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Of roots and rootlessness: music, partition and Ghatak Priyanka Shah

Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 120–136 | ISSN 2050-487X | www.southasianist.ed.ac.uk

www.southasianist.ed.ac.uk | ISSN 2050-487X | pg. 120

Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 120–136

Of roots and rootlessness: music, partition and

Ghatak

Priyanka Shah Maulana Azad College, , [email protected]

At a time when the ‘commercial’ Bengali film directors were busy caricaturing the language and the mannerisms of the East-Bengal refugees, specifically in Calcutta, using them as nothing but mere butts of ridicule, Ghatak’s films portrayed these ‘refugees’, who formed the lower middle class of the society, as essentially torn between a nostalgia for an utopian motherland and the traumatic present of the post-partition world of an apocalyptic stupor. Ghatak himself was a victim of the Partition of in 1947. He had to leave his homeland for a life in Calcutta where for the rest of his life he could not rip off the label of being a ‘refugee’, which the natives of the ‘West’ Bengal had labelled upon the homeless East Bengal masses. The melancholic longing for the estranged homeland forms the basis of most of Ghatak’s films, especially the trilogy: Meghe Tara (1960), Komol Gondhar (1960) and Subarnarekha (1961). Ghatak’s running obsession with the post-partition trauma acts as one of the predominant themes in the plots of his films. To bring out the tragedy of the situation more vividly, he deploys music and melodrama as essential tropes. Ghatak brilliantly juxtaposes different genres of music, from Indian Classical Music and to folk songs, to carve out the trauma of a soul striving for recognition in a new land while, at the same time, trying hard to cope with the loss of its ‘motherland’. This article will show how Ghatak, in Komol Gandhar, uses music and songs to portray the dilemma that goes on in the mind of his protagonists and other important characters estranged from their motherland, which could have otherwise become very difficult to portray using the traditional methods of art-film making. It also shows how the different genres of music not only contribute to the portrayal of the cultural differences of ‘East’ and ‘West’ Bengal but also enforce and validate the diasporic identities of the refugees while in the process paradoxically pointing out the unity and oneness of both the ‘countries’ as well. It will also elaborate on Ghatak’s own complex notion regarding the nation-state which reiterates itself in all his films. Finally, in discussing Komol Gondhar, the paper will also contain an elaboration on the IPTA (Indian People’s Theatre Association) around which the plot of the film revolves.

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Introduction These refugees or Bangals1, as they were

t the stroke of the midnight commonly referred to, began to be treated as 2 hour, when the world sleeps, the “other” by the Ghotis of Calcutta. The ‘A India will awake to life and cultural difference between East Bengal and freedom.’ This famous “midnight speech” by was nothing new but it intensified Pt. seems to present before after the partition. Even the Bengali us an expectancy of a utopian world of mainstream films started caricaturing the language and mannerisms of the East Bengali freedom and peace as if with the termination of the British rule all the centuries old hardships ‘refugees’ by typecasting them as buffoons or and slavery would come to an end. But the real country bumpkins in a thoroughly urban setting picture was a stark contrast to this promise. of Calcutta. Those episodes became so popular With ‘freedom’ came the harsh reality of with the audience in West Bengal that gifted Partition: Pakistan was born. India and Bangal comedians like Bhanu Bandopadhyay Pakistan were segregated along communal started using their native accent and lines - the dominated new-born mannerisms to project an image of a quick- Pakistan whereas India became the abode of witted buffoon determined to make a living in the and the minority Sikhs. However, it the estranged city of Calcutta. However, there was the people of Bengal and Punjab who had remain very few documents projecting the to bear the brunt of Partition the most. pathos of these refugees stranded off in a new Communal riots became more familiar to land. [One such important early film is them than anything else. The trains to Pakistan Chhinnamool by Nemai Ghosh]. and India were crowded more with dead bodies It was who, almost in all than with people. The Indian Government at his films, directly or indirectly, projected the last came to the rescue and sanctioned dilemma of these refugees essentially torn exchange of property between the Hindus and between nostalgia for a utopian motherland and the Muslims in Punjab. But Bengal was the traumatic present of the post-partition neglected. This negligence on the part of the world of an apocalyptic stupor. Alternative Government resulted in a massive abundance cinema in the third world country has of East Pakistan (now ) refugees in consistently battled to represent imperialism, Bengal. hunger and the slavery involved therein:

