India Ghatak FDC

India FDC
Name: Ritwik Ghatak
Issue date: 2007 December 31st

Ritwik Ghatak has come to be regarded as one of the greatest figures in the history of Indian Cinema. Though the made only eight feature and short films, his brilliant and abrasive films are considered to be among the most revolutionary achievements in contemporary Indian cinema. Ritwik Ghatak was born in Dhaka in East Bengal (now Bangladesh) on 14-11-1925. He belonged to an illustrious family. His father Suresh Chandra Ghatak was a district magistrate and also a poet and playwright. Mother's name was Indubala Devi. He was their 11th and youngest child. He and his family moved to Kolkata just before millions of other refugees from East Bengal began to flood into the city, fleeing the catastrophic 1943 famine and the Partition of India 1947.

Identification with the tide of refugees was to define his practice, providing an overriding metaphor for cultural dismemberment and exile that unified his subsequent creative work.

In 1948, Ghatak wrote the first play Kala Sayar (The Dark Lake), and participated in a revival of the landmark play Nabanna, in 1951, Ghatak joined the Indian People's Theatre Association(IPTA). He wrote, directed and acted in plays and translated Bertolt Brecht and Gogol into Bengali. In 1957, he wrote and directed his last play Jwala (The Burning).

Ghatak moved briefly to Pune in 1966, where he taught at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII). He died on 6-2-1976.