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ABSTRACT
The article is part of a broader research project that considers the low budget sector of contemporary Bengali cinema and its relationship to the regional popular culture. I intend to draw critical attention towards a recent and unique development in Bengali popular cinema that stages a bizarre encounter between high art and low-brow sensibilities in the regional culture. This previously uncharted terrain also testifies to Bengali cinema’s new found kinship with certain established practices of exploitation cinema prevalent in the West as well as many Asian countries, which complicate conventional generic classifications, as well as prevalent taste cultures. The article uses the author’s in-depth interview with the Ghosh Brothers, a significant directorial duo working in this field, to chart the economic and cultural networks that sustain such a fringe phenomenon. The larger aim of the project is to unravel the socio-political contexts overseeing such precarious developments in a regional popular culture and to understand their relevance in the context of widely expanding studies of marginal cinematic cultures
Acknowledgments
I am indebted to Atmadeep Sengupta, third year undergraduate student at the Symbiosis School of Liberal Arts, Pune for his crucial assistance with the interview as well as its English transcription. I am grateful to Biswajit and Prosenjit Ghosh for allowing us to interview during their busy schedule. I am also overwhelmed by their spontaneous hospitality and genuine passion for cinema. Finally, I must thank Madhuja Mukherjee, my colleague and friend, without whose unswerving patience and insistence this research work would probably never find a readership.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Correction Statement
This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.
Notes
1. In Eric Schaefer’s pioneering study, classical exploitation cinema refers to low-budget productions operating in the fringes of Hollywood during the studio era, which employed highly amateurish, often unscrupulous modes of manufacture as well as sensationalist distribution-exhibition strategies. These were characterized by racy promotions usually with reference to a range of thrills and attractions unauthorized by the existing norms of censorship and public morality. See Schaefer, Bold! Daring! Shocking! True! Since the ‘60s, the term has been deployed to describe various independent and provocative generic trends across the globe usually aimed at niche audiences mostly featuring scandalous content with lurid promotions. Also see Mathjis and Sexton, ‘Exploitation and B Movies’ and Chatterjee, ‘On Disreputable Genres’. While the context and the operators under the current discussion are substantially different from the West, there are striking surface similarities in both product texture and the operative mechanisms at work in this field that could justify the use of the term ‘exploitation’.
2. The film societies were registered clubs or societies formed mainly by urban intelligentsia enthusiastic about cinema in order to promote and disseminate knowledge of the film art through regular screenings, festivals, appreciation programmes and allied publication activities in both English and regional languages. The Calcutta Film Society was formed in 1947 and the larger national body called Federation of Film Societies of India (FFSI) was registered in 1959. For a comprehensive history of the movement see Cherian, India’s Film Society Movement.
3. Satyajit Ray (1921–1992) hailing from a family of eminent writers is arguably the most significant filmmaker to emerge from Bengal in terms of global recognition and in his attempts to familiarize modern cinematic language to a wide range of public. He has been awarded numerous times by prestigious forums and festivals at both national and international levels and most of his films have had a fairly warm commercial reception. He was also a prolific writer of short stories and detective fiction some of which he has adapted into films with huge success. Incidentally he was a founder member of the Calcutta Film Society along with his intellectual peers like Chidananda Dasgupta and also the first Director of FFSI.
4. See Raha, Bengali Cinema; and Dasgupta, The Painted Face.
5. Ritwik Ghatak (1925–1976), the most distinctive and iconoclastic filmmaker to emerge from Bengal in the post-independence period, was known for the use highly stylized and avant-garde technique. His explicitly political cinema portrayed the struggles of the underclass, contemporary women or indigenous traditions in face of the India’s violent Partition but through an unique, idiosyncratic style at variance with dominant realist as well modernist sensibilities of the period. Albeit acquiring a group of staunch supporters in his lifetime, his works were appreciated posthumously thereby lending him a sort of rebellious status for later generations of critics and filmmakers.
6. See Biswas, ‘In the Mirror of an Alternative Globalism’.
7. For an account of the Bengali film industry and B-grade aesthetics in the ‘80s see Bhattacharya and Nag, ‘The Politics Around ‘B-Grade’ Cinema in Bengal’. For the political context of Bengali popular cinema at the early decade of this century see Biswas, ‘Changing Scenes’. To catch a glimpse of the new cinephiliac aspect one can follow online activity of mash-up artistes like DJ Bapon, https://www.youtube.com/user/BostirCheleBapon/videos.
