Modernity And Cinema In Bengal Film Studies Essay

Modernity And Cinema In Bengal Film Studies set roundRealism and Modernity ar two words closely associated with Bengali cinema. Some of the greatest and among the most popular conveymakers of Bengal took trustworthyist genre of films to a rude(a) height, alongside reflecting modernist ideas. Realism and contemporaneity go hand-in-hand in Bengali films, peculiarly in the work of greats uniform Satyajit acti nonherapy and Ritwik Ghatak.Although defining modernity would stringent at least a few more pages, for the sake of this essay, we would calculate it down to merely social, political and artistic modernization. Satyajit Rays magnum opus Pather Pancheli is single of the greatest cases of existentist films portraying various elements of modernity. Inspired by Italian neo-realism (especially Vittorio De Siccas Bicycle Thief, 1948), Ray fixd his first film and a masterpiece reflecting the evolution and social variety register in Bengal and a modernization of ideas and concepts.In Pather Panchali, Ray talks or so leaving old ideas behind and moving on. He talks about how over era, old directions of living, ancestral ideas and traditional lifestyle has fuck off stale and needs to be departd. Apu, with his family, leaves his family unit and village at the peculiarity because the ancestral house held them behind. They moved to find a better way of living. They moved to get rid of the old house which couldnt help them in any way, that instead took their daughters life.This whole film is a modulation from pre-modern to a modern way of living. Ray distributes several metaphors throughout the film metaphors of modernity and need for change. One central type which served as a metaphor for me was that of the old aunt. Shes old, tired and secure wanders around the house doing nothing. Shes a good deal told to go indicating shes not wanted in the house. The family is fed up of her salutary as theyre fed up of traditions and the same lifestyle theyd been living in the fear of famine, poverty and survival. The old aunt wanders, trying to find a pose for herself, and when she doesnt, she dies. Ray shows death of old ideas. Ray wants change. He shows a need for change and a breakaway from traditions which are holding you back. He wants to show theres always a need for change. The old aunt is a mere metaphor for him to show how traditions have become stale.Charulata (1964), an different ane of the great films by Ray, also talks about change. But here, he sets it in an upper middle class Bengali society where a lonely housewife falls in love with her brother-in-law while they both(prenominal) encourage each other to write. He puts two different ideas of home and desire, literature and politics, pre-modernism and modernity face-to-face.Rays films have a humanistic touch. He uses his fraud to get to the deepest part of human heart and extract out the emotions from there. Scenes like Apu throwing away the necklace Durga had stolen, Amal leaving home to avoid being unfaithful, Durga stealing regimen for her aunt add to the humanistic approach of Satyajit Rays work.Neo-realism is another thing that shake Ray. According to me, its mainly because his stories were about society. He couldnt have made them in a fictional style because then they wouldnt be relevant to the society. His stories were not meant to be mere films, but a reality or sowhere in time which needed to be imitated in Bengali society and which was a reflection of the same society he lived in. His characters were sketches of real peck. They were close to real. For example, when you stand for Durga, you dont think of her as a two-dimensional good or grievous character, but as a girl who existed and had different attributes to her personality just like everybody else. She wasnt a puppet.Similarly, Ritwik Ghataks films introduced different modern themes to the evolving society of Bengal such as alienation, isolation, need for home.In one of his most personal and also socially relevant films Ajantrik, Ghatak introduces the concept of alienation and isolation from the society. He shows a mans accessory to his car, an inanimate object and a troubled social life where he cant connect well to the people around him. Scenes like where the character Bimal is talking to his car, the car responding to him, him taking care of the car like a companion and not caring about what his society says, show how most-valuable a character Jagaddal (the car) is. Ghatak doesnt treat the car as a prop, but as a character itself. He tries to show the cars point of persuasion he wants to make us feel its presence thus implying the detail how relations have also evolved along with modernization of ideas and society how people have become more involved with their property rather than beau human beings.Similarly, in Subarnarekha (1965), Ghatak reflects on the feeling of home (along with many other sub-themes such as happiness, relations). His work has been about change, modernity and its effects and mainly, how sectionalisation has affected society and Ghatak himself.In Subarnarekha, he tells a story of a family moving to the bank of Subarnarekha River after the partition and how the girl Sita watchks happiness throughout the film. Moreover, he tells of her feeling at the new home. The river becomes the new home for her who she confides in her secrets, woes and happiness.From what I observed in Ghataks films, he believes that society has changed from being a community to more of a collective living of different individuals. I observed individualism in his work, and how people have turned from their fellows to constitution or man-made beauty whether it is mountains and rivers to cars and property.I think there are many modernist elements found in both Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghataks films ranging from their content and themes (home, anthropomorphism, modernity itself) to their craft (use of POV shots, different sty le of cinematography, manipulating space and even the use of Brechtian elements).Mise-en-scene of SubarnarekhaSubarnarekha by Ritwik Ghatak has a totally different feel from Ghataks Ajantrik where he uses machinery and artificial elements. hither he turns to spirit. He turns to landscapes for expression of emotions. His landscapes speak. For example, in every scene when Sita sings, we expose landscapes of river and surroundings. At times, it seems like Sita is singing to the river, telling her story. Ghatak has a strong bewitchment of juxtaposing sound and landscape and how it creates an impact in geters mind.Whats interesting to phone line is how the kind of landscape shows the state of mind of character, such as when shes happy, we see rice fields and river and when shes sad and bored, we see a barren land. watch a Ritwik Ghatak film is like going on a expedition locomote around the state. He shows you picturesque landscapes which strongly reflect nature and emotions.Anothe r important thing which is part of the mise-en-scene is strange framing. Ghatak likes to frame his subjects on extreme and odd points of the grid and juxtapose them to their background, giving them a context. For example the scene where Sita is singing of her woes in a barren land around her and when she ends, the camera dollies out just showing Sitas body (which is also write up in the frame and not properly placed). You can expect the upset(prenominal) in Ghataks style of framing. He wouldnt use conventional framing in Subarnarekha, but put two images side by side to create a different context.In Subarnarekha, Ghataks art direction also plays an important role. They also help create the mise-en-scene of the film. The river, the lonely plains, one house in the middle of nowhere, very little to no people, an old abandoned place where the war took place they all develop a certain mood. The trend and transition from a small town school to a journey across the border and to a lone house in the center of barren land. It creates a symphony a lyrical transition from one note to another.Pace of the film is another thing thats part of the mise-en-scene. The time duration of the film determines how long it would feel compared to the real time. Ghatak manipulates time to the cessation where Subarnarekha starts to feel realist which means time is slowed down, although not exactly to match the real time. He changes pace continuously to match the action and the passing of time. Subarnarekha is dual-lane into chapters occurring in different passing time periods.Camera movement is rather natural in the film. Most of the time, Ghatak uses the invisible camera method and doesnt change points of view except at a point where Abhiram recognizes his lost mother. In that scene, camera shifts focus as to provide a point of view of Abhiram recognizing her mother.Ghatak uses space quite realistically creating a perfect illusion of real space. I think Ritwik Ghataks choice of s hooting on-location really helped him stay true(p) to his realistic nature of the film (just like many realist filmmakers of 20th century).Costumes, as part of the films mise-en-scene, are minimal and are there just to show the traditional way of life. It hasnt been stylized like setting, sound and camera work. playing (considering it a part of mise-en-scene) has been reduced to appear natural unlike some of the early films which imitated theater.