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The advent of Bengal in Bollywood
26th May 2005 14.08 IST
By Agencies

With two classics from Bengali literature making the big bucks at the box office in the last two years and a couple more set to take over the silver screen, Bollywood seems to be falling back on 'eastern magic' as its success mantra.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali 's mega budget Devdaas based on the Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay classic of the same name and Aishwarya Rai starrer Chokher Bali , adapted from Rabindranath Tagore’s work by National award winning director Rituparno Ghosh , rekindled the interest in period classics while raking in the moolah.

The success of these evergreen love stories chosen after research from sepia-toned pages in umpteen libraries, has paved way for more such screen adaptations.

And if rushes of the Vidhu Vinod Chopra film Parineeta are any indication, the old world magic of puffed blouses and Punjabi kurtas, oiled, middle parted hair and boatman songs would rule Hindi cinema for some time to come.

Says Ronnie Screwvala, CEO of UTV, which is producing Chopra's adaptation of the Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay classic, "Bollywood is finding itself increasingly interwoven into Bengali tradition and philosophy, literature and art and cinematic landscape."

Calling it the 'second innings' of Bengali culture in mainline celluloid after the Satyajit Ray era, he says the lavish splendour in which these classics were being reproduced by eminent filmmakers had also made them appealing to the masses.

Besides the classics, the Bengal theme also hogged centrestage in the national film scene as its 'forgotten' hero Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose made for the subject of Shyam Benegal 's much talked about film.

"I have always been wanting to come back to Bengal in search of a theme. This was a subject not only close to the Bengalis' heart but also touched the patriotic chord in every Indian," Benegal says of the movie.

To give an authentic touch of the East, he uses a popular Bengali lullaby Ghum Parani Mashi Pishi and Tagore's Jodi Tor Dak Shune throughout the three-hour long narrative alongside an ample sprinkling of Bengali dialogues.

More of Bengal for mainstream cinema is in store as Mira Nair shoots for The Namesake, Pulitzer awardee Jhumpa Lahiri's second book, with an eye on the global audience.

The film, just like the characters of the book, is bilingual and has a number of Mesho and Mashi (uncle and aunty) cameos, Lahiri playing one of them.

" Monsoon Wedding was a boisterous Punjabi story in two languages -- English and Punjabi. Jhumpa wrote The Namesake as if for me. It has all the ingredients I yearned to write a script myself on -- an expatriate bilingual community, Bengali sentiments, shifting times and layers of emotions," Nair says.

The film, again a UTV production, being shot in Kolkata and its suburbs currently, promises to have Rabindra Sangeet, Nazrul Geeti, Baul songs and Tabu mouthing loads of Bengali dialogues.

(The picture shows Sanjay Dutt doing a Bengali jig in Parineeta).