Meghe Dhaka Tara
Encyclopedia
Meghe Dhaka Tara
(The Cloud-Capped Star) is a 1960 film by written and director Ritwik Ghatak, based on a novel Shaktipada Rajguru
. It stars Supriya Choudhury, Anil Chatterjee
, Gita Dey
, Bijan Bhattacharya, Niranjan Roy, and Gyanesh Mukherjee. It was part of the trilogy, Meghe Dhaka Tara (1960), Komal Gandhar
(1961), and Subarnarekha
(1962), all dealing with the aftermath of the Partition of India
in 1947 and the refugees coping with it.
(then Calcutta). In contrast to many Bollywood
films made in Mumbai
, India's main film center, Ghatak's films are formally elaborate and somber, and often address issues related to the Partition of India
. Although Partition is never explicitly mentioned in Meghe Dhaka Tara, it takes place in a refugee camp in the outskirts of Calcutta, and concerns an impoverished genteel Hindu bhadralok
family and the problems they face because of Partition.
The film is perhaps the most widely viewed film among Ghatak's works; it was his greatest commercial success at home, and coincided with an international film movement towards personal stories and innovative techniques (the so-called 'new wave'). After Ghatak's death, his work (and this film in particular) began to attract a more sizable global audience, via film festivals and the subsequent release of DVDs both in India and in Europe.
In a confirmation of the popularity of Meghe Dhaka Tara, a recent survey by a leading Indian news group reported that the concluding line of the film, "Dada, ami baachte chai" ("Brother, I want to live") was the most well-known line of any film.
Meghe Dhaka Tara is strongly melodramatic in tone, especially as concerns the sufferings heaped on the protagonist. As in many of his other films, Ghatak also uses surrealistic
sound effects, such as sounds of a lashing
as the heroine suffers yet another tragic twist of fate.
In 2002, Meghe Dhaka Tara was ranked at #231 on the Sight & Sound
critics' and directors' poll for all-time greatest films. The movie is also listed in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
, which praises "the grace of Ghatak's mise en scène
, his expressionist sound design, and the enormous sense of loss."
, in the suburbs of Calcutta. Nita is a self-sacrificing person who is constantly exploited by everyone around her, even her own family, who take her goodness for granted. Her life is ridden with personal tragedy: she loses first her fiancé, then her job and finally her health by contracting tuberculosis
. Her mostly absent would-be singer brother (Anil Chatterjee
) is the only person who cares about her. In the end, she screams out her agony, throwing herself into her brother's arms. Ritwik Ghatak wanted Ruma Guha Thakurta
to act in the lead role in this film, but she was busy in shooting of Rajen Tarafdar’s "Ganga" so she could not accept the offer.
Krishnadhan Chakraborty,Shankar Guha,Mahendra Kumar,Agnu
(The Cloud-Capped Star) is a 1960 film by written and director Ritwik Ghatak, based on a novel Shaktipada Rajguru
Shaktipada Rajguru
Shaktipada Rajguru is an Indian Bengali writer. Several of his novels have been adapated for the screen including the Ritwik Ghatak-directed Meghe Dhaka Tara and the Shakti Samanta-directed Amanush...
. It stars Supriya Choudhury, Anil Chatterjee
Anil Chatterjee
Anil Chatterjee was a Bengali actor in the Bengali cinema during the early fifties through to the late eighties and was mostly remembered as a character actor. He acted in about 45 movies, both as a character actor and in leading roles with the limited opportunities he received during his time...
, Gita Dey
Gita Dey
Gita Dey was a well-known actress in Bengali film, theatre and Bengali folk theatre. She acted in over two hundred Bengali language films and over two thousand stage shows.-Early life:...
, Bijan Bhattacharya, Niranjan Roy, and Gyanesh Mukherjee. It was part of the trilogy, Meghe Dhaka Tara (1960), Komal Gandhar
Komal Gandhar
Kamol Gandhar is a 1961 Bengali film written and directed by noted film maker Ritwik Ghatak...
(1961), and Subarnarekha
Subarnarekha (film)
Subarnarekha is an Indian Bengali film directed by Ritwik Ghatak. It was produced in 1962 but was not released until 1965. It was part of the trilogy, Meghe Dhaka Tara , Komal Gandhar , and Subarnarekha , all dealing with the aftermath of the Partition of India in 1947 and the refugees coping with...
(1962), all dealing with the aftermath of the Partition of India
Partition of India
The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...
in 1947 and the refugees coping with it.
Overview
This film was directed by alternative filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak in KolkataKolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
(then Calcutta). In contrast to many Bollywood
Bollywood
Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
films made in Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
, India's main film center, Ghatak's films are formally elaborate and somber, and often address issues related to the Partition of India
Partition of India
The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...
