SANGEETA DATTA
(writer, film-maker, teaches film studies in London University)
The Telegraph
Raima Sen in Chokher Bali, Aparna Sen and Rituparna in Paromitar Ekdin
and the Abar Aranye team on location
When Indians migrated to the UK in the 1950s and 60s they formed part
of a global population movement set in motion by colonialism. There
were different classes of people who left their newly independent mother
country to start life in distant England.
The diaspora experiences alienation in their host country and the concept
of home in India remains outside the realms of reality. That ‘home’
is constructed in the imagination through cultural props like music,
literature and entertainment. The Bengali bhadralok was happy listening
to his Rabindrasangeet records and celebrating Durga puja. Waves of
nostalgia hit the Bengali psyche every time there was a reference to
a Hemanta Mukherjee song or an Uttam-Suchitra film. In fact, for most
Bengalis who left India in the 60s, time seems to have frozen as far
as aesthetic tastes go. Old videos from the golden era of Uttam-Suchitra,
Uttam-Supriya and Satyajit Ray have been replaced by VCDs and now DVDs.
The electronic media might have got upgraded but tastes are firmly 60s-70s
retro romance. There are several Bengali families in England where a
Sunday lunch of fish and rice will be followed by a Bengali film viewing
in the living room with friends. When artistes from India perform in
London they are inundated with requests to sing classic Hemanta and
Shyamal Mitra numbers. Every few years, the big stars of Calcutta, like
Soumitra Chatterjee, Dipankar De, Supriya Devi tour the UK with theatre
productions, all of which run to packed houses.
The 80s and 90s probably saw the Bengal film industry at its nadir
marked by a series of poor Bollywood imitations and farces. Middle class
cinema was seriously threatened and starved. While Mrinal Sen, Goutam
Ghose and Aparna Sen continued to work in parallel cinema, mainstream
Bengali films had moved away sharply from its educated discerning patrons.
Consequently, even as recently as the late 90s, non-resident Bengalis
would go back after their annual December holidays with VCDs of classics.
In the UK opportunities to view new work were seldom and scattered.
On an average one or two Bengali films were shown at the London Film
Festival and later toured the arthouse cinemas.
Over the past few years, the almost choked wheel of life suddenly started
to turn again at Tollygunge studios, having survived largely on television
megaserials. There is a renewed energy with young talent and the interest
of film-makers outside Bengal (Mani Ratnam and now, Mira Nair). Some
clever marketing ploys like releasing new films in December targeting
the NRI crowd and creative ideas like casting popular older heroines
against the grain gave us Ghosh’s Titli and Shubho Mahurat.
The best of Bengali films, though small in number, holds much interest
for a world cinema audience. The National Film Theatre in London has
always offered great opportunities to view the best in Indian arthouse
films in which Bengali films feature prominently. For the discerning
cineaste, periodic screenings of Satyajit Ray’s films are boosted
with complete retrospectives of the film-maker. Every year the London
Film Festival (LFF) showcases the best in Bengali films and last year
was a coup with three films featured from Calcutta — Chokher Bali,
Abar Aranye and Patalghar. Films like these get toured around the country
and feature in other festivals in Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh.
For the past five years, I have been running a film society called
In Focus in London through which a number of films have been screened
there — Aparna Sen’s Paromitar Ekdin, Rituparno Ghosh’s
Utsab, Urmi Chakraborty’s Hemanter Pakhi and Anjan Das’ Saanjhbatir
Rupkathara.
Screenings in London and greater London triggered off requests from
other cities up north. Meanwhile Ghosh’s reputation had been growing
not just by his prolific work but by its good standards. By 2002, both
Bariwali and Ashukh had toured the LFF. Sen’s Paromitar Ekdin and
Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s Uttara toured widely in European festivals
and the latter even got co-opted into the London Gay and Lesbian Festival.
But here were world class films, technically sound and cinematically
compelling.
Viewers have turned up in full strength and there is a ready audience
for good regional films. At present efforts are being made to set up
limited distribution of Bengali films in the UK. A few Calcutta-based
producers are considering small-scale tour of their films in London,
Luton, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh. There is a large
and ready audience waiting eagerly for Bengali films but there has been
no organised marketing.
Second-generation kids in Bengali families abroad have always been
derisive about sloppy melodramas that their parents watched. While mothers
shed tears over Deep Jeley Jai or Uttar Phalguni, kids would shrug their
shoulders and leave the room. Of late, however, there has been a huge
curiosity amongst the youth about films like Devdas and Chokher Bali.
I have had discussions with youth groups and students of film studies
who have been motivated to read the novels by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay
and Rabindranath Tagore and view Ray’s Charulata and Gharey Bairey.
This only proves that a good story and technological excellence will
draw the younger audience as well. Stars like Aishwarya and Shah Rukh
may be the initial drawing factors but eventually the films offer the
second-generation Indians some definition about Bengali history and
culture. The red-bordered white Puja saree (ref. Devdas) became a popular
ethnic dress code during the Durga puja festival in London and there
was much curiosity about Raima Sen’s jewellery in Chokher Bali!
Goutam Ghose’s Abar Aranye struck a chord with young viewers because
of the 9/11 reference and its intertextuality led them to view Ray’s
Aranyer Din Ratri.
There is good work generated in this city and there is an audience
abroad — what is needed is some thinking outside the box, strategic
marketing, sustained energy and some risks.