1 The people from East Bengal 2 The people from “West” Bengal

www.southasianist.ed.ac.uk | ISSN 2050-487X | pg. 122 The Indian experience of cultural politics has been portrayed brilliantly not only by suggests that the , as it has Ghatak in his films but also by in come to be called, is all about…the articulation of the colonized Jana Aranya (1971). To bring out the tragedy individual…in the history of the of the situation more vividly, he employs community, nation and the world at large which the post-colonial inherits. music and melodrama as essential cinematic (Kapur, 251) tropes. In his films, Ghatak brilliantly

Ghatak himself was a victim of the juxtaposes different genres of music, from the in 1947. Although he was dignified Indian Classical Music and the urban able to carve out a niche for himself in this Rabindra Sangeet5 to the rural folk songs, to alien land, he still could not rip off the label of carve out the trauma of a soul striving for being a ‘refugee’ from his own mind. The recognition in a new land while, at the same melancholic longing for the estranged time, trying hard to cope with the loss of its homeland forms the underlining theme in most ‘motherland’. Although all the three films of Ghatak’s films but it was in Meghe Dhaka proved to be milestones in Ghatak’s career Tara (1960), Komol Gondhar (1960) and (though he was, in his lifetime, more criticized Subarnarekha (1961), commonly known as the than appreciated for his films) and are ‘Partition Trilogy’- that the theme was dealt instances of great cinematic brilliance, my with openly. All these films have East-Bengali paper would focus mainly on Komol Gandhar, refugees as protagonists: cut off from their albeit with continuous references to the other mother-land, their bhite-mati3, Ghatak films in the Trilogy and try to show how portrayed how difficult it was for them to not Ghatak uses music and songs to portray the only settle in a land of bullying strangers but dilemma that goes on in the mind of his also to accept the land as their own. The protagonists and other important characters uprooted mass would not only be rebuked time estranged from their motherland, which could and again for “polluting” the land but looked have otherwise become very difficult to portray down upon as an uneducated bunch of villagers using the traditional methods of art-film by the sophisticated and ‘educated’ babus4. making. It would also elaborate on Ghatak’s The refugees would have to settle in dingy own complex notion regarding the classless colonies in the suburbs of Calcutta and other society and how, by portraying the women as such big towns with the educated youths toiling goddesses, the Marxists defy their own notion day and night for a square meal. This scenario of a classless society.

3 Ancestral land and home 4 Bengali intelligentsia 5 Songs written and composed by Rabindra Nath Tagore

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Travelling Performers, IPTA and Ghatak backed by eminent personalities like

If Satyajit Ray was drawn to the world of Shankar, , Shambhu Mitra, cinema by an utmost passion and love for , , Prithviraj films, Ritwik Ghatak was drawn towards them Kapoor, Balraj Sahani (both of them being for a specific propaganda to reach out to as stalwarts in the western wing of the many people as possible to serve his Marxist association) and Ritwik Ghatak himself among political purposes: many. “Songs, ballets and plays were all We (IPTA) used to give open-air directed towards this goal and every artist of performances where we could rouse and any significance became part of IPTA.” writes inspire an audience of four or five thousand. But, when I thought of cinema, I the veteran actor and performer . thought of the million minds that I could However, Ghatak’s association with IPTA was reach at the same time. This is how I came into films, not because I wanted to make not only as a director but as a playwright, actor films. Tomorrow, if I find a better and a cultural theorist as well. But soon a rift in medium, I’ll abandon films… (Ghatak, 56) ideologies demanded a ‘partition’ in the group. His political ideologies, unique in his own Ghatak, as discussed earlier, was deeply terms, led him to be labeled as a “Trotskyite” shaken by the Partition of India in 1947 and it and ultimately he had to leave the group. was precisely this incident, along with the great We wanted not to discuss things, but to get that slowly drew him things done. Our aim is to create that atmosphere where creation can be closer towards Marxism and politics. He organizationally achieved. became “not (just) a card-holder but an active (Ghatak, 95) member, a close sympathizer, a fellow It was his experience as a travelling traveller.” (Ghatak, 49). performer in the IPTA that was documented in The IPTA as the cultural wing of the Komol Gandhar. The metaphor of the itinerant aimed at raising performers with nothing to fix them to the voice against the political atrocities of the safety of bourgeois ideals of home and contemporary political powers of the country. property mimics the plight of the migrant Their aim was not only to raise a voice but to refugees who travels all over Bengal in search bring about radical changes in the society by of a home. The journey of the theatre group spreading the awareness far and wide among mirrors the quest of the refugees to fashion the rural and urban masses alike. IPTA was new ideals of shelter and identity. Ghatak uses more like a cultural movement of those days music as a trope that is intimately linked to the than a mere association of rebels and was interplay between stasis and mobility in the

