Tribute To
RITUPARNO GHOSH
(1963 – 2013)
Screening of two
films
UNISHE APRIL
&
ABOHOMAN
(Bengali with English
subtitles)
18th August 2013,
Sunday; 3.30pm to 8.30 pm
Convension Hall, PSG
Institue of Management, Peelamedu
All are Welome;
Admission Free
Presented by
Aruvi & Konangal
Film Society
RITUPARNO GHOSH
August 31, 1963 - 30 May 2013
Ad and feature film maker, actor and director Rituparno
Ghosh pushed the boundaries of Indian film-making, exploring personal
relationships and issues of identity in a series of award winning films in
Bengali, Hindi and English. From Unishe April in 1995 to the semi-biographical
Chitrangada in 2013, he leaves behind a connoisseur’s collection.
A meticulous screenwriter-director whose films blended the
classical literary traditions of his native Bengal with a new-age sensibility
and craft that transcended the confines of region, Rituparno Ghosh was one of
the most provocative voices of contemporary Indian cinema.
In a tragically brief but hugely eventful career, Ghosh made
light of many divides through the means of his immaculately crafted films and
on the strength of his own unique identity: art and commerce, regional and
national, heterosexual and gay.
He was a rare Kolkata-based Bengali filmmaker who found
ready acceptance among the biggest stars of mainstream Mumbai cinema. More importantly, Ghosh was peerlessly gutsy
in the manner in which he addressed issues of alternative sexuality in a series
of three films made within a year of each other — Kaushik Ganguly’s Just
Another Love Story (2011), Sanjoy Nag’s Memories in March (2011) and
Chitrangada — The Crowning Wish (2012).
Rituparno was candid in openly challenging established
social norms. Director Gautam Ghosh remarks," Rituparno stands out as one
who stood for what he believed in. This is what I really appreciate in him …
the confidence he had in his own point of view no matter what; a quiet but
firmly independent spirit that found reflection in his various interactions,
not to speak of his films.”
In less than two decades, Ghosh made nearly 20 films, the
last being the incomplete Satyanweshi (Seeker of Truth), his take on an
adventure of the fictional sleuth Byomkesh Bakshi that he finished shooting
days before his death.
Born on August 31, 1963, Ghosh studied economics at
Kolkata’s Jadavpur University. He learnt the ropes from his documentary
filmmaker-father, Sunil Ghosh, before branching out on his own in the world of
advertising. Ghosh’s directorial debut
was the nondescript children’s film Hirer Angti (The Diamond Ring), made in the
early 1990s but released only in 1994. It was with the Bergmanesque Unishe
April (April 19) that he burst on the scene.
Ghosh left a deep imprint with everything he did as a man
and a filmmaker. There has never been, and is unlikely to be, anyone quite like
him in Indian cinema. Within the short period of time he was among us, he has
inspired us to think independently, express our views without fear and to hold
an intense emotional-spiritual bond with everyone around us. May his soul rest
in peace.
(Excerpts from tribute article by Arun Chatopadhyay)
UNISHE APRIL
(1994/Col/133 min)
Rituparna Ghosh truly arrived on the national scene with
Unishe April. it won Best Film and Best
Actress (Debashree Roy) at the 1994 National Awards.
Sarojini, a
dancer utterly devoted to her craft, keeps her daughter Aditi at arm’s length.
Aditi, having lost her father to a heart attack and her mother to dance, is the
bhadralok version of a rebellious teen: she is studying to be a doctor, and
gets on her mother’s nerves by being excessively polite. Early on in Unishe April, Sarojini learns that she’s
been selected for a prestigious award, resulting in her making immediate travel
plans. This triggers off Aditi’s long-repressed feelings of abandonment, and
when her mother unexpectedly returns that night, the resentment spills over.
Ghosh displays great assuredness for someone at the start of his
filmmaking career. He patiently layers long, dialogue-heavy scenes one onto
another, until the cumulative effect starts to show its power. At times one
wishes that the visual flourishes – like the beautiful first shot where the
camera pans away from the dancers, or the silhouette of Aditi lit by a single
candle - were more frequent. The performances, however, keep one from straying.
Roy gives Aditi a complexity often missing in such roles – her change in
demeanour from the time she demands that her boyfriend call her long-distance
to her break-down when he does, underlines the illusory nature of control. And
Aparna Sen goes from affected to affecting as her character’s past is
illuminated. Films made in this country often have teary endings, but few earn
them the way this one does..
(
review fromhttp://fanapart.blogspot.in)
ABOHOMAN
2009/Col/ 118 Min
ABOHOMAAN means “Like Weather” – something that’s Eternal
and yet never Constant. Like weather that’s interspersed by streaks of sunlight
and sudden bursts of rain, life is never a uniform journey of either happiness
or grief. Ritu Da presented the same ephemeral quality of life through the
non-linear reels of his film that traces the life of an ageing filmmaker and
the repercussions of his ‘scandalous’ affair with a young actress, on his life
and his family.
The point to be noted here is that though the word ‘scandal’
has been used many a time during the course of the film, there is nothing
really blasphemous about the relation. In fact, what could have been another
film about infidelity from Ritu Da’s armoury turns out to be a subtle tale of
an artist and his muse – reflecting on the fact that our society is often
myopic enough to misconstrue this relation to being an amorous one.
The story seamlessly links three layers of incidents: the
aftermath of Aniket Mazumder’s death, his earlier days with his family and the
straining relation between him and his wife Dipti & son Apratim, and his
pioneering film “Noti Binodini” that starred debut actress Shikha, escalating
her career to fame and nurturing rumours of Aniket’s affair with Shikha.
Abohomaan remains one of his more “original” works – where
he could wield his creativity to the full extent and come out with flying
colours. When you make films about relationships repeatedly, it gets very
difficult to ensure that you don’t get repetitive. And here’s a man presenting
an absolutely fresh perspective about inter-character duels – a view so fresh
and so appealing that you wonder why people don’t think so much about
relationships as he does!
(Review by Souvik Gupta )
