RITWIK GHATAK : CINEMA OF RUPTURE AND EPIC IMAGINATION

Film Analysis and Appreciation

2022 September Weekends –
3rd & 4th, 10th & 11th, 17th & 18th, 24th & 25th
14:30 to 18:30 IST _ ONLINE

OVERVIEW:

The handful of films made by Ritwik Ghatak during his relatively short creative life, truncated by premature death, are generally seen as ‘other’ with respect to the cinema of Satyajit Ray and general mainstream cinema in India. Leaving this comparative framework and also to some extent, the over-determined relation drawn between his troubled life and his cinema, this course would present the five key films of Ritwik as layered texts, which need close scrutiny and gradual separation of blocks of affective experiences as key identifiers to his multimodal approach for a series of search for cinematic truths, filmic allegories, adequate for the revelation of the lived conditions within the mixed temporalities in a complicated cultural space like India. Starting from immediate historical, to its metaphorical extension to human condition of the trans-historical vision, from anthropological objectivity to its appropriation into collective unconscious as archetypes, from the quotidian to the ritualistic and mythic suggestion in the formation of the cinematic image – Ritwik has ventured too many uncharted territories, almost all at once. The course would open up the possibility to look at the films of Ghatak not only in terms of their immediate socio-cultural contours, the course would also pay close attention to the cultural artifacts referred and arranged in the films and would speculate on their significance in erecting vistas of cinematic experience and cinematic discourse. The filmic analysis through intensive reading would show the creative characteristics of Ghatak for his inclination for designing cinematic ruptures and methods of organic integration on altogether different planes. The course intends to reveal these films as objects of dense philosophical possibilities and areas of cinematic rumination themselves which for Ritwik, perhaps only could have been attained by the unique perceptual and cognitive possibilities of the medium of cinema itself.

The five films to be analyzed are:

• Ajantrik (The Pathetic Fallacy), 1958 :
  Over 1st weekend of September – 3rd & 4th
  
• Meghe Dhaka Tara (The Cloud-Capped Star), 1960 
• Komal Gandhar (E-Flat) 1961
• Subarna Rekha (The Golden Thread) 1962
  Comparative Study of Ghatak’s Trilogy
  Over next 2 weekends of September – 10th, 11th, 17th & 18th
  
• Jukti, Takko aar Gappo (Reasons, Arguments and Stories), 1974
  Over last weekend of September – 24th & 25th

Participants are welcome who might be interested in post-independent Indian social and political reality, role of myth and epic in cinematic formation, creative use of melodic dramatic structure in cinema, search for indigenous modernism in cinema through formal means, anthropology and archetypes in cinema, critical and close reading of cinema, and other associated areas.

Total 8 days – 4 hours each day – Total Contact hours : 32

MODE OF TEACHING:
Film Appreciation and Analysis.
Participants will be expected to watch the films before joining the sessions.
Films are available for viewing on youtube and amazon prime.
In the sessions excerpts from the films will be shown and discussed.
Also reading material will be shared during the course. 

METHOD OF INTERACTION:
ONLINE via Google Meet.

MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION
English

COURSE FEES:
For Participants from India and SAARC Countries
₹ 4000 – For Full Course – 4 weekends (3rd, 4th, 10th, 11th, 17th, 18th, 24th & 25th Sept
₹ 2500 – For Ghatak’s Partition Trilogy (10th, 11th, 17th & 18th Sept – 2nd & 3rd Weekend)
₹ 1250 – For Ajantrik (3rd&4th Sept – 1st Weekend only)
₹ 1250 – For Jukti, Takko aar Gappo (24th & 25th Sept – 4th Weekend only)

For other international participants
$ 99 – For Full Course – 4 weekends (3rd, 4th, 10th, 11th, 17th, 18th, 24th & 25th Sept)
$ 50 – For Ghatak’s Trilogy (10th, 11th, 17th & 18th Sept – 2nd & 3rd Weekend)
$ 25 – For Ajantrik (3rd&4th Sept – 1st Weekend only)
$ 25 – For Jukti, Takko aar Gappo (24th & 25th Sept – 4th Weekend only)

Voluntary Contribution for Aurovilians.

COURSE DIRECTOR’S PROFILE :
An alumnus from Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI), Kolkata, DebKamal Ganguly is an independent filmmaker, researcher and teacher of cinematic arts. He has taught for 08 years (2012-2020) and designed curriculum in Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune,  in the departments of Film Editing, Film Direction and Screen Studies; and as a guest faculty in National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, Flame University, Pune, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Bhubaneswar. Ganguly’s works have been published under special curator-ship from Lowave, Paris; his video art featured in the exhibition ‘Indian Highway’ and showcased in galleries of various cities of Europe and Asia. His films done in the capacity of editor, script-writer and sound designer have been shown in competitive sections of various international festivals and received recognition, including ‘Tiger Award for Shorts’ in Rotterdam (IFFR 2007). Ganguly has presented papers in various international and national seminars and conferences on various themes related to cinema, Deleuze studies, visual art, interfaces of art practices, translation studies, collective memory, Bengal studies, Media studies, pedagogy of cinema, film editing as a discipline, immersive sound etc including CARA-CIECT conference in Witwatersrand University, Johannesburg (2018), CILECT conference in VGIK, Moscow (2019), Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater (2019). He is a participant of an international project for artistic research involving BRICS countries, being the coordinator for India (2018).

CERTIFICATES:
Digital certificates of participation will be issued.

QUERIES:
For queries, if any, please write to: support_filminstitute@auroville.org.in
or call / message +91 9969879319.