Documentary on Ritwik Ghatak premièred

Shomi Kaiser in a scene from The Name of a River

Through the images of two refugees--a young man and a woman--in quest of a permanent home, the documentary unfolds the different phases of life of Ritwik Ghatak. These phases also depict the gradual transformations of Ghatak, his thoughts and visions, which ultimately brings out the brilliant filmmaker in him.

Anup's film is a rich treasure trove of reminiscences of the veteran filmmaker: dialogues, soundtracks and situations from the films of Ritwik recur as leitmotifs. The effect is superb and nostalgic at the same time. Especially references to the 1947 Partition of the Indian subcontinent--an incident Ritwik could never forget or accept--bring out the sensitivity of the great filmmaker.

Produced jointly by the National Film Development Corporation, India, the British Film Institute, UK, and the Ashirbaad Chalachitra, Bangladesh, the documentary's cast includes artistes from both West Bengal and Bangladesh: Shibhuprasad Mukhopadhyay, Shomi Kaiser, Supriya Choudhury, Abhanish Bandyopadhyay, Rosy Afsari, Kabori Sarwar, Meem and others.

While the film was good and a large number of people turned out, there were still a few glitches. For one, even when the programme was in full swing, the organisers were still busy fixing the sound system and the projector. And after all that, when the film finally started, the occasional sound failure was intolerable. With wrong pronunciations and bad delivery, the announcer was also another embarrassment. People who left the auditorium wondered how BFFS is going to organise the International Film Festival to be held in December, when it cannot properly handle a single show of a documentary film. Moreover, personalities of Ritwik Ghatak's stature definitely deserve more care.