Ajantrik: Celebrating 100 years of Ritwik Ghatak

Uttam Kumar once heard his doorbell ring at 1 am. Shocked and a little annoyed, he woke up and called for his house help to see who it was.

- MOHUL BHATTACHARYA

He had a shoot the next morning, and his annoyance was justified. But upon seeing who it was at the door, the demure changed completely. A drunk man with a series of full scape blank paper stood there. He had a script he wanted Kumar to play the hero in. It was Ritwik Ghatak.

Ritwik Kumar Ghatak (4 November 1925-6 February 1976) turns 100 this year. Looking back at his career and life, there is so much diaspora, it is difficult to navigate between displacement and actual filmmaking. In his short six-feature fiction films, Ghatak had portrayed very difficult themes. From the marginalised to the mainstream lower class intellectual, Ghatak does not want to please his audience. It was probably why not many people appreciated his films in a fast modernising society.

His most-watched film during his lifetime remains Megha Dhaka Tara. Martin Scorsese said while restoring his films, "He was a man of very serious ideas shot with a camera, kind of guy."