{"id":1805,"date":"2015-05-30T00:00:20","date_gmt":"2015-05-30T00:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/?p=1805"},"modified":"2019-08-31T14:44:14","modified_gmt":"2019-08-31T09:14:14","slug":"rituparno-ghosh-the-enfant-terrible-of-contemporary-indian-cinema","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/rituparno-ghosh-the-enfant-terrible-of-contemporary-indian-cinema\/","title":{"rendered":"Rituparno Ghosh \u2013 The \u2018Enfant Terrible\u2019 of Contemporary Indian Cinema"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Debasree

Debasree Roy and Aparna Sen in Unishe April<\/p><\/div>\n

May has a very special connotation in the Bengali psyche. It is in this very month when two of Bengal\u2019s brightest stars of the cultural sky were born \u2013 Rabindranath Tagore and Satyajit Ray. It is on a rainy day in the end of the same month two years back when Bengal lost its most versatile film-maker of contemporary times. It was a romantic rainy day in 2013 unlike the sweltering summer this year and I was driving to my office when the news of Rituparno Ghosh\u2019s untimely death hit me quite hard, like many others. Two years later and the initial shock evaporated by now what does Rituparno Ghosh\u2019s cinema mean to me?<\/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, Rituparno\u2019s films just filled this void to start with. There were the likes of Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Goutam Ghosh or Aparna Sen \u2013 however, the middle-class educated and intelligent Bengali was slowly turning away from cinema in general.<\/p>\n

In parallel there was a rising of another type of Bengali films which was targeted and marketed for the less cerebral section of the audience, primarily in the rural belt though not always. The phenomenon of Prasenjit surfaced from this trend as well as Chiranjit who had a shorter stay with fame though. 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

\"Aishwarya

Aishwarya Rai in Chokher Bali<\/p><\/div>\n

Interestingly, Rituparno\u2019s films bagged him a lot of national awards and also to the actors of his films \u2013 one probable reason why a host of Bollywood flocked to work in his films \u2013 Aishwarya Rai (Chokher Bali, Rain Coat<\/em>), Rakhee and Sharmila Tagore (Subho Maharat<\/em>), Ajay Devgan (Raincoat<\/em>), Abhishek Bachchan, Soha Ali Khan and Jackie Shroff (Antarmahal<\/em>), Madhavan, Naseeruddin Shah and Jaya Bachhan (Sunglass<\/em> \u2013 unreleased), Bipasa Basu (Sab Charitra Kalponik<\/em>) and Amitabh Bachchan (The Last Lear<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Rituparno often commented he wanted to make films made in the Bengali language but for an Indian audience \u2013 one of the reasons he took stars of the Bombay film industry quite often and at times made films in Hindi (Raincoat<\/em>) or even English (The Last Lear<\/em>). This is unique of him since not even Satyajit Ray (apart from occasionally taking Sharmila Tagore and one Hindi film in Shatranj Ke Khilari<\/em>) ever reached out to the Bombay stars in a conscious bid to make his films more acceptable outside of Bengal. In this effort and with moderate success, Rituparno not only broadened the horizons of Bengali cinema but has given the entire fulcrum of \u2018regional\u2019 cinema a whole new dynamics \u2013 the debate, problems and the future of which is beyond the scope of discussion for this article.<\/p>\n

If we now analyse the filmic career of Ghosh, he started off with films which were largely indoors with loads of dialogues and a complete disregard for silence \u2013 something I never liked then, and even now. However he was intelligent in controlling his budget in keeping his cinema mostly static in the initial years \u2013 he was probably trying to gain faith of his producers and ensured that he is not being extravagant and in the process missing out being able to make the films at all! And in having a lot of verbal communication in the indoor setting he just sparked off the side of Bengali psyche which quintessentially loves to remain indoors and unexplored.<\/p>\n

