>\n

Three years later, Ritu repeated his success with\u00a0Dahan<\/i>\u00a0(based on a true incident) \u2013 another commercial hit and couple of National awards \u2013 for Best Screenplay to him and the Best Actress award jointly for the two female leads Rituparna Sengupta and Indrani Halder.<\/p>\n

Bengali cinema was in tatters following two major setbacks \u2013 the death of Uttam Kumar in 1980 and the demise of Satyajit Ray in 1992. Interestingly enough, Ritu just filled this void with those two most popular films.<\/p>\n

They came at a time when the middle class-educated and intelligent-Bengali was slowly turning away from cinema in general. There was a type of cinema which started becoming popular in the rural space which drew heavily from the action films of the South.<\/p>\n

To Rituparno Ghosh\u2019s credit he brought a section of the Bengali audience back to the cinema halls \u2013 to me this is his greatest contribution to Bengali cinema and any history of it will remain largely incomplete unless this due tribute is paid to him.<\/p>\n

Ritu left behind a repertoire of 19 films in all, in a span of 21 years, the last one\u00a0Satyanweshi<\/i>\u00a0(working title) on the vastly popular Bengali sleuth Byomkesh Bakshi being unfinished.<\/p>\n

For me, Ritu as a director was never important until 1999 and his fourth film\u00a0Bariwali<\/i>\u00a0with Kirron Kher (for which she won a National award for Best Actress).\u00a0Bariwali<\/i>\u00a0had a deep sense of understanding and pathos, deftly handled and reverberating with intense human connect.<\/p>\n

\"

Chokher Bali stars Prasenjit as Mahendra, Aishwarya Rai as Binodini and Raima Sen as Ashalata<\/p><\/div>\n

This was also a time when there was a saying that whoever acted in his films would go on to win a National award! Probably this prompted a host of Bollywood biggies to acknowledge his credibility and acumen by working in his films \u2013 Aishwarya Rai (Chokher Bali, Rain Coat<\/i>), Rakhee and Sharmila Tagore (Shubho Mahurat<\/i>), Ajay Devgan (Raincoat<\/i>), Abhishek Bachchan, Soha Ali Khan and Jackie Shroff (Antarmahal<\/i>), Madhavan, Naseeruddin Shah and Jaya Bachchan (Sunglass<\/i>\u00a0\u2013 unreleased), Bipasha Basu (Shob Charitro Kalponik<\/i>) and the towering Amitabh Bachchan (The Last Lear<\/i>).<\/p>\n

To Rituparno\u2019s credit he did evolve over a period of time and hardly any film of his can be termed as a predecessor to anyone else \u2013 they were largely varied. He started with a style which was predominantly indoors and dialogue-centric. We always lamented the excess of dialogue and the disregard of silence, the primary reason why his films were less cinematic to many including me.<\/p>\n

\"Buy<\/a>

Rituparno won 12 National Awards. Abohoman, Bariwali, Shubho Muhurat and Dosar were all award winning films<\/p><\/div>\n

However, he did quite a few things intelligently \u2013 in keeping things indoors in his initial years he could design his film in such a way that he could control the budget. And in having a lot of verbal communication in the indoor setting, he just sparked off the side of the Bengali psyche which quintessentially loves to remain indoors and unexplored.<\/p>\n

In his choice of subjects and films, Ritu helped the Bengali urban middle-class to identify themselves with his reel characters \u2013 lazy and laidback and hence resolved to talking mostly and staying indoors! This did the trick for him \u2013 kept his film expenses at the minimum and yet reaped rich dividends.<\/p>\n

Added to this are the National film awards \u2013 a whopping 12 of them in his 17 released films. Such a flurry of national awards can be matched by none other than Satyajit Ray. But then Ray never achieved the box-office success that Ritu enjoyed on a regular basis.<\/p>\n

Besides, it was Ritu who brought back Rabindra Sangeet in the Bengali film which can be considered as a pioneering act. His settings in his indoor-dominated movies set up the interior design of a host of Bengali mega-serials of the 2000\u2019s.<\/p>\n

To me none of the above two aspects work \u2013 but looking back there is no way but to admire how he had paced his creative innings. The first ten years till\u00a0Titli<\/i>\u00a0were a phase of Ritu \u2013 mostly dialogue-centric, indoors (though\u00a0Titli<\/i>\u00a0was an exception) and urban.<\/p>\n

The year 2003 saw him make\u00a0Chokher Bali<\/i>\u00a0 \u2013 not only this was his first attempt at a Tagore story but more significantly with this film he broke the barrier around him \u2013 he roped in Aishwarya Rai, the biggest heroine of Mumbai at that time and just increased the budget manifold. And there was no looking back after that.<\/p>\n

Shob Charitro Kalponik<\/i>\u00a0in 2008 was one film which I would remember as Ritu\u2019s finest for being overtly cinematic in spite of having quite a few flaws in entirety. Amongst my film critic friends, we would chuckle that this is one Ritu film for which we need to keep our eyes open. For every other we can shut them and just keep the ears open to understand the film- the absolute cacophony of the soundscape with dialogues.<\/p>\n

\"Shob

I would remember Shob Charitro Kalponik as Ritu\u2019s finest.
(The National Award winning film starred Bipasha Basu, Prosenjit and Jisshu Sengupta)<\/p><\/div>\n