www.southasianist.ed.ac.uk | ISSN 2050-487X | pg. 124 film, as it continuously comments on the shifts announcing the end of the first act of a play of spatiality and ushers in the wonders and joys about partition and refugee, the film opens up that travelling reveals to the characters. At the directly to the theme of ‘partition’ and same time, it also harnesses the age-old homelessness, and the first ‘stage’ dialogue by archetype of the travelling performers and one of the characters resonate Ghatak’s own musicians whose travels and songs bring them dilemma: “Why should I move away from close to people and to the ideal of union. The home, my beautiful home, my bountiful river material and the spiritual are uncannily evoked Padma?” The film, about a segregated theatre in the process to create as it were a group forming an alliance once again for a performative ethics of the union of the political grand performance and its eventual failure, revolutionary ideal and the affective forms a microcosm of the partitioned Bengal. dimensions of an organic linkage to one’s Once the barrier has arisen, there can never be homeland. solidarity and peace; even the question of Komol Gandhar has been accredited by working together for mutual benefit goes out of many a critic as a partial autobiography of question. However, this inability to work Ghatak. together was not due to lack of resources or The autobiographical form becomes also a rehearsals but due to the callous attitude of means of articulating certain universals. some of the main members: personal grudges The artist, in portraying an external event, invests in his character something of the and self-satisfaction had now become much unexplained, his own feelings and biases. more important than a successful performance (Rajadhyakshya, 83) to a performer. However, he did not let his ideologies, Anasuya and Bhrigu, the protagonists, biases and perplexities rule his films without played by Supriya Chowdhury and Abinash any sound social grounding: “…a Marxian to Bannerjee respectively, represent the Bengali the core, he does not bring out tragedies and youth of the time who had the zeal and courage happy moments without making socially to do something rebellious guided by their relevant statements and connecting the passion for their homeland and Nation. Both of audience with stark ground realities” (Roy, 12). them can be seen as parts of Ghatak himself. “The IPTA activists used several models Anasuya sees in Bhrigu a revolutionary which ranging from the realist to the Brechtian to her mother had searched for in the youth of Bengal’s living folk and popular form” (Kapur, Bengal: a person who could change the fate of 250) to bring into the fore-front the issues they Bengal. Both of them suffer from an agony of wanted to deal with. With a loud-speaker never again being able to return to their roots,

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their home. In one of the scenes, Ghatak takes lapserian innocence and purity. On the other us to the India-East Pakistan border: a utopic hand, Calcutta has been time and again nowhere between epar padma, opar padma. In portrayed as a dumping ground of debris. one such sequence we find Anasuya and Calcutta, to Ghatak, is a place which he loved Bhrigu entwined in their nostalgia for their lost to hate and hated to love. If East Pakistan is a home: “…my ancestral home lies just on the portrayed in the shadow of the Emile Bronte’s other side of this river…so close yet I will Yorkshire moors, vibrant and innocent, then never be able to return. That’s a foreign land.” Calcutta resembles Dickens’ , a dark (Translation mine). The nostalgic agony etched world of apocalyptic stupor. A hint of this we in these simple lines is unparalleled to any get in one of the first dialogues of Komol emotional outburst in any contemporary films. Gandhar, where Bhrigu, identifies Calcutta as The word foreign is of utmost significance here a dingy, claustrophobic place: “The sky is so for it at once makes something familiar and smoky here….where do I look at? Everything own, stark unknown and forever distant. The seems smoky and vague.” (Translation mine). scene is very important for it brings to the forefront the diasporic nature in Ghatak. The The Music of Exile and Homelessness famous tracking shot of a train coming to a halt Being in Calcutta was nothing short of an exile in the bank of Padma subtly but brilliantly to Ghatak. Calcutta, though his ‘home’ for portrays the permanent halt that the cultural most of his life, has always been a step-mother space of Bengal has suffered due to the to him, at least from his point of view. To political turmoil and the eventual partition. The portray this detachment, Ghatak has used scene along with the Bhatiyali6 song epar music and melodrama as essential cinematic padma, opar padma presents before us not tropes in his films. Art house cinema, till then, only a deep longing for the long lost homeland had restrained itself from the use of much in the characters but also prepares the audience music, let alone songs. But Ghatak, a stalwart for a film steeped in epic melodrama, in the Indian New Wave Cinema, on the presenting the effects of partition not only at a contrary, not only has used music quite socio-cultural level but also in a deep, personal liberally in his films, but also made Komol level. Gandhar into a musical of sorts: East Pakistan, has been portrayed in The friends of mine who are into making parallel films almost despise the use of Ghatak’s films as an idyllic place breeding pre- songs in films and do not really put songs in their films. But I do, and I will continue

6 Folk song generally sung by the rural boatsmen

www.southasianist.ed.ac.uk | ISSN 2050-487X | pg. 126 doing so if they help the story to succeed. songs, he is able to bind his points of view (Sengupta, 89) (Translation mine) within a definite spatio-temporal order.

