‘Ritwikda was completely different on and off set’

lsquoRitwikda hid the scripts he wanted his actors to be spontaneousrsquoBy Madhabi MukherjeeI didnt pay heed to what Ritwikda used to say then but I do now Hersquod say lsquoWhat are these films you act inmdashno one will remember themrsquo And I used to argue with him lsquoI canrsquot be irresponsible like you arersquo He wouldnrsquot reply just laugh in that way so typical of him That only made me angrier But the man I found so irresponsible so unconcerned about everything then I now understand was so right Isnrsquot it true that an artistrsquos main responsibility is towards their art Ritwikda isnrsquot around anymore If he had been I would have owned up to my mistakeSometime before Komal Gandhar was made Sailenda from Ritwikdarsquos production team came to my home one day He asked me to go meet Ritwikda at his Bhowanipore home I did I went and met Ritwik Kumar Ghatak He read out the screenplay of Komal Gandhar It was decided that I would act in the film Some days later Ritwikda informed me that the producer had asked for someone else to play the leading role He asked me to try one of the other roles but I didnrsquot agree to that Maybe that was a wrong decision tooA still from Amar Lenin a documentary portraying the lives of marginalised rural farmers Ghatakrsquos work was famously political and antiestablishmentRitwikdarsquos habit was to keep changing his script as he went along with the filming During the shooting of Subarnarekha I watched two female actors playing significant roles But in the film itself one of those actors had only one shot Thatrsquos why I wondermdashwhat if I had done that role in Komal Gandhar and would Ritwikda have kept all of it in the final filmThe Ritwikda behind the camera and the Ritwikda outside the film sets were totally in conflict with each other Seeing him drink and hurl abuses at everyone you didnrsquot get to see the fire that was always burning inside him I have seen so many directors lose their cool when working with the junior actors Ritwikda would tell them lsquoMa it wonrsquot work if you do it like thatrsquo or lsquoBaba you sit here like this rest your backrsquo He was always calm and coolheaded then He knew how to make people workIn Subarnarekha my character was supposed to lipsync to a song He used to keep asking me to memorise the song The tape recorder the song used to play on was a weak machine But thatrsquos what played during the shooting Despite using such an anticinema technique and method he managed to get the lipsync right I donrsquot think anyone else could have done it In one scene in Subarnarekha the sister watches her brother appearing At the time of shooting we realised that the lens required to take the shot the way Ritwikda wanted was not available He placed a lens from his spectacles in front of the camera lens to get it right Can you imagine thatRitwik explains exactly what he wants during the shooting of his final film Jukti Tokko aar Goppo Pic courtesy Shamya DasguptaI am eternally grateful that I got a chance to work with both Manikda Satyajit Ray and Ritwikda But the two were so different from one anothermdashif one was restrained the other was the complete opposite The actors in Manikdarsquos films got the script well in advance but Ritwikda preferred to keep the script hidden away He wanted the actors to be spontaneous act without preparation The two of them had a lot of respect for each other but when they met they would argue about everythingManikda had been invited to attend the premiere of Subarnarekha I think it was screened at Basusree At the end the two of them came face to face cups of tea in hand Ritwikda started lsquoIn which film was Madhu bettermdashyours or minersquo Manikda replied lsquoIn minersquo Ritwikda didnrsquot agree And they started arguing Now I understand that they were just discussing and debating each otherrsquos work I was irrelevant Manikda never spoke ill of anyone And behind his back Ritwikda would say lsquoDonrsquot watch films by anyone other than that giraffe The rest are all buffoonsrsquoAlthough I ended up not working with Ritwikda again our relationship didnrsquot change The taxi metre would start from eight annas half a rupee in those days Once Ritwikda suddenly turned up at my house in a baby taxi He got off and told me lsquoMadhu pay himrsquo I saw that the fare had come to four hundred rupees This didnrsquot happen just once it was fairly routineA film poster for Subarnarekha featuring actor Madhabi Mukherjee Within a threeyear span she played the lead in Satyajit Rayrsquos Mahanagar and Charulata as well as in Ghatakrsquos SubarnarekhaI went to Bangladesh not long ago A gentleman came and introduced himself but I couldnrsquot place him Then he said that he had come to my place with Ritwikdamdashand I remembered Ritwikda knew that I wouldnrsquot give him money for his alcohol so he would try various tricks Once he told me lsquoGive me twenty rupees otherwise I wonrsquot be able to get my rationrsquo I didnrsquot flinch So he said lsquoOkay fine they will all remain hungryrsquoI thought maybe he wasnrsquot lying and I should give him the money but then I remembered that Lokkhidi Surama Ghatak had asked me not to give him any money I had to go out for a shoot but I realised that I was feeling uneasy about refusing money to someone like Ritwikda So I went to Lokkhidi on my way to the shooting location and gave her the money I told her lsquoWhether you need it or not keep this I canrsquot keep my calm and work if you donrsquot take itrsquoAt the same time I have seen this same Ritwikda put his hand into the pocket of his kurta pull out a fistful of coins and give it to a technician who needed the money Truly it was so difficult to understand this man His talent went unrecognised in his lifetime This pained Ritwikda no end It is my good fortune that I got a chance to work with him spend time with himNov 4The day Ritwikda Ghatak was born in 1925This article first appeared in a special edition of the Bengali daily Aajkal on February 25 2001Excerpted with permission from Unmechanical Ritwik Ghatak in 50 Fragments published by Westland Books