Over the past few years, while delivering the inaugural lecture at Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF), superstar Amitabh Bachchan has emphasized the contribution of Bengal’s film makers and artistes to Bollywood. And this year was no different.
Speaking at the inauguration of the 23rd edition of KIFF earlier this week on this year’s focus on music and songs in Indian cinema, Mr. Bachchan said, ““The biggest revolution in journey of film song happened in Bengal when in 1935 director Nitin Bose and his brother Mukul Bose… introduced pre-recorded song in the Bengali film Bhagya Chakra and its Hindi remake Dhoop Chhaon. ”
And ‘Bengal in Bollywood’ is the theme of an exhibition organised by the State Information and Cultural Affairs Department at Nandan during the ongoing festival.
The exhibition chronicles the contribution not only of Bengali directors and actors but also technicians and singers through 30 unique and rare original posters, 22 lobby cards and 10 informative posters over 60 years from the 1930s to the early 1990s.
Rare glimpses
The earliest posters are of director Nitin Bose’s Chandidas and Dhoop Chhaon from 1934 and 1935 respectively while the latest is from the Mithun Chakraborty starrer Ghar Ek Mandir from 1984.
The posters are largely from the personal collection of statistician-turned-film buff Somnath Ray who has curated the exhibition.
“Most of the posters are 40 x 30 inches or 30x20 inches but there is one poster of the 1958 comedy Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi which is one-third of the size of original. These are called ‘one-third’ and were kept in the office of the producers,” Mr Ray said.
The posters reveal little known links between Bengal and Bollywood. Among the posters is one of Bollywood’s iconic director Raj Kapoor’s Awara. Mr. Roy explains that the film was shot by a Bengali cinematographer, Radhu Karmakar.
Iconic faces
Other than the posters, there are about 22 lobby cards, which were printed by film studios to promote their films till 1960 and are now part of film memorabilia.
Lobby cards of Basu Chaterjee’s Shaukeen starring Ashok Kumar and Utpal Dutt, Shakti Samanta’s Anand Ashram and Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Mem Didi are on display.
The 40x30 inch poster of another Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s film Anupama starring Dharmendra and Sharmila stands out given its unique style of painting.
Along with the film memorabilia, there are at 10 large black-and-white photographs of Bengali directors, actors and singers featuring Ashok Kumar, Utpal Dutta, Devika Rani, and Hrisikesh Mukherjee among others.