Ghatak uses music, and their lyrics, to tell Ghatak’s films cannot be classified as his tales with a strong element of melodrama, musicals for the simple reason that they do not quite boldly, inviting the criticism of deal with music in general. As it has been contemporary film lovers. Melodrama as a pointed out, music and songs are put in by him genre of the masses is unmade by the to help the narratives. But it would not be too hermeneutics of a political revolution and class wrong to classify Komol Gandhar as a musical struggle in his films, thereby affecting the role since he uses “conceptual parallels of music in of music which was often used to accentuate his narrative” (Roy, 8) All the songs in the film melodramatic elements. Music is one of the not only portray the innate trauma of the principal dialectical elements of his films. It at protagonists or other characters or give vent to once interrupts and strengthens the audience’s the thoughts of the characters, but in the larger relation with the film in a strange and arena, remind us constantly of the theme of paradoxical feat that goes beyond the homelessness and exile. modernist strategy of self-reflexivity in so far While watching the film, a question may as it reflects the historical disjunctions and arise in the viewer’s mind regarding the unique political incommensurability of a divided land. title of the film which does not act as a direct In the semeiotics of film-language, the camera and easy metaphor to the narrative. In fact all acts as the sign-maker while the actors are the other films in the trilogy bear a title which mere participants in the signification: the not only can be easily translated into other camera controls the external space while the languages but which even non-Bengali people internal space of emotions is controlled by the can understand and relate to: Meghe Dhaka actors. In fact, the Stanislavsky School believes Tara which is translated as “The Cloud-capped in the total dissolution of the actor into the Star” and Subarnarekha which when translated character. It is perhaps to bridge this gap becomes “The Golden Line”. Many non- between the audience and the characters that Bengali viewers might point the latter having a Ghatak extensively uses songs in his films. He complex title, but once the notion of it being uses songs to relive his characters rather than the name of a river gets clear, the reason to create sound-effects in his films. It is behind its usage becomes quite simple too. But precisely with this intention that Ghatak uses things don’t work quite right when Komol both Classical Sangeet and Rabindra Sangeet Gandhar is the case. Literally translated, it together in his films, while, with the use of folk becomes “E-flat minor” which becomes quite a

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task for a non-music person to deal with. nowhere between East and West Bengal, a However, when liberally translated, it becomes place which Ghatak or rather every “Melancholic soft note on a high scale”. The contemporary Bangal would relate to. It forms film’s association of the drudgery of the human the undivided, unclaimed terrain of pre- pathos with music becomes at once clear with a partitioned Bangladesh where everybody sneak-peak into the meaning of title of the film. would live together as one. It constantly But the association does not end here. A song reminds them that the ‘home’ they are craving with this raga is quite common in Hindustani for is actually a foreign land now. All of four Classical music but Ghatak never believed in it lines, this song is crucial in understanding the being a cliché. Instead, he, along with his nostalgia that builds up a strong melancholic musician-friend Hemanga Biswas, attuned this note in the minds and hearts of the form of music to earthy folk songs. The song protagonists. Epar Padma Opar Padma is a case in point. Ghatak restrains himself from using It’s easy for Ustad to use similar kind of songs to depict the same classical songs having “komol gandhar” in situation. He uses numerous folk songs in this the raga but it’s not at all easy to insert “komol gandhar” in folk songs. There is a film to depict the same situation of kind of fishermen folk song prevalent in homelessness and exile but in myriad ways. the border areas of Tripura and Sylhet where the low tones in music touch upon The song Aam’er tolay jhumur can be the “komol gandhar”, thereby creating perfect example. It is an East-Bengali marriage amazing music. (Biswas, 144) (translation mine) folk song where the tone is not one of joy, but

of separation: the separation of the bride from The song Epar Padma Opar Padma is one mother and her new journey into the unknown. of the most important songs in the film. This Interestingly, Ghatak uses this song while song was penned down by Ghatak himself showing the title-card: it acts as a prologue to while it was sung by Hemanga Biswas, who Komol Gandhar. Against the black and white also gave music to this piece. This song background suggestive of a conflagration, this focuses our attention on a diasporic person’s melancholic song, sung in an East-Bengal vision of his or her own motherland: Instead of dialect, prepares the attentive audience for a stabilizing the identity over one land, he or she film enclosed in the world of refugees who try constantly affirms his/her longing for the lost hard to cope in a divided world of absurdity. In land while staying put in the ‘foreign land’. fact all the folk songs that have been used in Here Ghatak takes us to a utopic land, Jagna’r film work on a psychological level: they work chawr (the beach of Jagna), an absolute together as a cluster to portray the inner trauma