. Although Partition is never explicitly mentioned in Meghe Dhaka Tara, it takes place in a refugee camp in the outskirts of Calcutta, and concerns an impoverished genteel Hindu bhadralok
Bhadralok
Bhadralok is a Bengali term used to denote the new class of 'gentlefolk' who arose during colonial times in Bengal. It is still used to indicate members of the upper middle and middle classes of Bengal.-Caste and Class makeup:...
family and the problems they face because of Partition.
The film is perhaps the most widely viewed film among Ghatak's works; it was his greatest commercial success at home, and coincided with an international film movement towards personal stories and innovative techniques (the so-called 'new wave'). After Ghatak's death, his work (and this film in particular) began to attract a more sizable global audience, via film festivals and the subsequent release of DVDs both in India and in Europe.
In a confirmation of the popularity of Meghe Dhaka Tara, a recent survey by a leading Indian news group reported that the concluding line of the film, "Dada, ami baachte chai" ("Brother, I want to live") was the most well-known line of any film.
Meghe Dhaka Tara is strongly melodramatic in tone, especially as concerns the sufferings heaped on the protagonist. As in many of his other films, Ghatak also uses surrealistic
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
sound effects, such as sounds of a lashing
Flagellation
Flagellation or flogging is the act of methodically beating or whipping the human body. Specialised implements for it include rods, switches, the cat o' nine tails and the sjambok...
as the heroine suffers yet another tragic twist of fate.
In 2002, Meghe Dhaka Tara was ranked at #231 on the Sight & Sound
Sight & Sound
Sight & Sound is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute .Sight & Sound was first published in 1932 and in 1934 management of the magazine was handed to the nascent BFI, which still publishes the magazine today...
critics' and directors' poll for all-time greatest films. The movie is also listed in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die is a film reference book edited by Steven Jay Schneider with original essays on each film contributed by over 70 film critics...
, which praises "the grace of Ghatak's mise en scène
Mise en scène
Mise-en-scène is an expression used to describe the design aspects of a theatre or film production, which essentially means "visual theme" or "telling a story"—both in visually artful ways through storyboarding, cinematography and stage design, and in poetically artful ways through direction...
, his expressionist sound design, and the enormous sense of loss."
Plot outline
The film revolves around Neeta (Supriya Choudhury), a beautiful young woman who lives with her family, refugees from East PakistanEast Pakistan
East Pakistan was a provincial state of Pakistan established in 14 August 1947. The provincial state existed until its declaration of independence on 26 March 1971 as the independent nation of Bangladesh. Pakistan recognized the new nation on 16 December 1971. East Pakistan was created from Bengal...
, in the suburbs of Calcutta. Nita is a self-sacrificing person who is constantly exploited by everyone around her, even her own family, who take her goodness for granted. Her life is ridden with personal tragedy: she loses first her fiancé, then her job and finally her health by contracting tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
. Her mostly absent would-be singer brother (Anil Chatterjee
Anil Chatterjee
Anil Chatterjee was a Bengali actor in the Bengali cinema during the early fifties through to the late eighties and was mostly remembered as a character actor. He acted in about 45 movies, both as a character actor and in leading roles with the limited opportunities he received during his time...
) is the only person who cares about her. In the end, she screams out her agony, throwing herself into her brother's arms. Ritwik Ghatak wanted Ruma Guha Thakurta
Ruma Guha Thakurta
-Early life:She was born in 1934 as Ruma Ghosh. She hails from a Brahmo Bengali family. Her father was Satyen Ghosh and her mother was Sati Devi, a singer. Sati Devi's younger sister Bijoya married film director Satyajit Ray. Thakurta had her formal education in many places including Santiniketan...
to act in the lead role in this film, but she was busy in shooting of Rajen Tarafdar’s "Ganga" so she could not accept the offer.
Credits
- Story: Shaktipada RajguruShaktipada RajguruShaktipada Rajguru is an Indian Bengali writer. Several of his novels have been adapated for the screen including the Ritwik Ghatak-directed Meghe Dhaka Tara and the Shakti Samanta-directed Amanush...
- Screenplay: Ritwik Ghatak
- Cinematography: Dinen Gupta
- Assistant:Soumendu Ray,Sunil Chakraborty,Sukhendu Dasgupta,
Krishnadhan Chakraborty,Shankar Guha,Mahendra Kumar,Agnu
- Editing: Ramesh Joshi
- Assistant:Gobinda Chattopadhay,Punu Sen
- Sound: Satyen Chatterjee
- Art Direction: Rabi Chatterjee
- Music: Jyotirindra Moitra, Ustad Bahadur Khan
- Production: Chitrakalpa
Commentary
- Ritwik Ghatak's new film 'Meghe Dhaka Tara'...constitutes a glorious triumph for the rising group of young film-makers who have been striving to rescue the cinema from the quagmire of escapist entertainment... His entire approach is realistic to a poetic degree and he shows exceptional imagination and warm sensitiveness in building up the climate situations which leave an inedible imprtession on the audience mind. -- Amrita Bazar Patrika, 22April, 1960
- As a film-maker, Ritwik Ghatak has his forte,he has his originality.If his style is to be categorized,well,it's a new dimension of the Neo-Realist school. Countrymen have already experienced a bit of it in his previous films such as 'Ajantrik' and 'Bari Theke Paliye'. 'Meghe Dhaka Tara' has abundance and reached the pinnacle of it. -- Jugantor,22April,1960.
