Tribute to Hritwik Ghatak on his birth centenary Films of the Genius reflects Refugees’ trauma of Partition
Prabhat Sinha
November 20, 2025
One of India’s greatest filmmakers and a multifaceted intellectual of all time, Hritwik Kumar Ghatak lived and created his work deeply entwined with the trauma of the Partition of India. Hritwik Ghatak was regarded as the ‘Maker of Filmmakers’ and the ‘Genius Cinematographer and Director’ in the Indian cinema world.
“I have no taste for sweet, lovey-dovey stories about a boy meeting a girl. I will wound you and make you understand; this story is not fictional. I will speak about the deeper meaning behind what you see before your eyes - try to understand my message. If you are conscious and can perceive the protest I raise, then go out and try to change reality - that alone will make my film meaningful.”
Not surprisingly, these words could be spoken, and were - only by a legend, the world-renowned ‘exceptional’ filmmaker Hritwik Kumar Ghatak, whose life itself was cinema. This year, on the birth centenary of Ghatak, film screenings of his works are being held in different parts of the country.
In Agartala, a Hritwik Ghatak Film Festival is scheduled for November 21-23 at Sukanta Academy. In association with Tripura University’s Deptt of Journalism & Mass Communication, ‘Parisar’, a local cultural body is going to hold the festival.
Born on November 4, 1925, in Jindabazar, Dhaka (presently Bangladesh), Hritwik Ghatak was also a playwright, poet, essayist, and philosopher. In the core of his celluloid creations, all emotions and visuals portrayed the pain of the Partition of Bengal - the breaking of the nation-body into two parts, the suffering of lakhs of uprooted people, the loss of their dignity and self-identity, and, above all, the refugees’ trauma of Partition.
In his tender age, Hritwik witnessed the turbulent 1940s of India, a decade marked by the all-encompassing movement to end colonial British rule, the horrific Bengal famine of 1943, and the devastating communal riots of 1945-46. Ultimately, the colonialism ended with India’s independence in 1947, but it brought alongside a lifelong agony of the partition of India.
In 1948, Hritwik Ghatak, along with his family, left East Bengal to permanently settle in Kolkata. On the way, in trains and in the later period in refugee camps in Kolkata, he witnessed refugees living like inhuman creatures. The streets of Kolkata then were filled with new languages and new faces. Schools, temples, even railway stations became shelters for those, who had been labelled by a new identity ‘Refugee’, a by-product of the Independence and Partition.
The sufferings of lakhs of uprooted refugees, social inequalities and economic and political corruption stirred deep anguish and anger in his heart. He became involved in cultural movements through writing and acting in plays under the banner of IPTA (Indian People's Theatre Association), dedicating himself to theatre and subsequently to cinema as a form of protest and social awakening.
A perception that Hritwik’s films are synonymous with Partition is largely true. He said, “Partition is the root of all my works. I lost my country. I lost my roots.”
The migration and uprooting of millions - losing land, homes, and identity - remained an unhealed wound for him and those Bengali people. Thus, this reality permeated every layer of his films and writings. To him, Partition was a personal tragedy in his life, a trauma from which the people of East Bengal have never fully recovered or become wholesome again.
Hritwik Ghatak did not believe in providing mere entertainment through cinema. He once remarked with assertion, “My coming to films has nothing to do with making money. Rather, it is out of a volition for expressing my pangs and agonies about my suffering people. That is why I have come to the cinema. I do not believe in ‘entertainment’ as they say it, or slogan mongering….” . Cinema was his art to express the agony and reflect the societal realism. In his short span of life of 51 years, he directed eight feature films, the most of which revolve around the tragedy of Partition.
Ghatak’s renowned trilogy, named ‘Meghe Dhaka Tara’, ‘Komal Gandhar’ and ‘Subarnarekha’, powerfully portrayed the pain of uprooted ‘refugee’ people. ‘Meghe Dhaka Tara’ (1960) not only narrated the story of Partition but also exposed systemic exploitation and offered glimmers of hope in the resilience of the oppressed. He pointed a finger at the cause of the influx of refugees through a character in his movie, ‘Subarnarekha’. The dialogue from ‘Subarnarekha,’ “Refugee! Who else is not a refugee?” remains poignant and thought-provoking to this day too.
‘Subarnarekha’ (1962), released in 1965, narrated the story of three generations whose dreams were shattered due to Partition, with the youngest generation just beginning their journey amid uncertainty. While his film, ‘Komal Gandhar’ (1961) symbolized the confluence of East and West Bengal, enriched by Rabindra Sangeet and the poetry of Sukanta Bhattacharya, enhancing the film’s emotional depth entangled with Bengal’s generic music and voice deeply rooted with her soil and mass.
A distinctive feature of Ghatak’s cinema that is extensively talked about by the film critics was his use of epic melodrama to address displacement, patriarchy, and socio-economic inequities. His films reflected influences from the theatrical philosophies of Brecht and Stanislavski, combined with Bengali folk culture, songs, and folk theatres.
Ghatak’s first feature film ‘Nagarik’ (1952) depicted the struggles and mental anguish of the Bengali middle class during World War II. Unfortunately, the film was released only in 1977, a year after his death. His next film, ‘Ajantrik’ (1957) personified a broken-down taxi as a character, reflecting deeper human emotions with one’s non-living objects.
In the final phase of his life during the 1970s, Ghatak created ‘Titas Ekti Nadir Naam’ (1973) and ‘Jukti Takko Aar Gappo’ (1974). The movie critically analyzed the political turmoil surrounding Partition, the 1971 Liberation War, and the Naxalite movement. Its iconic dialogue, “Think, think, practice thinking,” continues to inspire several generations of youth. Ghatak’s cinematic philosophy was clear, that the cinema must speak of human experience. He said, “If cinema does not speak of people, it is just photography.” To him, personal experience is the foundation of filmmaking, and without a clear ideology, no one is able to create anything.
Until his death on February 6, 1976, in Kolkata, Hritwik Ghatak’s films and writings continued to voice against displacement, social injustice, and human pain.
(Tripurainfo)
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