Bangla Cinema
Samantha Figueredo
Cinema of West Bengal, also known as Tollywood or Bengali cinema, is an Indian film industry of Bengali-language motion pictures. It is based in the Tollygunge region of Kolkata, West Bengal, India. The origins of the nickname Tollywood, a portmanteau of the words Tollygunge and Hollywood, dates back to 1932.[4] It was a historically important film industry, at one time the centre of Indian film production.[4] The Bengali film industry is known for producing many of Indian cinema's most critically acclaimed global Parallel Cinema and art films, with several of its filmmakers gaining prominence at the Indian National Film Awards as well as international acclaim.
Ever since Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali (1955) was awarded Best Human Document at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival, Bengali films frequently appeared in international fora and film festivals for the next several decades.[5] This allowed Bengali filmmakers to reach a global audience. The most influential among them was Satyajit Ray, whose films became successful among European, American and Asian audiences.[6] His work subsequently had a worldwide impact, with filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese,[7] James Ivory,[8] Abbas Kiarostami, Elia Kazan, Franois Truffaut,[9] Carlos Saura,[10] Isao Takahata,[11] Wes Anderson[12] and Danny Boyle[13] being influenced by his cinematic style, and many others such as Akira Kurosawa praising his work.[14]
The "youthful coming-of-age dramas that have flooded art houses since the mid-fifties owe a tremendous debt to the Apu trilogy".[15] Kanchenjungha (1962) introduced a narrative structure that resembles later hyperlink cinema.[16] Ray's 1967 script for a film to be called The Alien, which was eventually cancelled, is widely believed to have been the inspiration for Steven Spielberg's E.T. (1982).[17][18][19] Ira Sachs' Forty Shades of Blue (2005) was a loose remake of Charulata (1964), and in Gregory Nava's My Family (1995), the final scene is duplicated from the final scene of The World of Apu. Similar references to Ray films are found in recent works such as Sacred Evil (2006),[20] the Elements trilogy of Deepa Mehta, and in films of Jean-Luc Godard.[21]
The cinematographer Subrata Mitra, who made his debut with Ray's The Apu Trilogy, also had an important influence on cinematography across the world. One of his most important techniques was bounce lighting, to recreate the effect of daylight on sets. He pioneered the technique while filming Aparajito (1956), the second part of The Apu Trilogy.[23] Some of the experimental techniques which Satyajit Ray pioneered include photo-negative flashbacks and X-ray digressions while filming Pratidwandi (1972).[24]
Tollywood was the very first Hollywood-inspired name, dating back to a 1932 article in the American Cinematographer by Wilford E. Deming, an American engineer who was involved in the production of the first Indian sound film. He gave the industry the name Tollywood because the Tollygunge district in which it was based rhymed with "Hollywood", and because Tollygunge was the centre of the cinema of India as a whole at the time much like Hollywood was in the cinema of the United States.[4]
In that same March 1932 article, Deming was also considering the name "Hollygunge" but decided to go with "Tollywood" as the nickname for the Tollygunge area due to "Tolly being a proper name and Gunge meaning locality" in the Bengali language. It was this "chance juxtaposition of two pairs of rhyming syllables," Holly and Tolly, that led to the name "Tollywood" being coined. The name "Tollywood" went on to be used as a nickname for the Bengali film industry by the popular Kolkata-based Junior Statesman youth magazine, establishing a precedent for other film industries to use similar-sounding names.[25] Tollywood later went on to inspire the name "Bollywood" (as the Bombay-based industry overtook the one in Tollygunge), which in turn inspired many other similar names.[4][25]
The history of cinema in Bengal dates to the 1920s when the first "bioscopes" were shown in theatres in Calcutta. Within a decade, Hiralal Sen, considered a stalwart of Victorian era cinema[26] set up the Royal Bioscope Company, producing scenes from the stage productions of a number of popular shows[26] at the Star Theatre, Minerva Theatre, Classic Theatre. Following a long gap after Sen's works,[27] Dhirendra Nath Ganguly (known as D.G.) established the Indo British Film Co, the first Bengali-owned production company, in 1918. However, the first Bengali feature film, Billwamangal, was produced in 1919, under the banner of Madan Theatre. Bilat Ferat was the IBFC's first production in 1921. The Madan Theatre production of Jamai Shashthi was the first Bengali talkie.[28] A long history has been traversed since then, with stalwarts such as Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Ritwik Ghatak, Tapan Sinha, Ajoy Kar and others earning international acclaim and securing their place in the movie history.[citation needed]
