Wednesday, June 9, 2010

‘Black Box of History’

A feature length documentary film by Amlan Kusum Ghosh

The feature length documentary film (105 min) is an attempt to unravel the mystery of Netaji’s final disappearance that has dogged public mind ever since 1945. The work was originally provoked by the government of India’s rejection of Justice Mukherjee Commission’s well grounded findings that Netaji did not perish in the alleged air crash. The Commission had also established that no such crash ever took place in which Netaji allegedly died. The documentary has been in making for four years. The director has interviewed a string of scholars on the subject including Justice Manoj Mukherjee, Pradeep Bose, Dr. Purabi Roy, Dr. Madhusudan Pal etc

There have been a few documentaries, not to mention a cache of books and essays, on the subject. Where ‘Black Box of History’ differs from the rest is that it has tried to examine the theories surrounding Netaji’s existence post- August 18, 1945. The most striking one is the case of anonymous monk called Gumnami Baba or Bhagwanjee of Ayodhya-Faizabad. Although Justice Mukherjee did not ‘officially’ concede that Gumnani Baba was Netaji Subhas a plethora of evidences (in form of letters, personal items, photograph, newspaper clipping) bear it out that he could be none other than Netaji. 

The documentary is divided into three parts which puts disappearance mystery in context of Netaji’s life and struggle. The concluding part of the documentary deals with the strange case of Gumnami Baba of Ayodhya Faizabad. It includes revealing interviews with local people close to the anonymous monk. 

Script, Research, Camera & Direction : Amlan Kusum Ghosh
Editor : Ayon Chattopadhyay , Shashank Sharma
Research : R. Jyothirmay , Dipankar Das
Production Designing : Dolly Mandal, Prashant Tiwari
Production : SRIFT


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Monday, June 7, 2010

'Black Box Of History' Posters all over in Asansol

A Grand seminar
to be held on

12th JUNE 2010, SATURDAY,
FROM 2PM TO 8-30PM

at
Rabindra Bhavan
B.N.R. More, Asansol

On

"Mysterious Disappearance of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose"

Organised by 
ATV, Asansol

 

Speaker    :    Dr. Pabitra Kumar Gupta, Dr. Madhusudan Pal, Prof. Nandalal Chakraborty, Sri Amlan Kusum Ghosh and others

The Seminar will be followed by a Documentry Film Show.

'BLACK BOX OF HISTORY'






Rabindra Bhavan, Asansol (The venue for 12th June)











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Thursday, June 3, 2010

SATYAJIT RAY'S NAYAK (1966)

This is one of my favourite movies that I have seen so far...

Satyajit Ray was a modern film-maker. Pick up any film of his and you will realise how far ahead of his times he was. Nayak (The Hero) is one of my favourite Bengali movies. Made in 1966, it was Ray's second entirely original screenplay (after Kanchenjungha).

'Brojo achho, Brojo?', 'Nepathye ke?' -Satyajit Ray's dialogues, his camera movement and placement-nobody can match him. The way in which he picturised the whole movie just within a few compartments of a train is really wonderful and highly appreciable.

This is the first flim where two legends Satyajit Ray and Uttam Kumar worked togather. I believe that nobody, no actor till date is comparable to Uttam Kumar. Mithun Chakroborty and Prasenjit are also good but Uttam Kumar was a great actor and a legend. And in Nayak he was superb. The way Satyajit Ray used his eyes  and his voice in the movie is just amazing.

Nayak (The Hero)

Credits
Producer: RDB & Co (R.D. Bansal / RDB Productions)
Story: Satyajit Ray
Screenplay: Satyajit Ray
Music: Satyajit Ray
Direction: Satyajit Ray
Cinematography: Subrata Mitra
Editing: Dulal Dutta
Art Direction: Bansi Chandragupta
Sound: Nripen Paul, Atul Chatterjee, Sujit Sarkar
Duration: 120 mins
Date of release in India: 6th May, 1966. B&W

Cast
Uttam Kumar (Arindam Mukherjee), Sharmila Tagore (Aditi Sen Gupta), Bireswar Sen (Mukunda Lahiri), Somen Bose (Shankar), Nirmal Ghosh (Jyoti), Premangsu Bose (Biresh), Sumita Sanyal (Promila), Ranjit Sen (Mr. Bose), Bharati Devi (Manorama, his wife), Lali Chowdhury (Bulbul, his daughter), Kamu Mukherjee (Pritish Sarkar), Susmita Mukherjee (Sefalika, his wife), Hiralal (Kamal Mitra), Jogesh Chatterjee (Aghore, elderly journalist), Satya Banerjee (Swamiji), Gopal Dey (Conductor).

Awards
Winner: Best Screenplay and Story, New Delhi, 1967
Winner: Bodil Award for Best Non-European Film, 1967
Winner: Special Jury Award, Berlin International Film Festival, 1966
Winner: Critics' Prize (UNICRIT Award), Berlin International Film Festival, 1966
Winner: B.F.J.A Best Actor(Uttam Kumar) award for Nayak(1966)
Nominated: Golden Bear for Best Film, Berlin International Film Festival, 1966

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