www.southasianist.ed.ac.uk | ISSN 2050-487X | pg. 128 of the refugees in a new land, their utter overpower the viewers’ senses, this energetic helplessness and nostalgia, entwined in song cuts us away from the melodramatic melodrama, when they come across something ‘reality’ and revitalizes us with a positive of their homeland. In sharp contrast, however, energy and enthusiasm. It is also put in the are the adhunik7 songs which have been used sequence where the two groups converge to by Ghatak as symbols of defiance towards the produce a play together. Ghatak believed that partition of Bengal and the adherence to the in order to bring radical changes in the society, system of divide and rule propounded decades people must come and work together as a unit. ago by the British. This newfound unity in the film is something As said earlier, Komol Gandhar presents that is celebrated through this song. The way before us a microcosm of the partitioned India. Jaya elevates herself in a chair and sings the Since his days as a student of University of song with energetic passion almost becomes a Calcutta, Ghatak became a member of the replica of Ghatak screaming out his communist party of India and worked against propaganda to the viewers. Although ‘unity the atrocities of the then Government. A against odds’ seems to be the main agenda reflection of this is found in all his major behind the usage of this song, the way Ghatak works. Songs like “heiiyo ho” and “Esho has used it to portray different circumstances in mukto koro” (Come and Open up) express the the narrative is really commendable. director’s ardent appeal to the people to rise Ghatak was sternly against the theory of against the ill workings of the political system. “Arts for Arts Sake”. For him, every mode of Ghatak uses “heiiyo ho” thrice in the narrative, art must have a specific purpose behind it. though under differing circumstances. Unlike Ghatak’s was a melancholic mind which never other directors who would change the tone of really could cope with the Partition. This the song from a “happy” one to a “sad song” to nostalgia for the lost mother land turned into an suit his/her purpose, Ghatak prefers to keep the obsession with him. It is this obsession which melody and tone alike in all the circumstances. can be sensed in the song “Come and Liberate” The revolutionary songs instill a deep positive (Esho Mukto Koro). A translation of this song energy to work against all odds in the would come handy in discussing the song: characters. Against the background of the Come and open up, open up this door of the Dark Padma8, when Bhrigu’s nostalgic cries of his Come artist, Come creator native land becoming politically alien seems to Come the fallen traitor Liberate, liberate yourself

7 Modern from the abyss of the past 8 A river in East-Pakistan, now Bangladesh (translation mine)

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The vigor and enthusiasm in the lyrics can rare fluidity of being able to slip through all be even traced in the expressions of the boundaries and partitions, made lucid with characters who want to just free themselves every sequence, dialogue and music in the from the shackles of a divided existence and films. It is specifically for this reason perhaps find freedom. Somewhere deep down perhaps that he introduces Rabindra Sangeet in his he believed that things could really be films. Tagore, to the , embodies the transformed, if not by bourgeoisie and unity and solidarity of Bengal. In this film too politicians, then by the artists. In fact, Ghatak Rabindra Sangeet helps a great deal in in his real life too followed the same policy, understanding Ghatak’s complex mind. The and it was for this reason that he had joined the first song used in this context is Akashbhora IPTA and later taken up films as a career (Skyfull) sung in the peaceful hilly terrain of choice. In fact, he gave up his job as the . The natural landscape is of much principal of FTII, for the sole reason that significance, for this area too acts as a it was not suiting his purpose of spreading the “natural” boundary between India and East- ‘awareness’ far and wide. Pakistan. Acting as a stark contrast to the This was the world that was shattered by claustrophobic closeted rooms of Calcutta, the War, the Famine, and when Congress Kurseong represents the freedom of the soul: and the Muslim League brought disaster to the country and tore it into two to snatch liberty from the daily drudgery of cacophonous for it a fragmented independence. city-life and hence, from the clutches of the Communal riots engulfed the country…What I have found most urgent materialistic political affairs of the bourgeoisie. is to present to the public eye the It is in fact the only song which is sung with crumbling appearance of a divided Bengal to awaken the Bengalis to an awareness of passion, sans the revolutionary zeal or their state and a concern for their past and melancholic tone. The way Rishi smiles, future. (Ghatak, 34) jumps, spreads out his hands, as if trying to To Ghatak, a sense of solidarity was still embrace the mountains, makes us, for the time present in Bengal which no partition or any being, forget about the melancholic “e-flat” other similar artificial calamity could sever that the film is all about. For a moment, all the thereby bringing a positive insight into both the boundaries and partitions get dissolved and personal and national dimensions of disillusioned; freedom of the soul takes the homelessness: “Exile and homelessness can centre stage here: teach us the joy of living internally as well as I've stepped on the grass externally without boundaries and without To the woods while I went My mind enchanted by the flowers' scent borders.” (Ghatak, 37). In fact, Ghatak has the A joyful melody is spread (Roy, 13)