8. For an insightful account of a fringe regional cinema from the Purulia district of West Bengal see Mukherjee, ‘Toward a New Frame for Regional Films’.
9. For a concise and revised historical account of Bengali cinema spanning up to the last decade see Gooptu, ‘Bengali Cinema’.
10. Transparent financial accounts of regional production sectors are virtually nonexistent. However, if one has to make a rough budget estimate of finished film products after 2010 based on communications with various industry personnel, a high end Bengali potboiler featuring local stars and backed by powerful production-distribution companies would have a budget between 1.5 and 2.5 crores. The budgets of character centred and therefore less lavish ‘new urban dramas’ would mostly range around 80 lakhs frequently rising to a maximum of 1.5 crore. While, few independent films made with collaborative effort have occasionally managed to maintain relatively modest budgets between 25 and 70 lakhs. The low budget films discussed below, which I shall describe as a ‘homegrown exploitation’ sector, usually have significantly lesser budgets when compared to these ranges and in many cases way below what is considered the minimum standard for any industrial production.
11. For a broad mapping of Bombay B-grade cinemas see Chatterjee, ‘On Disreputable Genres’. For an insight into Bombay’s gritty low-budget circuit and the work of its celebrated trash icon Kanti Shah see Subba, ‘The Bad-Shah’s of Small Budget’. For discussions on B-grade generic manifestations after the ‘80s in the context of mainstream Bollywood see Sen, Haunting Bollywood.
12. In popular and academic circuits the term ‘trash’ has two distinct but often divergent connotations – on the one hand a self aware but arrogant disavowal of high and middle brow taste culture to capture residual mass markets and on the contrary a radical, progressive eschewing of high culture from the critical perspective of marginalized and oppressed peoples. Neither of the two senses are suited to describe the terrain I am examining here. Therefore, I am using a provisional phrase to situate the research object, which is located in a specific region and its ensuing cultural politics. For discussion of the former tendency see Sconce, ‘Trashing the Academy’. For a study of the Bombay B-circuit cinephilia see Nair, ‘Taste, Taboo, Trash’; and Subba, ‘Embalming the Obscure’. For the latter perspective see Harrow, Trash.
13. Rabindranath Tagore’s seminal novella (1901) on the alienation and romantic dalliance of a nineteenth century housewife has been famously adapted by Satyajit Ray (1964) and both texts remains central to critical discussions on nationalism and the women’s question. For varied critical perspectives on the significances of such literature-cinema encounters see Asaduddin and Ghosh, Filming Fiction. The novella has been adapted numerous times into television dramas as well as popular films. The Ghosh Bothers’ queer reworking is remarkable in its clear distance from both conservative televisual adaptations as well as the racy updating of Tagore’s story and in its curious homage to the Ray-Ghatak tradition of serious cinema from an absolutely trashy aesthetic paradigm.
14. The title and content bear implicit references to Ritwik Ghatak’s documentary on the Chhou dancers of Puruliya.
15. The title is nonsensical phrase having a melodious sound effect and referring vaguely to a sleepy mood.
16. Muktangan Rangalay is a popular and cheaply rentable theatre auditorium located at the Rashbehari Crossing in South Kolkata and very close to the Ghosh residence at Chetla.
17. The organization to oversee and promote legitimate theatre activities as part of the erstwhile Left Front government’s Information and Broadcasting Ministry.
18. The Academy, a highly significant non government cultural institution for showcasing fine arts and theatre was founded in central Kolkata at the Cathedral Road in 1960. It was built under supervision of contemporary Chief Minister of Bengal, Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy and Lady Ranu Mukherjee, the culturally proficient spouse of an industrialist having close association to the eminent artiste and intellectual Rabindranath Tagore, a figure who will feature prominently in the following interview and discussion.
19. Sisir Mancha, a theatre auditorium, also used for film screenings was built around 1978 adjacent to the iconic and culturally significant Rabindra Sadan complex, which itself is just beside the Academy premises.
20. Debashree Roy was a hugely successful popular actress debuting in early ‘80s whose career spanned a wide range of genres mostly in Bengali but also in Bombay and Tamil cinema. She dominated the Bengali screen for almost two decades, won several awards for her contribution to the industry and quite understandably her mother had close personal acquaintances with several industry personalities.
