Tracking Partition Discourses in the Films of Ritwik Ghatak

Abstract

The polysemic interpretation of frontier is associated with the dialectic of a nation's frame and hence any rearrangement with respect to it is a popular subject among thinkers and artists. This research paper is an attempt to delineate the dominant discourse disseminated in the films of Ritwik Ghatak who churned out a series of great films in which the feelings of those dispossessed and displaced by Partition was represented. Identification with the tide of refugees from East Bengal fleeing from the catastrophic Bengal famine of 1943 and the partition of Bengal in 1947 defined his practice thereby providing a domination of those imagery of dislocation and exile in his creative works. The paper will include a detailed review of literature that attempted a dissection of the films of Ghatak applauding their role in constructing "nostalgic" or "partition" discourse based on the melodramatic and realist perspective of the geo-politically displaced.