A film is just a string of memories-- Goutam Ghose

Photo Courtesy: Rajibul Islam

Goutam Ghose, one of the more prominent names in Indian Bangla cinema, began his career with a documentary, “New Earth”, but has since gone on to make a number of remarkable features and documentaries, bagging 16 National Awards and international recognition as well. The director is in Dhaka for a fundraising film festival, and The Daily Star caught up with him.

Every filmmaker has his own reason for making films. What is yours?

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Ghose: As a social being, I have some responsibilities. I spiritually express myself through films. And also, it's my profession. I have learnt it, and am still learning.

You have a close connection with Bangladesh. Tell us about that.

Ghose: I don't say my family used to live here; my family is from here, from Faridpur. They have been here for five generations, so the connection I feel is from very deep within. Let me tell you a story; when I decided to make “Padma Nadi'r Majhi”, I was an established director by then. But when my father heard about it, he was more excited than usual. “Eto dine ekta kaamer kaam korchos! (“Finally, you've done something great!”). I have numerous friends here, I have roamed remote places of this country, and its history and culture is entwined with my life.

Your film “Abar Aranye” is an adaptation of the characters of the Satyajit film “Aranyer Dinratri”, based on a novel by Sunil Gangopadhyay. So there's a kind of multi-layered perspective. How did the idea occur to you?

Ghose: I believe there is nothing really called 'present'. It's a mere bridge between the bygone and the upcoming. And a film is just a string of memories. When we sit in a hall and watch a film, we're watching the past: the script was written, it was directed by a person and acted by others; it was edited, released and distributed, and then you're seeing it. I found this very interesting. And it's somewhat true for our lives too. What has happened cannot be brought back, but it triggers and develops our creative faculties. And even when I have done films from other literary classics, Manik Bandopadhyay's “Padma Nadi'r Majhi” or Samaresh Majumdar's “Kalbela”, my experiences and findings added to it, and it is transformed in films.

How do you look at the current market of Bangla films?

Ghose: It's unfortunate that the flourishing of Bangla films has not reached its potential. You'll see the Bangla-speaking population in the world is bigger than Tamil or Telugu, but their films have a greater international market. The prime reason is that there is a psychological division between the industries here and in West Bengal. If we can make one window, and market it as Bangla cinema, irrespective of where in the world it has been made... If we cannot do that, the younger generation of filmmakers' dreams will be deprived. They will lose motivation to make films. Both the industries have to understand and act on it. If films from Bangladesh release on the same day in India and vice versa, the market for both sides will grow. When I made “Moner Manush”, our distributors released the film somewhat callously in the USA, but the shows in Jackson Heights and Queens overflowed with an audience! There are Bangla-speaking people everywhere in the world now, and we must reach them with our films. Having said that, there also needs to be a filter there about what films will be released.

What are you working on right now?

Ghose: I'm just finishing up on a documentary on renowned painter KG Subramanyan right now. Next in line are two joint venture films that I've signed: one is an Indo-Bangla project (in Bangla), and the other is Indo-Italian (in Hindi and English).

If you could get a chance, would you like to remake any of your films?

Ghose: I don't think a film can be remade like that. If you write a poem and don't like it, you can chuck it in the bin, but once you make a film, you cannot erase anything from there (chuckles). When I watch my films now, I find countless defects, and I regret them. But I can't do anything about it. The best I can do is to learn from that mistake and not repeat it.