\"Rituparno

Rituparno Ghosh and Deepti Naval<\/p><\/div>\n

In his choice of subjects and films Rituparno 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! Side by side it was Rituparno who brought back Rabindra Sangeet in the Bengali film (which disappeared mostly in the \u201880s) which can be considered as a pioneering act and his settings in his indoor-dominated movies set up the interior design of a host of Bengali mega-serials of the 2000\u2019s. To me none of the above two aspects work \u2013 but looking back there is no way but to admire the way he had paced his creative innings. The first ten years till Titli<\/em> were a phase of Ghosh \u2013 mostly dialogue-centric, indoors (though Titli<\/em> was an exception) and urban. The year 2003 saw him make Chokher Bali –<\/em>\u00a0 this was not only his first attempt at a Tagore story but more significantly with this film he broke the barrier round him \u2013 took 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

In a strange way Rituparno\u2019s positioning in the Bengali cultural space has similarities and parallel with two most revered Bengali film-makers of all times \u2013 Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak. If Satyajit gave masculinity to the body of Bengali cinema, Rituparno without doubt added feminity to it. This feminity is of the mind \u2013 which many female film-makers with a patriarchal bent can never think of bringing forth.<\/p>\n

\"antarmahal\"Take the example of Sob Choritro Kalpanik<\/em> (All Characters are Imaginary). To me this is one of Ritu\u2019s finest films for being cinematic where he could blend visuals with sound effectively \u2013 lack of which in general is one big drawback of Ritu\u2019s cinema according to me. In this film a woman finds solace in another woman \u2013 Radhika in Nando\u2019s mother and later, more interestingly Radhika in Kajari, Indranil\u2019s literary muse. In some deft montages the director mixes Radhika and Kajari in one soul \u2013 Radhika\u2019s transcendence from Indranil\u2019s wife to the perception that she herself can be his muse. The light and shade brings in Kajari and submerges her identity in the cool sublime exteriors of Radhika. And during this immense turmoil of soul exchanges we hear the marriage chanting of East Bengal, now Bangladesh. These are folk songs that reverberate with the resonance of the marriage between Radhika\u2019s and Kajari\u2019s identities\u2026 and possibly Nando\u2019s mother\u2019s? Perceived from the director\u2019s point-of-view it can be safely assumed that here the gaze on the muse Kajari is a female gaze \u2013 Radhika\u2019s illusive fantasies in search of a girl or, is it the self she has long lost which she finally discovered after her husband\u2019s death. More importantly he talks about sisterhood \u2013 something not known in Indian cinema in the popular mainstream space.<\/p>\n

The reason why Rituparno is so endeared amongst Bengalis along with Ray is probably also because both of them would take up Rabindranath Tagore\u2019s novels and short stories and transform them into films which will remain important renditions in the history of Indian cinema, the only other to share the same fame is Tapan Sinha. If Charulata<\/em> by Ray is an all-time great movie of the world, Ghosh\u2019s Chokher Bali<\/em> will remain a fitting adaptation of one of Tagore\u2019s modernist novels. Like Ray, Ghosh as well was at the helm of the cultural identity that shaped the Bengali intelligentsia \u2013 Ghosh would edit popular magazines and host two of the best talk-shows in Bengali media of all times \u2013 Ebong Rituparno<\/em> (And Rituparno) and Ghosh & Co<\/em>.. There is no doubt that his formidable literary and artistic readings and knowledge along with a sensitive rendition of the acquired information made these shows very popular.<\/p>\n

\"Rituparno

Rituparno Ghosh and Amitabh Bachchan at the set of The Last Lear<\/p><\/div>\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. His quest for his own sexual and gender identity was something he harped on in his appearances in the public open space. He got jeered down for his alternative ways of thinking and living which just proves how patriarchal and \u2018typical\u2019 male-oriented the society is. He lamented in an interview in Silhouette \u2013 \u201cI know my city can neither handle me nor ignore me\u201d. [1] 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 alternate sexual choice and desires. He believed in gender fluidity and in being a \u2018parallel\u2019 to the man-woman duality. For him it was not important to be gay or a lesbian or a transgendered \u2013 it is important probably to be something in-between but over-encompassing. He probably had experienced this plurality in him which resulted in his decoration of himself and also his choice of films. He took to acting probably to spread his cause, his self, more than anything else.<\/p>\n

