{"id":6516,"date":"2022-04-25T16:49:24","date_gmt":"2022-04-25T11:19:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/?p=6516"},"modified":"2025-11-04T10:02:35","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T04:32:35","slug":"satyajit-ritwik-and-the-renegade-father-figure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/satyajit-ritwik-and-the-renegade-father-figure\/","title":{"rendered":"Satyajit, Ritwik \u2013 and the Renegade \u2018Father\u2019 Figure"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

It is with Manmohan, the elderly protagonist of\u00a0Agantuk\u00a0<\/em>that Ray introduces a \u2018father figure\u2019<\/p><\/div>\n

The cultural root of Bengal has a significant departure from the rest of India. The influence of Tantric mores and the impact of indigenous tribal practices ensure that importance is ascribed to the role of women and the fact that mother goddesses dominate Bengali culture. How much that may be attributed to the Proto-Australoid origin instead of the Nordic Aryan one is debatable. However, if the rest of India worships Rama, Ganesha, Shiva or Hanuman, Bengalis for centuries pay their highest respect to Durga, Kali, Saraswati and even Lakshmi in domestic spaces ahead of Ganesha.<\/p>\n

It is during the Pala rule (roughly 8th<\/sup>\u00a0to 12th<\/sup>\u00a0century) that the famed\u00a0Mymensigh Geetika<\/em>, a collection of folk ballads, was written. It is to be noted that the ballads depict stories of common human beings, not that of gods, kings or the rich as did the earlier Sanskrit plays. Significantly, the majority of the ballads were named after their heroines, Behula, Mahua, Chandravati, Kamala, etc. These ballads have a unique mix of portraying woman as mother (and hence nurturer) as well as woman as lover (aware of her preferences and likings). If the latter has been a cornerstone of strong women characters in later day literature of Rabindranath Tagore and the films of Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen, the former is the source of Ritwik Ghatak\u2019s much famed \u2018Mother Archetype\u2019 in several of his films.<\/p>\n

Rabindranath Tagore himself was heavily inspired by the\u00a0Upanishad<\/em>\u00a0where God was always the father \u2013 \u201cOm Pita Nohsi\u201d.<\/em> He wrote songs upholding the father figure \u2014 \u201cTumi amader Pita, Tomay Pita bole jeno jani, Tomay noto hoye jeno mani\u201d<\/em> (You are our father, Let us know you so, Let us bow to you ever). In his prose, in quoting from\u00a0Upanishad,<\/em>\u00a0Tagore explains, \u201cThe father has the affection of the mother. But he is not seen as very affectionate because he is not bound by narrow boundaries.\u201d This idea of the \u2018father\u2019 disposes Tagore from inclining towards a \u2018mother\u2019 cult in his literature.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Charulata<\/em>: The Lonely Wife<\/p><\/div>\n

With his Brahmo uprising, Satyajit Ray subscribed to similar sentiments because of which he had strong women characters in\u00a0Charulata<\/em>,\u00a0Mahanagar<\/em>,\u00a0Pratidwandi<\/em>, as well as important mother roles in\u00a0the Apu Trilogy<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Kanchenjungha<\/em>\u00a0but none attuned to the mythical, primordial \u2018mother\u2019.<\/p>\n

\"Chhabi

Chhabi Biswas in Devi<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

The closest approximation of such is in\u00a0Devi<\/em>\u00a0where Ray\u2019s philosophy towards derision of traditional Hindu customs steeped in superstition is not concealed.\u00a0Yet, most of Ray\u2019s cinema, apart from a few like\u00a0Mahanagar<\/em>, Devi<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0 Kanchenjungha<\/em>, is also conspicuous by the absence of an impactful father figure.<\/p>\n

Ritwik Ghatak, on the other hand, was torn between his obsession with Tagore (primarily his songs) and his fascination for the \u2018mother\u2019 cult. Interesting enough, in Ghatak\u2019s case as well, the father is marginalised, incapacitated, ineffective. Both Ray and Ghatak, different in their mental makeup and film aesthetics, were similar in one aspect. Both never wished to explore a \u2018father\u2019 archetype in their films. It is hence, important to observe, what may have lured them to seek refuge in a sort of a \u2018father\u2019 figure in their respective last films.<\/p>\n