21. The amusing part of the narrative is that in the ‘90s Debashree Roy was briefly married to one of the top stars of the industry, Prasenjit who happened to be the son of bilingual film star Biswajit. Although sharing the same names they are not related in any way to the directorial duo under discussion.
22. Chapal Bhaduri was a veteran actor and female impersonator in mainstream folk theatre of Bengal. After retirement s/he has passionately narrated her/his professional and personal experiences as a queer performer in several documentary, as well as fictional films.
23. Chitrabani is an extremely significant institution that continues to work for fostering film education and awareness in Kolkata since the late ‘70s in the form of film appreciation workshops and academic publications. It hosts a library holding important resources for film and media studies and works in close collaboration with institutions like St. Xavier’s College and its associated research institute Educational Multimedia Research Centre (EMMRC), Kolkata all of which are under the same church sect. Father P . J. Joseph, to whom in all probability the Ghosh Brothers are referring, happens to be the Institute’s Director since 2015. Ironically, Chitrabani’s educational vision has been largely analytic and scholarly operating in sync with the film society movement and in the normal course was not known to engage with amateur, low-brow productions without any specific academic interest.
24. Inox Leisure Limited was the first privately owned multiplex chain in Kolkata. Around the time the duo mention there were only a few venues located at Kolakata and its satellite town Salt lake.
25. A still existent stand alone movie theatre at North Kolkata near Hatibagan. Mofussil refers to small towns around city of Kolkata.
26. A small scale production house located in Lenin Sarani at Central Kolkata that specializes in ads and also ventures into films at times.
27. Both are single screen theatres near Hazra crosing at South Kolkata of which the former has recently closed down.
28. Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941), the versatile literary and visual artist as well as educator was an internationally recognized public figure during his life who was awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize in 1913 for his poetry. As mentioned earlier, Nastaneed (1901) was adapted famously by Satyajit Ray (1964), later on as television dramas and recently in 2012 as an urban relationship drama with a contemporary setting.
29. Agnidev Chatterjee who directed this film titled Charulata 2011 had experience in television soaps but is now known for making racy narratives centering on urban female protagonists, which themselves are cross breeds between conventional B grade genres and the new urban dramas gaining steady popularity.
30. Nandan is the prestigious Government sponsored cultural centre and the first multiple screen cinema complex in Kolkata located next the Rabindra Sadan and Academy premises, which was formally inaugurated by Satyajit Ray himself in 1985. The Left Front government which was at the peak of its success at the time conceived of Nandan as a site for promoting meaningful, socially conscious cinema. The ticket prices at the screens are still government regulated and it offers a better profit sharing arrangement than most privately owned theatres.
31. Pather Panchali, considered to be the first successful and original assimilation of neorealist aesthetics in Indian cinema had to undergo severe financial struggles during its staggered production life. The film’s production history, detailed in Ray’s own writings, has been part of the cinephiliac narrative of the Indian cinema’s artistic recognition in the international arena. See Ray, My Years with Apu.
32. In everyday Bengali speech addressing someone as ‘Sir’ or ‘Madam’ represents a respectable status comparing him/her to a teacher or mentor of sorts while the address ‘babu’ like ‘Mr’ is used for the purpose of general formality. On the other hand use of da or di after any name is reserved for more informal address or for close acquaintances.
33. Around 2015 an attempt at making a biopic depicting early and personal struggles of Satyajit Ray had got stalled owing to a problem regarding permission from his son and sole rights owner Sandip Ray, who is himself a well known filmmaker. A low budget film such as this might not encounter similar problems owing to its fleeting publicity in the mainstream media.
34. In Tagore’s Nastaneed the wary husband Bhupati brings in Charu’s sister-in-law Manda to provide female companionship to her lonely wife. There is no hint of eroticism in this relation either in the original story or Ray’s adaptation and such a suggestion is presumably blasphemous for the popular audience, as well local intelligentsia.
35. Single screen theatres located in Central Kolkata areas of Esplanade and Sealdah respectively, which are known for specializing in soft porn flicks apart from regular low-budget regional potboilers. For new avenues of research on single screen theatres and their historical and cultural contexts see Mukherjee, ‘Inside a dark hall’.
