Cinema(s) of Bengal(s)

Until 1956, Bengali cinema meant cinema made from Kolkata. It was a big industry within India since 1930s and Bengali Muslims from East Bengal were basically the consumers of the film. However, the international recognition of Satyajit Ray and artistic success of some other filmmakers like Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen from West Bengal, India had created a profound impact on the filmmakers of Bangladesh. The Dhaka-based first full length sound feature film Mukh O Mukhosh (The Face and the Mask) was made in 1956, just after the next year of the release of Pather Pachali by Satyajit Ray. The film industry of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Film Development Corporation (BFDC), was established in 1957. One of the earlier film Ashia (1960), produced from BFDC and directed by Fateh Lohani was highly influenced by Pather Pachali. After the independence, the first internationally recognized film from Bangladesh, Suryo Dighal Bari (The Ominous House, 1979) by Masihuddin Shaker and Sheikh Niamat Ali was also influenced by Satyajit Ray’s neo-realist filmmaking style. The first film Dhire Bahe Meghna (Quiet Flows the River Meghna, 1973) by Alamgir Kabir – one important auteur of post-independence Bangladesh – was a co-production with India. He had cast several actors from India in most of his films. The three great filmmakers of West Bengal – Ray, Ghatak and Sen – all of them either born in East Bengal and later migrated to India after the partition in 1947 or their ancestors were born in East Bengal.

So the plight of partition, or the reminiscence of their homeland were the subjects of some of films by Ray, Ghatak and Sen. Ritwik Ghatak is one of them who never accepted the artificially created partition of India as well as partition of Bengal and he had always talked about the cultural unison of two Bengals.
He made an important film Titas Ekti Nadir Naam (The River called Titas) in Bangladesh in 1973. Thus both of the Bengals had influenced each other which was reflected in cultural expressions like literature, theatre and film. It is not surprising that the independent filmmakers of Bangladesh are influenced by art cinema tradition of West Bengal. Zakir Hossain Raju says:

"In an informal setting such as within the film societies, they [the independent filmmakers] watched and discussed western films from Europe, the US and Indian art films before they embarked in making their own films. Therefore the [independent] short films of the 1980s-90s followed the textual forms of these foreign cinemas, especially of the Indian art cinema and Italian Neorealism." (Zakir Hossain Raju, Bengali or Muslim?: Islam, Identity and Art Cinema in Contemporary Bangladesh, Jamini: Cinema and Identity, ed. Ziaul Karim, vol 5, no. 1, 2009)

Satyajit Ray portrayed the cultural identity of Bengal in his films but he had a universal outlook at the same time. Ritwik Ghatak concentrated in the issues of Bengal only – its politics and culture were his areas of concentration; he talked about the cultural unison of Bengalis and he incorporated melodrama and acting style in his films from local folk drama Jatra. Jatra is a form of folk drama of Bengal combining acting, songs, music, dance, characterised by stylised delivery and exaggerated gestures and orations.

But the cinemas from West Bengal and Bangladesh have distinctiveness as well. Since 1947, both of the Bengals are experiencing different political incidents. Bangladesh has gone through a language movement, and a bloody liberation war. The two predominant religions in two Bengals have created different ways of life, different thinking patterns. In earlier politics, culture and economy, Hindu Bengalis were predominant in all senses. Even the Ghatak’s idea of cultural unity of Bengal was awkward for using abundance of Hindu symbols and icons which might work as hindrance to the unity. According to Sugata Sinha, "He [Ghatak] basically considered that Bengali identity had emerged from an archetypical layer of Hindu mythology present in the collective unconscious." (Sugata Sinha, Ritwik Ghatak and Bengali Identity, Jamini: Cinema and Identity, ed. Ziaul Karim, vol 5, no. 1, 2009).

After 1947, Bengali Muslims from East Bengal had got the opportunity to create Dhaka as their own hub of culture and economy. Now Bengali Muslim filmmakers are more interested in portraying their own history and culture which rarely transcend the timeline of 1947. On the other hand the Bengalis of West Bengal, instead of looking back to the common Bengali language and culture, are eager to get their stake in national Indian context. Observers say the future capital of Bengali literature and culture would be Dhaka. The distinctiveness between two Bengals is getting clearer as time passes.