Rituparno Ghosh: Cinema, gender and art (South Asian History and Culture)

An iconic filmmaker and inheritor of the legendary Satyajit Ray’s legacy, Rituparno Ghosh was one of the finest auteurs to emerge out of contemporary Bengal. His films, though rooted firmly in middle-class values, desires and aspirations, are highly critical of hetero-patriarchal power structures. From the very outset, Ghosh displayed a strong feminist sensibility which later evolved into radical queer politics. This volume analyses his films, his craft, his stardom and his contribution to sexual identity politics. In this first scholarly study undertaken on Rituparno Ghosh, the essays discuss the cultural import of his work within the dynamics of a rapidly evolving film industry in Bengal and more largely the cinematic landscape of India. The anthology also contains a conversation section (interviews with the filmmaker and with industry cast and crew) drawing a critical and personal portrait of this remarkable filmmaker. Cover 1 Title 8 Copyright 9 CONTENTS 10 List of figures 14 Acknowledgements 16 About the contributors 18 The world of Rituparno Ghosh: an introduction 22 PART I Reading Rituparno Ghosh and his texts 48 1 Invoking love, death and an elsewhere: searching the auteur in Rituparno Ghosh’s Abohoman 50 2 Rituparno Ghosh and the pursuit of freedom 70 3 Locating Rituparno Ghosh in Tollywood 84 4 ‘Just like a film star!’: the style of being Rituparno Ghosh 104 5 The endangered city in Rituparno Ghosh’s early cinema of confinement 125 6 Borrowing, becoming and the question of the self in Sob Charitro Kalponik 144 7 En-gendering the detective: of love, longing and feminine follies 160 8 Closeted desires and open secrets: Raincoat and Noukadubi 174 9 Beyond the binary: (trans)gender narratives and class distinction in Rituparno Ghosh’s later films 191 10 ‘Kissed on one cheek and slapped on the other’: Rituparno Ghosh’s Chitrangada as an allegory of oppositional readings 211 11 A room of hir own: the queer aesthetics of Rituparno Ghosh 225 PART II The director’s voice 246 12 Shohini Ghosh in conversation with Rituparno Ghosh 248 13 Kaustav Bakshi in conversation with Rituparno Ghosh 261 PART III Cast and crew speak 270 14 Interviewer’s note 272 15 Cast: Sharmila Tagore, Jaya Bachchan and Aparna Sen 275 16 Crew: Avik Mukhopadhyay, Arghyakamal Mitra, Indranil Ghosh and Debojyoti Mishra 286 Filmography 300 Index 302 Cinema, gender and art An iconic filmmaker and inheritor of the legendary Satyajit Ray's legacy, Rituparno Ghosh was one of the finest auteurs to emerge out of contemporary Bengal. From the very outset, Ghosh displayed a strong feminist sensibility which later evolved into a radical queer politics. This volume analyses his films, his craft, his stardom and his contribution to sexual identity politics.