Titash Ekti Nadir Naam (1973)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Ritwik Ghatak

Writers:

Advaita Malla Burman (story)
Ritwik Ghatak (script)

Release Date:

11 January 1991 (Netherlands)

Plot Keywords:

River | Based On Novel

Cast

Fakrul Hasan Bairagi	...	Nibaran
Narain Chakraborty	...	Moral
Banani Choudhury	...	Moral ginni
Kabari Choudhury	...	Rajar Jhi
Chetana Das
Ritwik Ghatak	...	Tilakchand
Shafikul Islam	...	Ananta
Sirajul Islam	...	Magan Sardar
Roushan Jamil	...	Mother
M.A. Khair	...	Basanti's father
Prabir Mitra	...	Kishore (as Probir Mitra)
Golam Mustafa	...	Ramprasad and Kader Mian
Sufia Rustam	...	Udaytara
Rosy Samad	...	Basanti
Rani Sarkar	...	Mungli

Also Known As:

A River Called Titas (UK) (subtitle)
A River Called Titash
A River Named Titash

Runtime:

159 min

Country:

India | Bangladesh

Language:

Bengali

Colour:

Black and White

Well made Indian drama with unusual structure

This film by somewhat neglected Indian director Ritwik Ghatak is one of the most unusual I have ever seen. The stories are set among the harsh life around the banks of Bangladesh's rivers (one of the poorest regions of the world). It tells several gruesome tales: abductions, escapes, living among strangers, death, though the characters go through this with the resignation of someone who knows that life is hard and always have been. Now, having seen this film more than a decade ago, I cannot recall all the details. But the unusual part is the way this story is told. It puts a character at the center of the story for, say, twenty minutes, and then it moves to another character, who was playing a minor role in the first story. And then to another character, and so on. It is a collection of stories, but loosely (or not so loosely interconnected). Overall, a fine tapestry of life in one of the poorest parts of the world.