Shob Charitro<\/i>\u2026 for the first time to me showcased Ritu\u2019s talent as a creative filmmaker who has supreme command and confidence on the medium, who understands cinema is as much visual as sound and visual is not only in showing good-looking national stars on the frame.<\/p>\n

In three of his films as an actor, I have seen the last two \u2013Memories in March<\/i>\u00a0(directed by Sanjay Nag) and\u00a0Chitrangada<\/i>\u00a0(directed by Rituparno Ghosh). The first one is a superlative film by its own standards and Ritu brought out the angst, the soft sensitive touches of homo-erotic love with a highly nuanced performance.<\/p>\n

\"Buy<\/a>

Raincoat (Hindi) starred Aishwarya Rai and Ajay Devgan<\/p><\/div>\n

He just picked the strings in Chitrangada<\/i>\u00a0and delivered boldly and more importantly, honestly. However there is\u00a0no doubt that he was limited in his range though he was deep in his understanding of himself as a person and type of character he portrayed \u2013 that of a homosexual. As an actor Ritu probably would play just one role \u2013 the one he modeled on himself.<\/p>\n

Any discussion on Rituparno Ghosh would be incomplete without his gender stance and his notions of sexuality. He himself started decorating him like an artifact. Artificial \u2013 maybe but he never cared and no one else should as well.<\/p>\n

His quest for his own sexual and gender identity was something he harped on in his appearances in the public space. He got jeered down for his alternative ways of thinking and living which just proves how patriarchal and typically male-oriented the society is.<\/p>\n

He lamented in an interview in my magazine \u2013 \u201cI know my city can neither handle me nor ignore me\u201d. It is important to understand that the city which took him up, held him high, made him such a hit film-director who could blend art with commerce with fair success just couldn\u2019t handle his alternative sexual choice and desires. In the later years any interview of Ritu \u2013 be on-screen or in print was laden with melancholia like Rudra of Chitrangada<\/i>.<\/p>\n

In the same interview he spoke about\u00a0Abohomaan<\/i>\u00a0\u2013 a film very close to his heart: \u201cMost of my viewers missed out on some finer nuances of the film in that mad attempt. Did you notice Ananya\u2019s first appearance? She comes in when Dipankar De is watching a film on a projector. This is a little tribute to one of my favorite directors Guru Dutt! Remember Waheeda Rahman\u2019s first appearance in\u00a0Kagaz Ke Phool<\/i>?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Buy<\/a>

The Last Lear (English) stars Amitabh Bachchan, Preity Zinta, Arjun Rampal, Divya Dutta, Shefali Shah and Jisshu Sengupta.<\/p><\/div>\n

Like his idol Guru Dutt, Rituparno Ghosh also probably lived his life on screen far too much than he actually needed or rather wished for.<\/p>\n

Bengali cinema will remember Rituparno Ghosh for being a pioneer and a host of young directors need to attribute their courage to take up the camera to this diminutive, \u2018feminine\u2019 individual. The meandering lines in Nandan to pay the last tributes as he was lying there reminded of a day 21 years back.<\/span><\/p>\n

Like his mentor Satyajit Ray with whom he was most often compared (if not from creative perspective) the influence on the general Bengali psyche that Ritu could muster was phenomenal. He was actually a part of the living-room existence \u2013 the reason people thronged from far off places to pay their last tributes. He could connect with the urban intelligentsia and his films could portray women in a radiant light of their own \u2013 probably better than anyone else.<\/p>\n

In a rare interview, cinematographer V K Murthy (who worked on almost all the Guru Dutt films, with the exception of\u00a0Baazi<\/i>) spoke about what Guru Dutt told him at the very end of his life \u2013 \u201cmujhe director banna tha, director ban gaya; actor banna tha, actor ban gaya; picture achchi banani thi, achchi bani. Paisa hai, sab kuch hai, par kuch bhi nahi raha\u201d <\/i>(I wanted to be a director, I became one. I wanted to be an actor, I became one. I wanted to make good films, that wish also came true. I have money, I have everything but there is nothing left).<\/p>\n

Both their films were haunted by the concept of death \u2013 time and again like a forlorn shadow. Guru Dutt passed away at the age of 39. Ritu could live only 10 years more.<\/p>\n

Author\u2019s Note:<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cJust after his demise, the news channels and print media broadcast Ritu\u2019s age as 49 apart from the Times of India which reported as 52. Few days later Anandabazar Patrika declared it to be 51. A friend who was a junior to Ritu in school vouches for 53 or 54. I am not changing the content of the article based on this \u2013 the moot point remains, even if he is 3-4 years off on either side.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

This article was first published in Dearcinema.com on\u00a0May 31, 2013<\/em><\/span> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To Rituparno Ghosh\u2019s credit he brought a section of the Bengali audience back to the cinema halls \u2013 to me this is his greatest contribution to Bengali cinema and any history of it will remain largely incomplete unless this due tribute is paid to him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":374,"featured_media":1672,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[424,4],"tags":[919,920,74,921],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indian-cinema-retrospectives","category-retrospective","tag-filmmaker-rituparno-ghosh","tag-remembering-rituparno-ghosh","tag-rituparno-ghosh","tag-rituparno-ghoshs-films"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/374"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1671"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}