Danseuse Sudha Chandran and renowned Bengali actress Rituparna Sengupta in a recent event to mark the 150th birth anniversary of poet Rabindranath Tagore.Interview with the great Bengali film-maker of yesteryears, the mercurial Ritwik Ghatak (Excerpted from the book Ritwik Ghatak On cinema.) :
Tagore music (Rabindra Sangeet) has an important functional role in most of your films. Could you explain your affinity to Rabindranath Tagore ?
I cannot speak without him. That man has culled all my feelings long before my birth. He has understood what I am.
In spite of the considerable influence of Rabindranath Tagore on you, we find that there is a qualitative difference between the works of Tagore and your films. Don't you think that he was excessively romantic ?
Romantic ! What do you know about him ? Rabindranath is not a romantic, his is a completely variegated affair. He is the performing monkey of Bengali literature. And you call him a romantic ? Have you read Chaturanga ? He is a mystic, agnotic, everything. He was also a great rogue and a great one for using vile language. He also wrote in the language used by street urchins. So do not try to sidetrack him as a romantic. Read the full range of the man's work. The structure of his writings is extremely tight. He is, as I said before, the performing monkey of Bengali literature. You must have seen the toy which has a ladder and a small monkey on the top. When you hold this toy upright the monkey rolls down. When inverted it slides down again. Rabindranath is like this toy monkey.
He can get to the top, step by step, and climb upside down as well. So, it is a great blunder to label him a romantic. There are some people who want to sell Rabindranath, and that is why you have this image of him impressed on your minds. You people have not read Rabindranath. You are yet to know of his anger. From the lowest rung of society to the highest he spared none. You can call me rogue, a rascal, but he was a greater one. Maybe he knew more four-letter words than I do. Do not have a distorted notion about him.
book : Rows And Rows of Fences - Ritwik Ghatak on cinema.
