Fwd: [indiancine.ma-discussion] Jogan by Gayatri Chatterjee/Mystery Thrillers from Bengal, on indiancine.ma

[vaibhav ingole]

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From: Ashish Rajadhyaksha via indiancine.ma-discussion <indiancine.m...@indiancine.ma>
Date: Fri, Sep 5, 2014 at 1:15 PM
Subject: [indiancine.ma-discussion] Jogan by Gayatri Chatterjee/Mystery Thrillers from Bengal, on indiancine.ma
To: indiancine.m...@indiancine.ma, "indian...@indiancine.ma" <indian...@indiancine.ma>, "pad...@pad.ma" <pad...@pad.ma>

Dear friends,

Back with updates on indiancine.ma after a brief gap, for which apologies.
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Jogan (Kidar Sharma, 1950)

Annotated by Gayatri Chatterjee (https://indiancine.ma/FWI/info)

Gayatri Chatterjee's annotations of Sharma's musical classic with Nargis and Dilip Kumar bring together an incredibly close reading of the film together with diverse textual sources.

Although the film is ostensibly about Meerabai (1498-1547), Chatterjee shows how its lyrics, in deviating from their source - eri main to prem diwani becomes  the eri main to dard diwani mera dard na jaane koe - do push the tradition of adapting and changing  old compositions by devotional figures as these were sung and copied.

She traces the social history of yogis, or jogis, followers of Gorakhnath, and their cinematic history. It is likely, she suggests, that the concept of the lone itinerant jogan, as a female ascetic renunciate, may have emerged from the imagination of Hindi filmmakers and lyricists, where such figures often combine with motifs of disappointment in love: for  example in M. Sadiq's Shabab (https://indiancine.ma/HJF/info), or Nandlal Jaswantlal's Nagin (https://indiancine.ma/HGX/info)and 'dozens of films in which lovers dress up as a jogi or jogan in order to meet with the beloved'.
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Mystery Thrillers in Bengali Cinema

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Kalo Chhaya (Premendra Mitra, 1948) https://indiancine.ma/FCY/info

Kankal (Naresh Mitra, 1950) https://indiancine.ma/FWQ/info
Jighansha (Ajoy Kar, 1951) https://indiancine.ma/GEU/info

Hanabari (Premendra Mitra, 1952) https://indiancine.ma/GMQ/info

Annotated and subtitled by Maharghya Chakraborty and Utsab Sen (Media Lab, Jadavpur University)

Introduced by Subhajit Chatterjee
with a special filmography of Mystery thrillers (and their links on indiancine.ma)
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The Bengali Mystery-Thriller Film in Post-Independence Era

Subhajit Chatterjee

The aftermath of Independence saw an outburst in production of popular films infused with horrific, supernatural and crime related ingredients. While their plots mostly remain embedded within the framework of the social ie. films elaborating conflicts woven around the modern historical context, the recurring narrative and visual motifs instigates us to provisionally designate the hybrid generic constellation  as ‘mystery-thriller’ [rahasya-romancha] after the popular literary tradition they were partly inspired by. Scanning a little more than a decade as many as 11 films can be readily identified as belonging to the cycle, while I suspect that around 10 more would also qualify to such categorization.

Bengali cinema’s affinity with crime drama can be traced back at least to the silent era adaption of Mayabi (Becharam Ghosh, 1930), a crime novel by popular writer Panchkori De.  While crime related plots were often pursued in popular socials (eg. Tatinir Bichar, Sushil Majumdar 1940), the post-Independence generic assemblage demanded a further differentiation through narratorial technique and publicity processes probably to pursue an array of historical tasks.

It is worth noting that out of the wide range of popular fiction ranging from indigenous sleuth adventure tales, science fiction (Hemendrakumar Ray) to mature crime/detection stories (eg. Saradindu’s Byomkesh series) the cinematic vision seems to focus on a sensationalist variety of pulp fiction often accused of being foreign and derivative in texture.  It is also interesting to observe that the 4 available films annotated [Kalochhaya, Jighangsa, Kankal, and Hanabari] are perhaps more concerned with decadence associated with property/wealth than they are with crime detection and supernatural elements. Having close association with the ‘Eurocentric’ young adult crime fiction (eg. Niharranjan Ray and Premendra Mitra who is a major creative impetus behind the film cycle under discussion) the chief apprehension of the genre seems to be around the circulation, disposition and management of material assets symbolizing networks of desire belonging to an erstwhile era.

