Buddhadeb Dasgupta, one of India’s finest auteurs, and a poet, whose films were internationally acclaimed, passed away on June 10, at 77 years, in Kolkata. A contemporary of Satyajit Ray, film society circles discussed him, along with Adoor Gopalakrishnan, as a possible inheritor of Ray’s mantle. Dasgupta and I had met over the years—when we welcomed his films at the Berlin Film Festival; as fellow jurors on the National Film Awards jury in Delhi; in Kolkata, during a shoot. In his remembrance, I revisited one of my favourite films of his, Charachar (Shelter of the Wings, 1994), starring Rajit Kapur. Charachar may not be counted among his heavyweight films, but it is an exquisite, philosophical film that deeply questions notions of masculinity, freedom and happiness. Screened at the Berlin Film Festival, and winner of the National Film Award for Best Film in 1994, it is streaming on amazon.com, erosnow and online.

Dasgupta’s passing is a significant loss for world cinema. While rooted in realism, his films, mostly in Bengali (with a few in Hindi), were distinctive for their surrealism and visual poetry. They were feted at top festivals worldwide, including the Berlin, Venice, Locarno and Toronto film festivals. His impressive body of about 37 films includes Uttara (The Wrestlers, 2000), which won the Silver Lion for Best Director at the Venice Film Festival. He had five films at the Berlinale, including Mondo Meyer Upakhyan (A Tale of a Naughty Girl), Tahader Katha (Their Story), Phera (The Return), Charachar (Shelter of The Wings) and Kaalpurush (Memories in the Mist). His other notable films include Bagh Bahadur (The Tiger Man), Grihajuddha (Crossroads), Lal Darja (Red Door) and Janala (The Window). In India, his films won 12 National Film Awards.