36. A B-grade genre based on supernatural tales about snakes taking up human forms that gained popularity during the ‘80s and ‘90s and continues to be showcased intermittently in television serials and regional non-mainstream circuits.
37. Interestingly, the veteran, avant-garde filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak had also worked in the Purulia district and eventually made a documentary about the community and its traditional Chhou dancers that was completed around 1970.
38. The Trinamool Congress Government which won over the Left Front with wide popular support in 2011 had shifted the Chief Minister’s and Secretariat office from Mahakaran (Writer’s Building) in Central Kolkata to a new construction called Nabanna near Shibpur across the river Ganges.
39. Autograph (2010) was a very successful film by Srijit Mukherjee who is a prominent figure in the trend of ‘new Bengali urban dramas’ mentioned in the introduction. This film used the contemporary star status of Prasenjit to pay a tribute to Nayak (The Hero, 1966), Ray’s film on Bengali film stardom featuring the industry’s all time biggest star Uttam Kumar.
40. He is a director of mainstream comedy-potboilers often featuring popular stars in the industry. He is married to Piya Sengupta who is the daughter of Sukhen Das, a cult actor-director of high pitch family melodramas in the ‘80s.
41. Except Soumitra Chatterjee, a veteran star who has resorted to doing bit roles in minor films lately, rest of the actors mentioned had close association with the industry but, mostly with failed career trajectories leading to their frequent appearances in low budget fares. For instance Piya Sengupta is a minor actress and daughter of Sukhen Das as mentioned earlier and Pallabi Chatterjee is the sister of contemporary Tollygunge industry’s biggest star-actor Prasenjit.
42. The intimacy between Tagore and his sister-in-law Kadambari Devi is the inspiration for Nastaneed and therefore Charulata. The alleged affair has ambivalent impact on the public sphere with various accounts and narratives speculating on its nature, often referring to an established erotic imagination about the relation between a wife and the husband’s younger brother in Bengali joint households.
43. The character is presumably modelled on Akhsay Kumar Boral, the famed poet of the lyrical tradition much younger to Tagore. The scenario obviously is wholly fictitious.
44. A song written by Tagore celebrating various manifestations of human freedom through metaphors of nature.
45. The whiplash sounds, the way they are placed in the film seem to bear some implicit reference to Ritwik Ghatak’s strategic use of similar sound effects to frame the protagonist Neeta’s tragic exploitation in Meghe Dhaka Tara (The Cloud Capped Star, 1960).
46. Mrinal Sen (1923–2018), a significant filmmaker and a contemporary of Ray and Ghatak, was known for his explicit use of avant-garde techniques inspired by radical European and Latin American cinema of the ‘60s. The public as well as critical reception of his films have been ambivalent partly owing to their didactic narrative structures, experimental excesses and also due to his close association with the dominant faction of Left Front in Bengal which secured State power in 1977.
47. Sanjay Leela Bhansali (born 1963) is a popular filmmaker working in Bombay film industry known for his big budget costume dramas featuring opulent set design and major stars.
48. After early criticisms during his lifetime Tagore’s genteel but critical sensibility remained an unquestioned ideal in Bengali intellectual life, which has managed survive the frequent onslaughts from different intellectual-creative factions such as the progressive writers in the ‘60s or urban poets and popular band musicians during the ‘90s.
49. Till 60 years after Rabindranath Tagore’s death in 1941, the Vishwabharati University at Santinketan, a former brainchild of Tagore himself, located at some distance away from Kolkata, had owned and ruthlessly controlled copyrights of Tagore’s entire creative output. After the copyright was lifted in 2001 Tagore’s work came into the public domain leading to a blossoming of cheap publications and myriad appropriations of his music and literature.
50. The Trinamool Congress Government won over the erstwhile Left Front with wide popular support in 2011.The current chief Minister of West Bengal, a published poet and painter, is also well known for her affinity towards various cultural activities including cinema. In recent years some of the mainstream artistes of the film and television industry have politically represented her Party or have proclaimed their general support. Although the individuals working in the field I am investigating do not appear to have any specific political allegiance, the appearance and expanse of this exploitation phenomena coincides with and may have larger symbolic connections to the political shift in the State, which requires further investigation.
51. For an interesting account of non-metropolitan circulation of film society culture that locates an obsessive fascination with the idea of cinema see Ghosh, ‘Memories of Action’.