In this regard he is closer to Ritwik Ghatak in the fact that Ritwik with his life-style and propaganda was equally stomped down by the Bengali middle-class \u2018bhadralok\u2019 albeit in a different context altogether. If Rituparno\u2019s sexuality and his \u2018living one\u2019s life\u2019 the way he wanted was something that the mass couldn\u2019t digest, it was Ritwik\u2019s alcoholism and his big-mouth which rarely suited the educated. In both cases the person was more the point in discussion and not the oeuvre he left behind \u2013 utterly unfortunate and a bitter reality. Interestingly enough for both their last films have elements of autobiography and would remain hallmarks in their own career and in understanding them within their creative space. With Jukti Takko Aar Goppo<\/em> Ritwik opened up a new window of personal cinema where the creator gets juxtaposed with his creation and his visions \u2013 extremely political and rooted within critical cinematic flaws and shortcomings. Nonetheless, this last film is one which has a didactical influence in understanding Ritwik\u2019s nuances and his dichotomies.<\/p>\n

Ironically, in similar veins, Chitrangada<\/em>\u2019s Rudra will be one rubric for analyzing the critical dilemma of the artist in Ghosh and the physical turmoil he had to undergo. There were two prevalent themes in many of Rituparno\u2019s films based on his own script\/story \u2013 the relation with the parents and the embracement of death. Time and again from his first film Unishe April<\/em>, through Asookh<\/em> and finally in Chitrangada<\/em> it is the relation between generations which he deftly touches upon and gives importance equal to the one between genders. In parallel, in all of these films it is the shadow of death in different forms \u2013 suicide, death of near ones and of relations \u2013 not the physical death alone but more importantly \u2018biraha\u2019 which transcended the physical, mortal separation.<\/p>\n

This feeling of loss of the self for the other is grounded in Rituparno\u2019s experience of Tagore \u2013 something which he could use to tap the Bengali mind with \u00e9lan. Both Ghatak and Ghosh experimented with their body but in different ways \u2013 and used their \u2018body\u2019 as the canvas of their denial of the system and their own revolt against the society. Tragically for both it was their very body which did a renegade and both died soon after making the films in discussion above \u2013 Ritwik at the age of 51 and Ritu at 49!<\/p>\n

In the final analyses there are a few in Rituparno Ghosh\u2019s cinema oeuvre which expanded the medium of cinema and championed the creator\u2019s vision and beliefs. The others died with a damp whimper. Rituparno Ghosh probably will remain an \u2018enfant terrible\u2019 of contemporary Indian cinema \u2013 less for his creations but more for his \u2018self\u2019.<\/p>\n

END NOTES
\n[1] My City Can Neither Handle Me Nor Ignore Me: Rituparno Ghosh \u2013 Interview of Rituparno Ghosh<\/a>
\n(This article has borrowed handsomely from my two previous tributes to Rituparno Ghosh in Dearcinema and DeepFocus after his demise in 2013)<\/em><\/p>\n

More to read<\/strong>
\nTagore\u2019s Noukadubi And Rituparno\u2019s Inspiration: Interrogating Marriage And Home<\/a>
\nPlaying Passion Over Penance \u2013 Re-viewing Chokher Bali (1902-2002)<\/a><\/p>\n

(All pictures used in this article are courtesy the Internet)<\/em><\/span> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a strange way Rituparno\u2019s positioning in the Bengali cultural space has similarities and parallel with two most revered Bengali film-makers of all times \u2013 Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak. A tribute to the path-breaking filmmaker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":374,"featured_media":1808,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[424],"tags":[919,920,74,76],"class_list":["post-1805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indian-cinema-retrospectives","tag-filmmaker-rituparno-ghosh","tag-remembering-rituparno-ghosh","tag-rituparno-ghosh","tag-rituparno-ghosh-on-his-films"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1805","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=1805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}