- It is the cry of the dying girl in Meghe Dhaka Tara which echoes through the hills, our right to live... The breaking up of society is visualised as a three way division of womanhood. The three principal woman characters embody the traditional aspects of feminine power. The heroine, Neeta, has the preserving and nurturing quality; her sister, Geeta, is the sensual woman; their mother represents the cruel aspect. -- Kumar Sahani
- By watching Ghatak's Meghe Dhaka Tara, I derived that pleasure by which the mind gets mesmerised by the sad aspect of life, and gets purified by the artistic communication's receiving and protesting. May be that's called the essence of tragedy by the pundits. -- Bishnu Dey
- Prometheus had to be punished as he learnt how to make fire. Memory let Neera know that being a woman, she wanted to transcend the prison of womanhood.She must be punished. To attack establishment means the counterattack from the establishment; Ritwik Ghatak and his heroine wanted to gift that example to history. This death is more living than life. -- Sanjay Mukhopadhay
Ghatak on the film
----- The title 'Meghe Dhaka Tara' was given by me, original story was published in a popular newspaper by the name of 'Chenamukh'. Something in this story stirred me. And that is why Shakespeare's 'The Cloud Capped Star' struck my mind and I decided to pen a new sript all together. It could be a bit sentimental, but to throw overtones out of it came to mind gradually. Here I made use of Indian mythology which is a part of my life. 'Meghe Dhaka Tara' expressed my thoughts.
Cast and crew on the film
----- One thing I felt that there wasn't anything false in Ritwik Da. He was very normanl. Then practically I had no idea about film. Didn't know much about acting, yet ket on acting—five-ten films... I guess I learnt acting in the true sense from him... Ritwik Da's sensibility is a big plus point of this film. -- Supriya Chaudhury
- During 'Meghe Dhaka Tara', Ritwik Da used to say that the producers were trying to get a 'commercial film' by of him... there wasn't anything commercial in the whole approach I believe. If the film had become a success, it was because it was able to reach the human mind. -- Anil Chatterjee
- There are few who won't be born again. Will there be another Ritwik Da? During 'Meghe Dhaka Tara', he used to tell me 'You know Gita, the role you are playing is Surama, and Bijan is me'. --
- For the music, all credit goes to Ritwik Ghatak. Bahadur Khan played, A.T.Kanon sang, but he got the best out of them... the speciality of Riwik Babu—everything was in his mind, nothing in the script... there was dimensional surprise, improvisation. But what he would want was clear. -- Dinen Gupta
Screening of 'Meghe Dhaka Tara'in different festivals
----- 1968: Ritwik Film Festival by Calcutta Cine Institute
- 1968: Ritwik Film Festival by Jadavpur University
- 1974: Ritwik Film Festival by Bengali club of Delhi
- 1976: Ritwik Ghatak Retrospective at Society Theatre by Federation of Film Society
- 1978: International Film Festival, Madras (Chennai)
- 1982: Ritwik Film Festival by London film and Theatre Festival
- 1983: Ritwik Film Festival, France
- 1985: Ritwik Ghatak Retrospective at India International Centre, Delhi
- 1985: 25 anniversary by Ritwik Memorial Trust at Nandan
- 1985: Festival of India Celebration, USA
- 1986: Major Retospective of Indian Cinema, Lisbon
- 1987: Film section of Festival of India, Switzerland
- 1987: Festival of India in Japan
- 1987: Celebrating Ghatak's birthday at Nandan celebration
- 1987: Ritwik Festival by the Bombay Screen Unit
- 1988: Ritwik Festival at Gorky Sadan jointly organised by Ritwik Meroial Trust and Eisenstein Cine Club, Calcutta
- 1990: Ritwik Retrospective at Rotterdam Film Festival, Netherlands
- 1990: Ritwik Retrspective organised by Chennai Film Society, Madras
- 1990: Locarno Film Festival, Switzerland
- 1991: Ritwik Film Festival, Zurich
- 1992: Film Festival titled 'Amader Bhalobasar Ritwik' at Ganabhaban, organised by Uttarapara Cine Club
- 1997: New York film festival
- 1998: Part of 'Classic Film Classic Directors' category', Calcutta International Film Festival
- 1999: Best Masterpiece Film, Pusan Film Festival
- 1999: Barcelona, Madrid