#687: GHATAK, Ritwik: A River Called Titas (1973)
MARTIN SCORSESE'S WORLD CINEMA PROJECT {Spine #684}
A River Called Titas [1973]
Spine #687
Blu-ray
Blu-ray
The Bengali filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak's stunningly beautiful, elegiac saga concerns the tumultuous lives of people in fishing villages along the banks of the Titas River in pre-Partition East Bengal. Focusing on the tragic intertwining fates of a series of fascinating characters — in particular, the indomitable widow Basanti — Ghatak tells the poignant story of an entire community's vanishing way of life. Made soon after Bangladesh became an independent nation, the elliptical, painterly A River Called Titas is a grand epic from a director who has had a devoted following for decades.
156 minutes
Black & White
Black & White
Monaural
in Bengali
1:37:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2013
Director/Writers
Based on the novel by Advaita Malla Barman.
Ritwik Ghatak was 48 when he wrote and directed A River Called Titas.
Other Ghatak films in the Collection:
#993: The Cloud-Capped Star (1960)
The Film
Other Ghatak films in the Collection:
#993: The Cloud-Capped Star (1960)
The Film
One the many stunning images from this long, obtuse and narratively frustrating film.
**
“History is ruthless”
Since the narrative is of such little importance in Ghatak’s scheme of things, there is no need to go over it. The sprawling story unspools into a larger, more profound sense of time and history (ruthless) …
It is not all that depressing as these synopses may make it sound. There is some joy and innocence (the little boy, Ananta [Shafiq Islam]) and a wonderful soundtrack by Ustad Bahadur Khan (Ghatak gives himself a composer credit, as well!) …
Kabari Choudhury is the gorgeous Rajar Jhi who can only breathe heavily on her bizarre wedding night and Rosy Samad seems to get the most screen time as Basanti. The rest of the cast seems to exist for Ghatak’s wider purposes, which become much clearer on repeat viewings.
Film Rating (0-60):
The Booklet
Sixty-eight page booklet featuring an essay by Adrian Martin.
52
The ExtrasThe Booklet
Sixty-eight page booklet featuring an essay by Adrian Martin.
“Ghatak was at once a sharply rational man and a completely, uncontrollably emotional one, and the dimension of melodrama that pushes toward constant hysteria offered him a way to fully enact, on-screen, over and over, his own traumatic experience of Bengali history.”
Commentary
None.
Introduction
To the film by World Cinema Project founder Martin Scorsese.
Interview
Interview
With filmmaker Kumar Shahani about A River Called Titas.
“Ritwik’s story is a fairly tragic one, because he was expelled from Bangladesh during the Partition of Bengal; later — in a sense — he was expelled from Kolkata, because he was a rebel and he stated what wasn’t being stated by anyone — either in the theater or in cinema — about the trauma of partition, which for him provided the very basis for everything in the film.”
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