It is thus not surprising that the organization of ‘thrill’ and its visual manifestation is often linked to the unveiling of aristocratic spaces and entities [mansions/fort/mashlands/garden resorts] strenuously classifying them into the known/manageable and the unknown/disposable through the agency of the modern investigator.  

What remains extremely significant for the film historian to explore the nature of the apparitions, the spatial blockages that require to be transformed or disciplined under the aegis of modernity and the narratorial techniques employed towards that end.  It is precisely at this level where we can account for this specific upsurge of ‘mystery-thriller’ not merely as a fashionable trend but rather as a significant ‘transitional genre’. The issue is of paramount importance because it may help us to identify the modular transformations and de-routes undertaken in the process of Bengali cinema’s transition from studio socials featuring feudal romances into a bifurcated journey towards modern narratives centering on the romantic couple and/or reformist citizen struggling to grasp the contemporary socio-cultural matrix as well as its own location.

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Early Bengali Mystery-Thriller Films: with release dates

1930:

Mayabi (Panchkari De/Becharam Ghosh): 12.7.1030

 

1948:

Kalo Ghora (Jyotish Bannerjee): 2.9. 48

Mahakal (Dinesh/Suhrid Ghosh –Saradindu Bannerjee): 22.10.48

Kalo Chhaya (Premendra Mitra/Bibhuti Das): 17.12.48

 

1949

Nishir Dak (Nripendrakrishna Chattopadhya, Aswini Mitra/Sudhir Bose): 11. 2.49.

Bisher Dhoan (Saradindu Bannerjee): 19.8.49

Mayajal (Raikrishna Bandopadhyay/ Amar Datta/ Dibyendu Ghosh): 2.9.49

Kuasha (Premendra Mitra, C: Dibyendu Ghosh): 30.12.49

 

1950

Indrajaal (Raikrishna Bandopadhyay/ Amar Datta): 29.12.50

Kankal (Naresh Mitra) : 14.4.50

1951

Abhisapta (Digambar Chatterjee) : 2.2.51

Rupantar (Narayan Gangopadhyay/ Ardhendu Mukhopadhyaya/Santosh Guharay): 10/ 3. 51

Bhairab Mantra (Gourangaprasad Ghosh/ Mani Ghosh) : 30. 3.51

Jighangsa (Ajay Kar/Bimal Mukh/Manju Dey): 20. 4.51

Sanket (Narayan Gangopadhyay/Ardhendu Mukhopadhyay) : 4.5.51.

Kalsaap (Khagen Ray/Nimai Ghosh): 15.6.51

 

1952

Hanabari ( Premendra Mitra): 13. 6. 52

Kar Paape? (Kaliprasad Ghosh/ Bibhuti Laha-Bijoy Ghosh): 15. 8. 52

Kuhelika ( Jyotishchandra Roy/ Ramesh Bose /Subodh B): 8. 2.52.

1953

Mayakanan (Pramathesh Barua/ Bibhuti Chakrabarty, 1947/53): 16. 1.53

Makarshar Jaal (Jogesh Chowdhury/Pashupati Kundu/ Dibyendu Ghosh) : 1.5. 53.

Adrishya Manush (Amar Datta) : 18.12.53

1954

Atom Bomb (Taru Mukhopadhyay/ Anil Gupta) : 1.1.54

1955

Dakinir Char (Premendra Mitra): 12. 2.55

Dasyu Mohan (Sasadhar Datta/ Ardhendu Mukhopadhyay) : 9. 9. 55

1956

Chhaya Sangini (Gouriprasanna Majumdar/ Bidyapati Ghosh/ Manju Dey) : 7.9. 56.

1960

Chupi Chupi Ashey (Premendra Mitra) : 24. 6.60

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Regards,

Ashish

Senior Fellow
Centre for the Study of Culture and Society
No. 302 Pramoda
70/ 1, Surveyor Street
Basavanagudi
BANGALORE - 560 004

tel. 080-41202302

www.cscs.res.in

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Thanks & Regards
Vaibhav Ingole