Bengal’s brave, young director Rituporno Ghosh peacefully transitioned into heavenly abode, in his sleep on a sultry Kolkata morning of May 30th. He thereby left a gigantic chasm not only in India’s film fraternity, but also among the rising and educated urban middle class of Bengal.
For years long, I have been a tremendous follower and an ardent fan of the great Satyajit Ray. There was a time not too long ago when I felt within and opined candidly that there can be no film-director who can come close to Ray’s talent, depth of knowledge and story-telling abilities in Bengal in particular and India at large. Rituporno had done just that.
After the untimely death of another celluloid idol Uttam Kumar in 1980, educated urban Bengali audiences had stopped visiting movie halls to watch Bengali movies, barring Ray classics. Ray himself passed away in 1992, sending the Bengali film industry into further disarray. This was precisely the period which Rituporno turned into an opportune moment to step in. In 1995, when I was a year short of my first board exams, he directed “Unishe April”. It was just the beginning. I was witness to these times when audiences started flocking back to movie theatres to watch Bengali movies directed by him. It was a celluloid revolution. Bengali films were back with a bang, courtesy directors like Rituporno.
Just like Ray and millions of other bengalis, Rituporno had Tagore in his blood. Just like Ray (as in Charulata and Ghare Baire), he directed some of his best works based on Tagore’s novels – Chokher Baali and Noukadubi. Just like Ray would do, he had the rare ability to bring out the best from his actors through meticulous guidance and instruction. At the same time, just like Ray, he would also give a lot of space to his star actors so that they could express themselves without inhibitions. Just like Ray, he was also a great orator and one could listen day in and day out to his words about any matter on earth.
Having said that, unlike Ray, Rituporno was androgenous and would dwell on the un-traversed path of complexities in human relationships – men with men, men with women and women with women. Like Rituporno, there have been many film-makers in the history of film-making who have been inclined towards the same sex, but there have not been too many who have explored trans-sexuality so fearlessly and explicitly as he did. He was not only a reflection of his time where such social issues were of humongous relevance, but also well ahead of it. As a result, Rituporno’s films were esoteric to many. He used films as a platform to make a statement about bisexuality which he could not in his personal and social life as an individual.
In 17 years of film-making, Rituporno Ghosh won 12 National Awards and directed 19 films. If he had lived for another 25 years, I am sure he would have transgressed a lot more boundaries and reached heights rarely achieved by many. Without doubt, after Satyajit Ray, he was most definitely Bengal’s best director and certainly one of India’s finest in the last 20 years.