Hiralal Sen, India is credited as one of Bengal's, and India's first directors. These were all silent films. Hiralal Sen is also credited as one of the pioneers of advertisement films in India. The first Bengali-language movie was the silent feature Billwamangal, produced by the Madan Theatre Company of Calcutta and released on 8 November 1919, only six years after the first full-length Indian feature film, Raja Harish Chandra, was released.[29]
The early beginnings of the "talking film" industry go back to the early 1930s when it came to British India, and to Calcutta. The movies were originally made in Urdu or Persian to accommodate a specific elite market. One of the earliest known studios was the East India Film Company. The first Bengali film to be made as a talkie was Jamai Shashthi, released in 1931. At this time the early heroes of the Bengali film industry like Pramathesh Barua and Debaki Bose were at the peak of their popularity. Barua also directed movies, exploring new dimensions in Indian cinema. Debaki Bose directed Chandidas in 1932; this film is noted for its breakthrough in recording sound. Sound recordist Mukul Bose found a solution to the problem of spacing out dialogue and frequency modulation.[citation needed]
The Bengali film industry has made significant contributions to the cinema of India. The first Bengali talkies were the short film Jamai Shashthi released on 11 April 1931 at Crown Cinema Hall in Calcutta, and full-length feature Dena Paona released on 30 December 1931 at Chitra Cinema Hall in Calcutta. The industry was based in Tollygunge, an area of South Kolkata, West Bengal that is more elite and artistically inclined than the usual musical cinema fare in India.[citation needed] Kanan Devi was an early female star of Bengali film, alongside Chandrabati Devi, Molina Devi and Chhaya Devi. The most popular Bengali male actors were Sisir Bhaduri, Chhabi Biswas, Ahindra Choudhury, Dhiraj Bhattacharya and Pahari Sanyal. Popular filmmakers include Nitin Bose, Premankur Atorthy and Premendra Mitra.
The most well-known Bengali superstar to date has been Uttam Kumar while Suchitra Sen is regarded as the most beautiful and influential actress of Bengali cinema. Kumar and Sen were known as "The Eternal Pair" in the late 1950s. This pair worked in the 1961 epic Romantic drama Saptapadi (1961 film) by Kar besides others. Suchitra Sen got her first International Award for Saat Pake Bandha (1963) by Kar . Apart from Sen, Sabitri Chatterjee and Sumitra Devi were very popular actresses of the 1950s. Soumitra Chatterjee is a notable actor who acted in many films in different genres. He was considered as a rival to Uttam Kumar in the 1960s. Soumitra is famous for the characterisation of Feluda in Sonar Kella (1974) and Joi Baba Felunath. Ganadevata, written and directed by Ray and Ganadevata(1978), Directed by Tarun Majumdar. He also played the adult version of Apu in The World of Apu (1959), directed by Ray. In 70's, Ranjit Mallick is famous for Youth Characterization of Interview, Calcutta 71. Rabi Ghosh and Anil Chatterjee is a notable actor for his Versatile Acting which impressed the Audience in short time. [citation needed]
Utpal Dutt is internationally known for his acting in movies and plays, especially Shakespearean plays. Bhanu Bandopadhyay, Rabi Ghosh, and Anup Kumar were best known for their comic timing, and with their versatile acting talent they stunned the audience and critics.[citation needed]
The pioneers in Bengali film music include Raichand Boral, Pankaj Mullick, and K. C. Dey, all associated with New Theatres Calcutta. The greatest composers of the golden era included Robin Chatterjee, Sudhin Dasgupta, Nachiketa Ghosh, Hemant Kumar etc.Tarun Majumdar is well known for First time educational, cultural, and philosophical cinematic experiences for both a mass audience and a class audience, He abolished the division in taste between mass and class audiences. Majumdar is best known for such Evergreen films as Shriman Prithviraj, Ganadevata, Sansar Simante and Alo and Many more.[34]
The revival in Bengali cinema dates from the rise of directors such as Aparna Sen,Sandip Ray along with Rituparno Ghosh, Goutam Ghosh, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Anjan Das, Bappaditya Bandopadhyay, Prabhat Roy, Sekhar Das, Sudeshna Roy and Subrata Sen.[35] Rituparno Ghosh made his first film, Hirer Angti, in 1992 and dominated Bengali cinema until his death in 2013, winning numerous national awards for films like Unishe April, Dahan and Utsab. Aparna Sen made her directorial debut in 1981 with the internationally lauded 36 Chowringhee Lane, which looked at the lives of Anglo-Indians living in Calcutta. Her later films have also been celebrated: Paromitar Ek Din, The Japanese Wife, Goynar Baksho, and others. Buddhadeb Dasgupta is best known for award-winning films like Uttara, Mondo Meyer Upakhyan, Charachar, and Janala. Goutam Ghose is Internationally Acclaimed for Cult Classic films as Antarjali Jatra, Padma Nadir Majhi, Moner Manush and many more. Prabhat Ray is popular for Romantic Family drama for Lathi.Majumdar, Mukhopadhyay, and Choudhury were the pioneers in the mid-1980s to 1990s taste of Bengali films.[36][37]
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