RIP: Rituparno

I know it is quite late in the day to be doing a take on the mercurial and talented Rituporno (known to many as Ritu Da, hence I took the liberty of calling him with the same acronym). Ritu Da’s death has been sudden and has definitely sent shock waves in both the Bengal and the Hindi film industry. He was a talent, who dared to look at cinema beyond the confines of what was stated at that point in time. Detailing, detailing and detailing, was his forte, which brought out the characters so strongly. Perhaps one of the things he seems to be inspired from Ray!

  

Again from the advertising background (I use again, as there are quite a few people who have made their mark coming from this background, notably Shyam Benegal, R. Balki and his wife (English Vinglish), John Mathew Mathan (Sarfarosh fame) to name a few!), he established himself very quickly in the Bengal film industry. Largely to me for two reasons, one there was big vacuum left behind after Ray, Ghatak, Mrinal Sen, Tapan Sinha…all of whom had almost left making movie or were making in a limited way attracting a select crowd. Then there was a limited presence of Aparna Sen, Gautam Ghosh and Budhadeb Dasgupta. the second being his sheer talent.

This was a momentous time for Bengal cinema, as the so called bhadrolok audience had started shying themselves from the cinema of Bengal , considering the assembly line of trash being generated by the likes of  Pramod Chakrabarty,. Haranath Chakrabarty, Swapan Saha et al... Bengal and cinema went gradually into the mofussil and that is how the audience of that era started to identify with movies and all hope seemed lost. Mithun Da, Bumba, Ranjit Mallik and a few scattered appearances of Tapas Pal or a pollyana like Soumitra, who was seemingly trying to understand, after all what was happening to Bengal cinema.

Infact, the death of Uttam Kumar, and the void left along with the exodus of a large talent from Bengal to Bombay was already a big blow in the 60’s and 70’s. It was left onto the fragile shoulders of Ray or Ghatak and IPTA to carry home the beacon of light. However, that was quite a long time back.

Coming back to the vacant –ness of Bengal cinema and sheer lack of talent, at this time came in a young guy called Rituporno, with his little gem, Goinar Baksho. A little rough and with edges to be sharpened, the movie was enough to make way for something big coming into Bengal Cinema and with that a breadth of fresh air. There was no stopping, followed by the classic Unishe April, followed by so many of them, Dohon, Ashuk, Raincoat, Bariwali and the classic Shubho Muhurat…

What was fascinating about his brand of cinema was something mint fresh in terms of storyline (capturing smaller and finer details in our everyday life and creating a bigger frame of it) and the treatment of it in his own unique way. The dialogues, the setting, the locale, everything had a newness to it. The Bengal audience sat up and took notice. After a long slumber they woke upto something different and very indignant in the way it showed Bengal and it's subtlety. Bengal had cinema of Ray and the luminaries of those years, but this was 1990’s and there was a transformation in everything which was Bengal and to do with Bengali (bangaliness) as a whole. Ritu Da’s cinema perhaps was able to capture the contemporary ness of the society quite effectively and imaginatively.

Today, the kind of cinema that is coming out of Bengal, must all lay their edifice into what Ritu Da’s genre of cinema was all about. He must be single handed be given the credit of reviving Bengal cinema, which is his first biggest milestone. Second would be starting a trend in cinema which so far in Bengal has lived on (thankfully). There have been statements from a great actor like Bumba Da (Prosenjit) about his own acting revival and cultivating his hidden talent only thanks to Ritu Da. This is a big credit coming from a pillar of the Bengal film industry. After all Bumba has to be given the credit of holding the bastion of the Bengal cinema in its dark years.

Before I sign of this piece, there are some good films and there are some remarkable films and there are some forgetful films (in the recent past Ritu Da was gradually seeming to get into the big name trap of Bollywood, after all he had the midas touch to the awards, which is a big thing), which he did. This is besides a few in which  he himself has acted. I could manage to see the utterly forgetful Memories of March and I am yet to see Arekti Premer Golpo (which I am told is nice). He somehow seemed to get obsessed in recent times with his inner self and that was kind of creating a flummox with which he had trouble dealing with, anyways that would be a chapter best left aside.

So, as I sign off, let me spend my last few lines writing on one of his classic, Shubho Muhurat. I think the way he handled the two firebrands, Rakhee and Sharmila was a treat to watch. The two got together after, Waqt, which in itself is a matter of great distinction for Ritu Da (considering the cold war ear of the two...). There were so many good actors and actresses in the movie, Nandita Das, Tota Roy Chowdhury, Rajesh Sharma (What a fine actor he is, pity so underrated)… to name a few, but the movie clearly belonged to these two. Every time these two came on the screen, it just lit up, the dialogue delivery, the little pauses, facial expression, the set and the setting everything, it was class. One knows that with two power house like Rakhee and Sharmila, you do not have to spend time, but the genius of Ritu Da lay here in the way he deftly handled them, which could have gone either way. The classic scene was of course the climax where the protagonists meet (!). Go watch it, if you haven't. The movie to me is right up there in his all time classics. Adapted from the Miss. Marple franchise, there is no better way that this to pay ode to a classic writer like Agatha Christie. There are layers and layers in the movie to unravel and undertones to understand, pick up the DVD soon, as we all wait to see the fortunes of his last under-production the swan song Satyanweshi...