There are two ways to see and know a city: by setting foot in it, and through cinema. Even in the case of cinema, there are two ways to become familiar with a place: through commercial films and through realistic depictions. As far as realistic depictions are concerned, there are three famous ways of looking at the city of Kolkata: through the eyes of Satyajit Ray, through the eyes of Mrinal Sen and through the eyes of the holy trinity of Indian parallel cinema, Ritwik Ghatak.
He shot his films in Kolkata – the Calcutta of that time – during the same time when, unlike other cities that awakened dreams, Calcutta, which had long since reached the pinnacle of glory, was in decline. But still, the depictions were different. For Ray, Kolkata was a socio-political entity on whose vast surface humanity played its part. For Sen, it was ‘El Dorado’ – the magical, mysterious city he loved.
However, Ghatak’s portrayal was unique. For him the city itself was a vessel that provided refuge to the displaced. A place that is itself devoid of emotions, like a strict, non-demonstrative father or teacher, who appears unsympathetic and neglectful, but in which human nerves are hidden.
the city is moving
Ghatak’s 1958 film take turn contracts The story begins with a mischievous boy, who hates his strict father, runs away to Calcutta, which he calls “El Dorado”, “where the night is as bright as the day”. The city is introduced with the sun rising over Howrah Bridge. Similarly, even today Kolkata gets acquainted with hundreds of new people every morning. It is not exactly a city of opportunities or dreams, but still a city where many people run away to take hope or to survive.
If you ignore the absence of trams (now almost extinct) and if you ignore the phones in people’s hands, this could still be 1958: the bridge was packed with people as the morning dawned; Workers carrying burdens on their heads, their activity somewhere between walking and running; Men pushing carts loaded with mountains of sacks. Every worker looks – and is – busier than a doctor or CEO: they have no time to lose; Kolkata moves because they move.
If Howrah Bridge represents arrival, opportunities are to be found in places with tall buildings. Most of those places remain the same today, so much so that if constituents returned with their cameras, they would find nothing missing except trams and perhaps phone booths and hungry people on the streets.
Actress Madhabi Mukherjee (far left) with director Ghatak (far right) on the sets of ‘Suvarnarekha’.
high-ceilinged office buildings with wide staircases and large windows; A parallel ecosystem is thriving right outside on the footpath – barbers, food vendors, stationery vendors; And a stream of humanity on the wide streets, each with a story that may be different clouds dhaka star Or subarnarekhaSince Kolkata prides itself on being an old-fashioned city, those watching Ghatak’s films are unlikely to notice much difference between then and now, at least for the next few decades.
meeting of two immigrants
Nevertheless, much water has flowed under the Howrah Bridge since his time. Ghatak discussed the topic of the partition of Bengal in the first half of the 1960s, devoting a trilogy to it. But the refugee colonies on which his stories were based are today a thing of the past: they have evolved into the neighborhoods that belong to the City of Joy. In any case, unlike Punjab, the refugee movement was not a one-time event in Bengal: people migrated for decades, with the last large-scale migration occurring in the early 1970s. Therefore, memories of bad days are not limited to 1947 only.
One of the first organizations to organize an event this year to mark Ghatak’s centenary was the West Bengal Hindi Speakers Society, which screened subarnarekhaOn June 8, the third in the filmmaker’s Partition trilogy. Society general secretary Ashok Singh, who is the former head of the Hindi department at Surendranath Evening College, said at the time, “He is my favorite filmmaker. If you watch Ray’s films or Mrinal Sen’s films, you will find that Hindi-speaking people are shown either as drivers or as doormen. Whereas if you watch Ghatak’s films take turn contractsYou will see a boy running away from his village to the big city of Calcutta and a Hindi speaking man selling goods on the street takes pity on him. barleyWhat a humane portrayal of the meeting of two immigrants!”
Every city is a city of migrants. Ritwik Ghatak, who was probably the only person to talk about this topic, showed that Kolkata is one too.
bishwanath.ghsh@thehindu.co.in
published – October 31, 2025 06:10 am IST