www.southasianist.ed.ac.uk | ISSN 2050-487X | pg. 130 This song in accordance with the The idea of this Great Mother image…with both its benevolent and performance and natural landscape conveys to terrible aspects has been in our civilization us the “rhythm of Bengal” (Rishi says to since antiquity…The Great Mother image in its duality exists in every fibre of our Bhrigu) which no artificial boundary can erase. being. (Ghatak, 72). Akashbhora is also remembered by The duality which Ghatak talks about has Anasuya as her revolutionary mother’s been present in Anasuya too. In the sequence at favourite song. This information is co- , Anasuya tells Bhrigu that she is called ordinated with the next sequence of a by the name “Miranda” by her fiancé. And, claustrophobic room in an urban setting. The like any innocent and conventional lady she vertical pan-shot of the whole dingy urban set- aspires to leave India and settle with her up highlights binaries of entrapment and “Ferdinand” in France. However, the duality of freedom more vividly. In fact, the setting of the her being gets highlighted almost at the next whole film vacillates constantly between the moment when the face of Kali, the symbol of idealized rural and monstrous urban areas, power and meta-time Kaal, is pitted against thereby highlighting the need to escape and be hers. Bhrigu, on the other hand, has been free. It is to portray this that the claustrophobic referred by many critics as being a shadow of stage at the New Empire Theatre where the Ghatak himself; like Ghatak, Bhrigu toils hard actors are unable to give a unified performance to accept Partition, but is never quite able to do is pitted against the make-shift stage at a so, and like Ghatak, believes that it is only village where the actors give one of their best through art and culture that the tradition of performances. Bengal can be preserved. With the union of This gap between the urban and rural lives, Bhrigu and Anasuya, Ghatak perhaps reaches however, is bridged in this film through the for the best possible ending to the film. Their union of Bhrigu and Anasuya. In Anasuya, the union unites the two segregated theatre groups; binaries of both the rural and urban lives get and it shouts out loud the primary wish of dissolved. She has been a victim of partition, Ghatak- the reunion of two parts of Bengal. but at the same time, she is very pragmatic and The prime melody behind all the songs in this modern. Perhaps Ghatak used her as a symbol film is that of union - a union of two souls, of of Bengal which was indeed very common an two segregated theatre groups, of two Bengals: artistic trope in those days, both within the “In order for the prosperity of the people, the nationalistic discourse and beyond it. Ghatak two Bengals must meet. This is the only has even explained it in his own terms as:

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statement that I had tried to make through dream on his part and that the political leaders Komol Gondhar.” (Ghatak, 76) would do nothing to bring the two segregated parts together. Hence, it is only through a Marxism, Mother Goddess and After steady and cordial cultural relationship that the

All the films that Ghatak made in his lifetime rift can be bridged to some extent. For this, he have been looked upon as forming a continuum believed, the youth must be the flag bearers. of which Jukti, takko ar Goppo (1977) is the In his films, Ghatak unleashes certain modes of questionings and expectations that apotheosis. It is a film where all the ideologies, cultural dilemmas and socio-political beliefs defy a comfortable answer. A glimpse of this which perplexed Ghatak during his evolution can be seen in Komol Gandhar too. From the as an educated Bengali bhadralok get pitted focus on the romantic ideals of the young against each other and totally inverted. aspiring workers of , his last As mentioned previously, Ghatak’s use of film charts a shift to the marginalized domain 9 music and melodrama was essentially a trope of the Santhals , the subalterns whose culture to highlight his theme of partition and and specific historicity has bypassed the homelessness. Unlike other main-stream film- politico-cultural ethics of the self-conscious 10 songs, his songs do not break the narrative to bhadralok middle class Bengalis of whom provide relief and entertainment. Rather, his Neelkantha is an epitome. Bhrigu and Anasuya music and songs speak continuously, at a meta- come from educated families, both are well narrative level, of all the tensions, inner- aware of the contemporary socio-political conflicts and turmoil that disrupt the lives of situation of the country and both are striving to the characters. It also keeps commenting on the work for the socio-cultural development of socio-political standing of contemporary Bengal. In other words, they form a part of the Bengal. Issues related to the complex notions so-called Bengali intelligentsia. What Ritwik of the nation-state, the working premise of the wanted us to focus our attention on is the fact Bengali intelligentsia, the complex trope of how this particular group of people, in striving Kali, all of which had been previously for a classless society, formed a class of their problematized in his films through music, own. The attempts are put forward through his melodrama and peculiar camera-angles, get use of songs and background music. The peculiarly juxtaposed and synthesized in his numerous folk songs crisscrossing the narrative penultimate film. He showed that the continuously, breaking the flow of unification of two Bengals is nothing but a 9 Tribals 10 Educated Bengali middle class intelligentsia

