Window Seat | Weekly Column in English

 

Window Seat | Mrinal Chatterjee | 21. 5. 23

Mrinal Sen’s Odisha and ‘M’ Connection

Mrinal Sen, whose birth centenary is being celebrated this year, is one of finest film makers of India. Satyajit Ray, Ritwick Ghatak and Mrinal Sen form the golden troika of new wave cinema in Bengal.

Sen has received various national and international honors including eighteen National Film Awards and Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the highest award for filmmakers in India. He was conferred with Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award of India. Government of France honored him with the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, while Russian Government honored him with the Order of Friendship.

He made films in several languages including Bengali, Hindi, Telugu and Odia.  He made Matira Manisha (1966) in Odia. Based on the novel by Kalindi Charan Panigrahi, the film contrasts traditional and modern values as exemplified by the different attitudes of two brothers towards their inherited family land. The plot explores human relationships using a wide range of themes, including Gandhian and Marxist ideologies, postwar social conditions, agrarian culture, rustic life, and traditional family values.

Ten years later he made another film titled Mrigaya in Hindi based on the on the Odia short story ‘Shikar’ by Bhagbati Charan Panigrahi.  ‘Mrigayaa’ (The Royal Hunt) was Sen’s first film made in colour and deploys the lessons of his experiments with complex and stylistically diverse cinematic idioms.

It also marked the debut of the lead actors Mithun Chakraborty and Mamata Shankar. ‘Mrigayaa’, with the reigning motif of hunting, revolves around the lives of tribals in a village in the 1930s, juxtaposed with the events of the Santhal rebellion of 1855-56.

Have you marked that there is far too many ‘M’s here. Let me introduce another ‘M’- Manmohan Mahapatra, who was indirectly responsible for these as my film journalist friend Ashok Palit wrote in his social media post and would include in his upcoming book.

Manmohan Mahapatra, himself a National award winning film maker was close to Mrinal Sen. He suggested making a film based on the story Shikar. A believer in numerology he suggested to change the title to Mrigaya. It was Manmohan Mahapatra, who suggested Gouranga Chakravorty, his classmate at FTII to change his name to ‘Mithun’. The heroine of the film was Mamata Shankar. All four ‘M’s made the film one of the most memorable films in this genre. The film went on to receive the National Award for Best Feature Film in 1976 and Chakraborty was awarded the National Award for Best Actor.

Good news for Indian Film Industry

It is good for both the Indian and Bangladeshi film industry that Bangladesh has finally eased the ban on the screening of foreign films, imposed in 1971 to 'protect the local entertainment industry'. It led to the closure of over 1000 plus cinema halls in Bangladesh, as they failed to attract viewers with the films made locally. This year Sheikh Hasina government decided to allow commercial screening of up to 19 imported films.

Pathaan was the first Indian movie to get a full release in Bangladesh in more than half a century and drew full house in the halls it was shown.

The easing of the ban can augur well for Indian film industry as it gets a legitimate market, eager to partake the fare Indian film industry offers.

Photographs are from Dhaka.

Source: different news-sites from Bangladesh.

Savitri Brata and Husband Day

On the new moon day (Amavasya) of Jyestha, married women in Odisha observe Savitri brata. They fast and offer puja for the long healthy life of their husbands.

According to the legend behind the brata, Savitri, the beautiful daughter of King Aswapati of Madra Desha selected Satyavan, a prince in exile who was living in the forest with his blind father Dyumatsen, as her life partner. She left the palace and lived with her husband and the in-laws in the forest. As a devoted wife and daughter-in-law, she went to great lengths to take care of them. Satyavan was destined to die early. One day while cutting wood in the jungle, Satyavan fell down from a tree. Yama, the god of death appeared to take away Satyavan's soul. Savitri pleaded to Yamraj not to be separated from her husband. If anything, he would take away the soul of her husband and she would also follow. Yamraj, moved by the devotion of Savitri, returned the life of her husband.

The same festival is observed on Vat Purnima, the full moon of Jyestha in other regions including Goa, Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra.

There are several brata that married women observe in India for the wellbeing of their husbands across India. In northern and Western India married women observe Karva Chauth in October or November on the Hindu lunar month of Kartika.

I did not know that there was a day dedicated to Husbands in Western countries till I came across a social media post of Sri JP Jagdev. I goggled and found that it is ‘Husband Appreciation Day’ and it is observed on the third Saturday in April each year.

And then I came across a legend printed on a banyan which summarizes the husband wife relationship and on what condition husband is appreciated and venerated: wife is always right.

 

SPPU Museum of Cartoon Art

SPPU (Savitribai Phule Pune University) Museum of Cartoon Art held an exhibition of cartoons on the occasion of 'World Cartoonist Day' on 5th May 2023. The theme of the exhibition was 'Give Peace a Chance'. Many top level cartoonists across the country including Jayaraj Vellur, K.K.Rath, Kallol Majumdar, Keti Radevska, Maithili Patankar, Piyush Govil, Priyanka Agarwal, sent their entries for the exhibition.

SPPU Museum of Cartoon Art, which opened on March 2022, is the first such museum operating from a University premises in India.

 

Tailpiece

Wife was an LIC employee. 

Wife was an LIC employee. She went to a portrait painter to get her painting done. She asked him to add an eleven lakh rupees necklace to her neck on the portrait, although she was not wearing any.  

The painter asked why she wanted it in her picture.  

She replied:  If I die, no doubt my husband will marry again.  The new wife will see this picture and will search endlessly for this non-existing necklace. They both will fight and that's when my soul will find real peace.

This is called - jeevan anand policy,

"zindagi ke saath bhi, zindagi ke baad bhi"!!

++