Satyajit\u2019s traditional hero, inspired by his creator\u2019s vision, has always followed the arrow in his eyes. He is a chaser of truth, an explorer of the avant-garde. That is why, the hero is mostly a wanderer \u2013 through spaces, in time, across values. From Apu in the\u00a0Apu Trilogy<\/em>\u00a0to Amal in\u00a0Charulata<\/em>\u00a0and Amulya in\u00a0Samapti<\/em>, onto the urban heroes of\u00a0Aranyer Din Ratri<\/em>\u00a0and the three films of the\u00a0Calcutta Trilogy<\/em>, all move away from the traditional in pursuit of the modern. All of them (except Siddhartha in\u00a0Pratidwandi<\/em>) also move away from the rural to settle in or return to the urban space. It is with Manmohan, the elderly protagonist of\u00a0Agantuk<\/em>\u00a0that Ray introduces a \u2018father figure\u2019, albeit childless, who has already travelled the world. Manmohan is \u00e0 la mode\u00a0who is in search of the primitive. In one of the climactic exchanges, he laments that he can\u2019t be a \u2018tribal\u2019; however, he behaves like one, since from his childhood, his perceptions and vision are shaped by the writings of Tagore, Bankim Chandra, Vidyasagar and the other beacons of the hailed Bengali Renaissance. His niece and her husband don\u2019t put much faith in his authenticity as the estranged uncle. Manmohan, claustrophobic in an environment seeping with disbelief and mistrust spins off to a tribal village near Santiniketan, Tagore\u2019s abode, only to return to Kolkata en route vagabonding about the world again.<\/p>\n

\"Ritwik

Ritwik Ghatak in Jukti, Takko aar Gappo<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

In\u00a0Jukti, Takko aar Gappo<\/em>, Neelkantha, the middle-aged derelict (played by Ghatak himself) leans on a young man and a woman, both migrants from their homes, like him. Unlike Manmohan, Neelkantha has full faith in the younger generation, attenuated in his debate with the Naxalite leaders in a forest in the later part of the film. But like Manmohan, he also must leave the big city since the answer to existence and sanity lies elsewhere, away from the centre. Neelkantha and his followers meet Chhau exponent Panchanan who tells them how the ancient art form perishes due to the highhandedness of the urban rich. The masks are no longer used for performance. They are mere artifacts for decorating the rich middle-class\u2019s showy interiors.<\/p>\n

Manmohan and Neelkantha are misfits, both must vacate the rural as well as the urban spaces. In his explanation of the\u00a0Upanishad<\/em>, Tagore writes, \u201cThe attainment of the father is that he gives sorrow.\u201d What the \u2018father\u2019 also does, he takes the bullet on behalf of the rest. That confuses him and often makes him a renegade. Neither Ray nor Ghatak left a proper inheritance of their cinematic legacies. Ritwik\u2019s Neelkantha is the other side of Ray\u2019s Manmohan. Satyajit, is the lurking shadow of Ritwik.<\/p>\n

More to read<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ray@100\u00a0Lecture 5: Circularity in Satyajit Ray\u2019s Aranyer Din Ratri<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

My Journey to India \u2013 in the Cave of My Heart<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ritwik Ghatak: A Crusader Of The Rootless<\/a><\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a brief critique, Silhouette<\/em> editor Amitava Nag looks at how Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak with their different socio-psychological conditionings deal with the ‘father’ figure in their very last film.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":374,"featured_media":6518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[792,2277,2643],"tags":[1849,2285,29,655,656,28,221,1002,444],"class_list":["post-6516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-critique-on-films","category-ray100","category-ritwik-ghatak-centenary-series","tag-devi","tag-mahanagar","tag-ritwik-ghatak","tag-ritwik-ghatak-and-satyajit-ray","tag-ritwik-ghataks-films","tag-satyajit-ray","tag-satyajit-ray-and-tagore","tag-satyajit-ray-charulata","tag-satyajit-rays-agantuk"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6516","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=6516"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10195,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6516\/revisions\/10195"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}