www.southasianist.ed.ac.uk | ISSN 2050-487X | pg. 132 ‘harmonious’ dialogues, and the continuous shy away from, and in doing so, for the first tin-drums of the factory chores breaking time, he is able to establish the way educated through the ‘solemn’ rehearsals of the theatre communist leaders form a class of their own. group highlight the urge of the director to The idea of a nation-state has been transgress the enigma of the Bengali problematized by Ghatak in all his films, intelligentsia. The juxtaposition of the especially in the partition trilogy. The narrative sophisticated and the rustic, continuously in his films works implicitly on the visual level through scenes, dialogues and music go a long of iconisation and on the archetypal overtures way to establish this motive of the director. of feminine characterizations as ‘cultural However, these remained but only attempts on spaces’. A face signifying motherland has been his part, for, in the end- we see- through the prevalent in the nationalist discourse since ages union of Bhrigu and Anasuya, the class but Ghatak makes it increasingly complex by maintaining its superior hold over others. Also, linking it to the politico-historical dimensions although there are about fourteen songs in the of an avowed Marxist claims to subjectivity. film, the only two songs which are sung by the The cult of Mother-Goddess is an intrinsic part individual characters are Rabindra Sangeet- the of popular religion of Bengal which, over the preference of educated Bengalis. Hence, we years, has turned into a secular cultural symbol. have got a Ghatak who is consistently being This image of the “Mother-Goddess” was tortured within his self to find an answer to all highly romanticized during the days of anti- the prevalent questions related to politics, colonial nationalism when it came to communism, its function in the society and so symbolize the Motherland, race, language, forth. But never for once is he able to portray nation, etc: hence, the idea of Bharat-Mata. this dilemma within till his last film Jukti, However, Ghatak’s use of the discourse Takko ar Goppo. In this autobiographical film, deviates radically from the nationalist use: the Ghatak not only portrays but delves deep into images invest the narratives with an allegorical his own psyche through the protagonist charge where the story of the Mother becomes Neelkantha (played by Ghatak himself), a the story of the Land. failed Bengali intelligentsia. In the famous In the partition trilogy, the female low-angle panoramic shot of the Oraon11 characters are often rooted within a quotidian dancers, he seeks to explore those aboriginal struggle, never heroic in the usual sense, but aspects of society which the educated people rather an embodiment of the Mother as a domestic, loved entity, having more of a

11 A specific tribe of Eastern India matriarchal and devotional warmth than the

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emphatic patriarchal, Brahminical grandeur. political-historical dimensions of an avowed Looked at from this point of view, Ghatak’s Marxist claim to subjectivity. However, the ‘heroines’ do belong to the traditional space heterogeneous fusion of Mother Goddess and relegated to them by the authoritarian Bengali Marxism in Jukti Takko ar Gappo, thus, middle class intelligentsia. Born on Jagadhatri unleashes a heat that buckles the narrative Puja, Nita is compared to Goddess Uma in the conventions of his earlier films. film , a goddess who stands Although Ghatak joined the Communist for the “exemplary daughter” in Bengali Party of India at a very young age, due to the culture. She is indeed the pillar of the family, above stated reasons, he grew more and more toiling and laboring hard for all the whims and dissatisfied with himself as a party-worker, as fancies of her kin. The opening shot presents an activist and an artist. He felt the party was the invocation of the Mother through Shankar’s more infested with selfish needs than with the recitation of Raga Hangsheshwari, a recital welfare of the society as a whole. His beliefs sung in praise of the benevolent Mother. and his present dissatisfaction regarding the However, the traumatic cries of Nita screaming society has been articulated by him in his thesis out loud to the claustrophobic hills “Brother, I On Cultural Front, where in the very first want to live” (Dada ami baachte chai) at once chapter, quoting Lenin and Engles, he puts brings her back to being a simple woman, forth his ideal party working-line: “The basic wanting to live and breathe totally subverting subjective attitude, considered in its ideal the analogy of being a Goddess. Similarly, condition, is the determination of all although Anasuya in Komol Gandhar has been communists to establish, through different portrayed as an educated, self-made woman, revolutionary levels, a stage of classless society rather a rebel, she too in the end ‘succumbs’ to on earth where classes and their state machines the cliché of marriage. What Ghatak wants to and their parties will wither away.” (Ghatak, portray is that no matter how much the women, 26). Ghatak strived to attain this subjectivity, and hence the “common men”, claims to be which, in spite of being the major criterion of free and equal to the educated middle class Marxist communism, was still a distant dream. intelligentsia, a barrier is always present which will force them to stay in the periphery. Thus, Conclusion the trope of Mother Goddess focuses the Ritwik Ghatak started making films because attention of the viewers on reification of the the medium had the capacity to reach out to a feminine by the educated Bengali maximum number of people at a given time intelligentsia, thereby inverting the whole

