Meghe Dhaka Tara ( Mēghē Ḍhākā Tārā, lit. The Cloud-Capped Star) is a 1960 film written and directed by Ritwik Ghatak, based on a social novel by Shaktipada Rajguru with the same title. It stars Supriya Choudhury, Anil Chatterjee, Gita Dey, Bijon Bhattacharya, Niranjan Roy, and Gyanesh Mukherjee. It was part of a trilogy consisting of Meghe Dhaka Tara (1960), Komal Gandhar (1961), and Subarnarekha (1962), all dealing with the aftermath of the Partition of Bengal during the Partition of India in 1947 and the refugees coping with it.
Plot The film revolves around Nita (played by Supriya Choudhury), a young girl who lives with her family, refugees from East Pakistan, in the suburbs of Calcutta. Nita is a self-sacrificing person who is constantly exploited by everyone around her, even her own family, who take her goodness for granted. Her father, who had had an accident, is unable to make a living. Her elder brother Shankar (played by Anil Chatterjee) believes that his craft (singing) needs to be perfected before he can make any income from it and therefore the burden of taking care of the family falls on Nita. Her life is ridden with personal tragedy: her lover Sanat leaves her for her sister Geeta, her younger brother is injured while working in a factory and finally she herself becomes a burden to her family when she contracts tuberculosis. Her mostly absent would-be singer brother is the only person who cares about her in the end. At the end of the film, she screams out her agony, throwing herself into her brother's arms. She utters her last words: "Elder Brother, I want to live (দাদা,আমি বাঁচতে চাই!)."
Cast
Production This film was directed by independent filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak in Kolkata (then Calcutta). In contrast to many Bollywood films made in Mumbai, India's main film center, Ghatak's films are formally elaborate and somber, and often address issues related to the Partition of India. Although Partition is never explicitly mentioned in Meghe Dhaka Tara, the film takes place in a refugee camp in the outskirts of Calcutta, and concerns an impoverished genteel Hindu bhadralok family and the problems they face because of Partition.
The film is perhaps the most widely viewed film among Ghatak's works; it was his greatest commercial success at home, and coincided with an international film movement towards personal stories and innovative techniques (the so-called 'new wave'). After Ghatak's death, his work (and this film in particular) began to attract a more sizable global audience, via film festivals and the subsequent release of DVDs both in India and in Europe.
Meghe Dhaka Tara is strongly melodramatic in tone, especially as concerns the sufferings heaped on the protagonist. As in many of his other films, Ghatak also uses surrealistic sound effects, such as sounds of a lashing as the heroine suffers yet another tragic twist of fate.
Music Jyotirindra Moitra composed the film score. He used classical Indian musical forms and included a song by Rabindranath Tagore, sung to Nita by her brother, Shankar. Moitra also wrote the film music for Ritwik Ghatak's Komalgandhar.
Credits Story: Shaktipada Rajguru Screenplay: Ritwik Ghatak Cinematography: Dinen Gupta Assistant: Soumendu Ray, Sunil Chakraborty, Sukhendu Dasgupta, Krishnadhan Chakraborty, Shankar Guha, Mahendra Kumar, Agnu Editing: Ramesh Joshi Assistant: Gobinda Chattopadhay, Punu Sen Sound: Satyen Chatterjee Art Direction: Rabi Chatterjee Music: Music Director:Jyotirindra Moitra Assistant(s): Ustad Bahadur Khan Production: Chitrakalpa
Reception
Ghatak on the film The title 'Meghe Dhaka Tara' was given by me, original story was published in a popular newspaper by the name of 'Chenamukh'. Something in this story stirred me. And that is why Shakespeare's 'The Cloud Capped Star' struck my mind and I decided to pen a new script all together. It could be a bit sentimental, but to throw overtones out of it came to mind gradually. Here I made use of Indian mythology which is a part of my life. 'Meghe Dhaka Tara' expressed my thoughts.
Screening of Meghe Dhaka Tara in different festivals 1968: Ritwik Film Festival by Calcutta Cine Institute 1968: Ritwik Film Festival by Jadavpur University 1974: Ritwik Film Festival by Bengali club of Delhi 1976: Ritwik Ghatak Retrospective at Society Theatre by Federation of Film Society 1978: International Film Festival, Madras (Chennai) 1982: Ritwik Film Festival by London film and Theatre Festival 1983: Ritwik Film Festival, France 1985: Ritwik Ghatak Retrospective at India International Centre, Delhi 1985: 25 anniversary by Ritwik Memorial Trust at the Nandan 1985: Festival of India Celebration, US 1986: Major Retrospective of Indian Cinema, Lisbon, Portugal 1987: Film section of Festival of India, Switzerland 1987: Festival of India in Japan 1987: Celebrating Ghatak's birthday at Nandan celebration 1987: Ritwik Festival by the Bombay Screen Unit 1988: Ritwik Festival at Gorky Sadan jointly organised by Ritwik Memorial Trust and Eisenstein Cine Club, Calcutta 1990: Ritwik Retrospective at Rotterdam Film Festival, Netherlands 1990: Ritwik Retrospective organised by Chennai Film Society, Madras 1990: Locarno Film Festival, Locarno, Switzerland 1991: Ritwik Film Festival, Zürich, Switzerland 1992: Film Festival titled 'Amader Bhalobasar Ritwik' at Ganabhaban, organised by Uttarapara Cine Club 1997: New York film festival 1998: Part of 'Classic Film Classic Directors' category', Calcutta International Film Festival 1999: Best Masterpiece Film, Pusan Film Festival, South Korea 1999: Barcelona, Madrid, Spain 2006: Jeonju International Film Festival, South Korea 2012: Toronto International Film Festival, Canada 2012: Kolar Hills Film Festival, Bangalore (Bettadalli Ghatak: A Festival of Ritwik Ghatak's Films) 2012: 10th Pune International Film Festival, PunePIFF Schedule 2017: Ritwik Ghatak Retrospective UK, at Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee, Scotland, UK, Programme curated by Sanghita Sen, Department of Film Studies, St Andrews University, UK
Legacy
Accolades In 2012, Meghe Dhaka Tara was ranked at #235 and #322 on the Sight & Sound's critics' and directors' poll of "The Greatest Films of All Time" respectively. In 2022, it was ranked #152 on the Sight & Sound's critics' poll of "The Greatest Films of All Time." The movie is also listed in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, which praises "the grace of Ghatak's mise en scène, his expressionist sound design, and the enormous sense of loss."Schneider, Steven Jay, ed. 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. New York: Quintessence, 2008. p. 378.
Releases
The Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection released the latest and definitive restoration of the film on Blu-ray, DVD, and on their streaming platform the Criterion Channel in 2019.
Adaptations In 2016, Bratya Basu made a Bengali drama based on the plot of this film. The drama was first staged on 2 January 2016 at University Institute Hall at Kolkata.
See also List of works of Ritwik Ghatak Dhaka University Film Society
References
External links
The Cloud-Capped Star: A Cry for Life – an essay by Ira Bhaskar at the Criterion Collection