RITWIK GHATAK

Ritwik Ghatak

b. 4 November, 1925, Jindabazar, Dhaka, East Bengal (now Bangladesh)
d. 6 February, 1976, Calcutta, West Bengal, India

Ritwik Ghatak - an artist who exerted a profound influence on the modern Indian cinema but who was critically recognized abroad only after his untimely death in 1975. A native of East Bengal, Ghatak was shattered by the partition of that "orphan state" (later to become Bangladesh), and his stories and images are permeated with the personal urgency he felt for the people whose lives and culture were irreparably ruptured.
Yet his films also have a vital, regenerative power, fed by the artist's insatiable intelligence and his skillful integration of popular forms of culture - melodrama, songs, and dance - into politically radical themes. His major influence was Eisenstein, and he said, "I have wanted to use the cinema as a weapon". But if he shocks, he does so with photography that is thought made visible, editing that turns melodrama into a form of music, and music that tells its own bold and surprising story.
Through his films and his short tenure at the Film Institute in Pune, Ghatak influenced a generation of filmmakers including Kumar Sahani, Mani Kaul, Ketan Mehta, and Adoor Gopalakrishnan - names that today are synonymous with the Indian art film. Ghatak was a complex man who was much loved by his students but was viewed by the film establishment as an eccentric iconoclast; he died a chronic alcoholic at the age of 49.

Film	Year	Story	Music	Cast
Nagarik	1953	Ritwik Ghatak	Hariprasanna Das	Kali Banerjee, Prabha Devi, Sobha Sen, Gangapada Bose
Ajantrik	1958	Subodh Ghosh	Ali Akbar Khan	Kali Banerjee, Anil Chatterjee, Tulsi Chakrabarty, Gnanesh Mukherjee, Kajal Gupta, Kesto Mukherjee
Bari Theke Paliye	1959	Sibram Chakrabarty	Salil Chowdhuri	Kali Banerjee, Gnanesh Mukherjee, Kesto Mukherjee. Jahar Roy
Meghe Dhaka Tara	1961	Shaktipada Rajguru	Jyotirindra Maitra	Anil Chatterjee, Supriya Choudhuri, Bijan Bhattacharya, Gita Ghatak, Gita Dey,
Komal Gandhar	1961	Ritwik Ghatak	Jyotirindra Maitra	Supriya Choudhuri, Gita Deu, Anil Chatterjee, Bijan Bhattacharya, Satindra Bhattacharya
Subarnarekha	1962	Ritwik Ghatak	Bahadur Khan	Abhi Bhattacharya, Madhabi Mukherjee, Bijan Bhattacharya, Satindra Bhattacharya
Titas Ekti Nadir Naam	1973	Adwaita Mallabarman	Bahadur Khan	Rosi Ahmed, Kaberi Choudhuri, Fakirul Hasan Bairagi, Narayan Chakrabarty, Shafikul Islam, Sirajul Islam
Jukti Takko Aar Gappo	1974	Subodh Ghosh	Ritwik Ghatak	Ritwik Ghatak, Tripti Mitra, Snaoli Mitra, Gnanesh Mukherjee, Jahar Roy, Utpal Dutta