The Era of Rituparno

The Era of Rituparno

A topic which is close to one’s heart, is also the most difficult one to express and by choosing it, I am absolutely open to any divergent view from anybody. In this blog, I plan to restrict my feelings only to ‘admiration’ in this blog, hence, will talk about my top 5 picks from Rituparno’s basket and the reasons to love them. Possibly the names which I choose here, will match to every other individual’s favourites. I may not provide a unique view. But skipping Rituparno while writing movie blogs will be a sin, I feel.

West Bengal film industry has given us many legends, many brilliant films, extended our reach to the international cinemas, provided us with not only a rich taste, variety and exposure but also with a pride and edge over others which generations can exploit for years.

Having said that, everybody would agree, the Bengali cinema experienced a major dip during 90s and possibly in the later decades. The reasons could be many- some deliberate ones include –generating a huge box-office success, creating mediocre contents for attracting the larger mass who are a little below the expected level of sophistication (being politically blunt). Even during the time of mediocrity filmmaking, one name out of the very few which stood out from the rest, was Rituparno Ghosh.

Rituparno has shown us what the viewers deserve to watch, what we have been missing in cinemas for years. It’s not the stories of the films, but the filmmaking and the direction which made them exceptional. Of course choice of a great story always worked as an advantage.

We were fortunate to experience his films thoroughly since childhood and in the process we were able to elevate our preferences and demand for good movies, and evolve our outlook the way he has shown us.

Here’s my top 5 in descending order– some of it can invoke a few emotions and nostalgia, for you, I am sure.

1.       The Last Lear- the adaptation of Utpal Dutt’s play ‘Ajker Shahjahan’ will bag the tallest podium. The story depicts the theatre actors pride in live- performance and prejudice in motion pictures. Everything aside, I feel this movie is one of the example of greatest acting by all the actors-from Amitav Bacchan to Shefali Shah, from Arjun Rampal to Jissu Sengupta. Even Preity Zinta also made a really good presence. Each actor was casted with perfection, each character is well thought through and each dialog was written to make a significant impact. The love and act of ‘perfecting’ is one of the favourite subjects of Ritu which reflects in his later movies too- example- Abahaman.

 

2.       Unishe April- this film taught me ‘relationship’, taught me how we take many things for granted, value the convenient few and choose to skip the essential rests. It taught me how we objectify the intents with our own perceptions disregarding the truth. The mother-daughter story made me realize that sometimes our dreams can be driven from hindsight having no control of the certainty of the judgement. This similar verdict is also represented in Ritu’s another mother-daughter combo called- Titli reinforcing the same fact.

 

3.       Hirer Angti- many of our generation possibly watched this classic in childhood on a television program called ‘chhuti chhuti’ hosted during our summer vacations. Based on a famous novel of Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, Rituparno made his directorial debut and created his place in the Indian cinema for ever. This film is an instance of simplicity coated with fantasy, and touching many emotions like bond, bliss, greed, loyalty, vulnerability, despair and many more but above all, there is innocence which concurs the rest.

 

4.       Utsab- Another dysfunctional family drama will be ahead of the race from his many other creations. The film focuses on festival (which is an integral part of bengali’s life) and its magical power to make everything right. It sounds far from reality, but as a fan of a ‘happily ever after’, I loved even the stretched truth which was offered here- i.e.-Festivity can solve many complex equations, give the strength to fight misfortune showing a ray of hope to thrive again. The ensemble star-casts made it awesome to watch.

 

5.       Shubho Mahurat- Finally my last award will go to a ‘murder mystery’ and I thank Rituparno not to discount this genre. It offers a fresh air from drama, romance and fantasy. What I love most about it, is a use of a Rabindrasangeet which impersonated every emotion from anger to pain, from love to revulsion and painted as an intent behind the justice [read murder].

 

Rituparno’s contribution to the Indian cinema is immeasurable; out of his 25+ directions, 12 movies have won national awards in different categories and sometimes multiple. Rituparno adapted the best of the best novels from all time- from Rabindranath ( Chokher Bali, Noukadubi) or Tarashankar  (Antormahal/Pratima) to Shirshendu (Hirer Angti) or Suchitra Bhattacharyya (Dahan) – and all over the world – from Agatha Cristie (Mirror cracked from side to side/ Subha Mahurat) to O’ Henry (Raincoat/The gift of the Magi).

His creations always depicts women as central characters. Spanning from a woman’s unsatisfying need (Bariwali), to a daughter’s struggle to trust (Ashukh- also a progressive story in its time to touch AIDS as a subject), a woman’s fight for respect (Dahan) to her inclination to infidelity (Sob Charitro Kalponik, Chokher Bali), a woman’s pretention of prosperity (Raincoat) to her suppression of desire (Dosar, Antormahal), - everywhere the idea of a woman exhibiting imperfections while juggling around multitude of roles, is presented in his movies. His last few movies especially post sexual re-assignment, reflect more vulnerability in characters, which I felt, could be result of certain emotional pains he had gone through in his personal life. It is debatable, but as I said, I only restrict myself to admiration, will not hover around much on those movies.

Hence let’s find out what your 5 best picks are!