www.southasianist.ed.ac.uk | ISSN 2050-487X | pg. 134 His mission was to portray his own vision of a to give in to pessimism even in the midst of reunited classless Bengal in his films, and it is abject failure, as Neelkantha, the protagonist of to etch out his thoughts more clearly that music Jukti, Takko ar Goppo sees in the young and their lyrics have been used in his films in revolutionary youth a harbinger of a deferred profusion. revolution. “Everything is burning. The Bangladesh remains to him a utopian land universe is burning; and I am burning”, final which could just be dreamt of, but never words of Neelkantha, Ghatak’s alter ego in Jukti, is not a grand gesture but something that achieved. In romanticizing about the long lost motherland, he makes a villain out of Calcutta turns on itself as a sign of the times that is or other urban settings. Is Calcutta only about undergoing painful regeneration. Here the the dark, smoky clouds and hollow, contradiction of longing for a freedom of the claustrophobic interiors? Are there no hopes people in a repressive state also surfaces in a and aspirations associated with Calcutta or is poignant way. This paper was an attempt to Bangladesh only about pre-lapserian innocence show how the music and their lyrics in and freedom? These are a few questions which Ghatak’s films, especially in Komol Gandhar, re-iterate in the mind of the viewers while problematizes the concept of nation-state, watching any Ghatak film. These questions in Mother land and the Marxist avowals to turn give rise to another set of even more subjectivity, while, at the same time, shouting perplexing questions regarding Ghatak’s out loud Ghatak’s propagandist theme of complex vision of the nation-state and the unification of the two Bengals, thus Marxism. However, there seems to be a refusal establishing a harmonious “rhythm of Bengal” (Roy, 13).

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References Cited Geeta De and . Rikwik Ghatak, 1961. Film Chatterji, Shoma A. Ritwik Ghatak: The Celluloid Rebel. New : Rupa and Co., Kapur, Geeta. “Articulating Self Into History”. 2004. Print. When Was Modernism: Essays on Contemporary Cultural Practices in India. Chakraborty, Dipesh. Habitations of : Tulika Books, 2000. Print. Modernity: Essays in the Wake of Subaltern Studies. Chicago: University of Meghe Dhaka Tara. Dir. Ritwik Ghatak. Perf. Chicago, 2002. Print. Anil Chatterjee, Geeta Dey and Supriya Choudhury. Chitrakalpa, 1960. Film. Ghatak, Ritwik. Cinema and I. : Ritwik Memorial Trust, 1987. Print. Rajadhaksya, Ashish. Ritwik Ghatak: A Return To The Epic. Bombay: Screen Unit, 1983. Ghatak, Ritwik. Nijer Paaye Nijer Pathe: A Print. Katha Collage. Kolkata: Cine Central Kolkata and Mon Fokira, 2012. Print. Roy, Subroto. “Semeiosis of Music in Ghata’s Select Films”. Academia.edu. The National Ghatak, Ritwik. On The Cultural Front, Film Archives of Pune, Under Ministry of Kolkata: Ritwik Memorial Trust, 2006. Information and Broadcasting, Print. Government of India.Web.2008. Jukti, Takko Ar Goppo. Dir. Rikwik Ghatak. http://academia.edu/260635/Semeiosis_of_ Perf. Ritwik Ghatak, Shaoli Mitra, Tripti Music_in_Ghataks_Select_Films Mitra, Utpal Dutt and . Subarnarekha. Dir. Ritwik Ghatak. Perf. Rita Productions and Ritwik Ghatak, 1977. , Bijon Bhattacharya Film. and . Radheshyam Komol Gandhar. Dir. Ritwik Ghatak. Perf. Jhunjhunwala, 1962. Film. Abinash Bannerjee, Supriya Chowdhury,

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