Kolkata: The complete feature filmography of Ritwik Ghatak’s has undergone a 4K restoration by NFDC-NFAI in honour of the film-maker’s birth centenary.The project utilised diverse film elements safeguarded by NFDC-NFAI and the West Bengal State Film Archive. To faithfully preserve the director’s unique visual style, National Award-winning cinematographer Avik Mukhopadhyay oversaw the colour-grading of each film.The restored works will be presented to the global audience with the British Film Institute Southbank in London planning to host a comprehensive retrospective, curated by Sanghita Sen, this month.This archival triumph was executed under the National Film Heritage Mission (NFHM), a flagship initiative of the ministry of information and broadcasting dedicated to the safeguarding of the nation’s audiovisual legacy. The BFI programme features the newly restored 4K presentations of Ghatak’s eight seminal narrative features—‘Nagarik’, ‘Ajantrik’, ‘Bari Thekey Paliye’, ‘Meghe Dhaka Tara’, ‘Komal Gandhar’, ‘Subarnarekha’, ‘Titas Ekti Nadir Naam’ and ‘Jukti Takko Aar Gappo’. Complementing these masterpieces, the showcase will also screen his historically significant shorter format works, documentaries and incomplete works, including ‘Bihar Ke Darshaniya Sthan’, ‘Musafir’, ‘Fear’, ‘Rendezvous’, ‘Nagarik Sanrakshan’, ‘Scientists of Tomorrow’, ‘Yeh Kyun’, ‘My Lenin’, ‘Puruliar Chhau’, ‘Durbar Gati Padma’, ‘Heerer Prajapati’, ‘Chinnamul’, ‘Ramkinkar Baij’, ‘Rounger Golam’ and ‘Bagalar Banga Darshan’.Prakash Magdum, managing director of NFDC, told TOI, “It is a great feeling that the work we initiated will be seen world over. Apart from the month-long programme at BFI, it will also be screened at Cineteca di Bologna. I remember travelling to Kolkata and meeting Ghatak’s daughter for this restoration work. She was so helpful. It is a sheer joy that the master’s works and his entire filmography will be available in a digitised format.”Cinematographer Mukhopadhyay supervised the meticulous colour grading of the films to ensure Ghatak’s original aesthetic vision was retained. “During restoration, we try to rope in the DOP of the film or somebody who is familiar with the aesthetics of the making of that film. We are glad that a renowned cinematographer, like Avik, agreed to come on board,” Magdum added.Mukhopadhyay said, “As a cinematographer, it offered me a scope to watch Ghatak’s beautiful craft closely. NFDC-NFAI’s National Film Heritage Missions Ghatak restoration project is one their most commendable works for future-generation film enthusiasts and film lovers. I thank the whole team for such a painstaking but wonderful effort.“Ghatak expert Sanjoy Mukhopadhyay said, “I hope the original spirit and intention of Ghatak’s films are retained. Unlike many other restored classics, I would not want them to flaunt a glossy look.”Madhuja Mukherjee, film-maker and Jadavpur University’s professor of film studies, had the opportunity to see the pre-DI restored versions, thanks to NFAI officials and Mukhopadhyay. “I was stunned by the work. One may have reservations regarding digital restoration of celluloid prints. But NFAI was able to restore the films by sourcing from different parties—film negatives, master prints and positives,” she said.Most viewers are accustomed to watching these films on YouTube. “That includes really rundown copies that are full of glitches. It is certainly not how Ghatak envisaged his films. Viewing the clean restored versions is an experience in itself. We will never know how these films looked when they were first screened in Kolkata theatres but we can only imagine what they might have been,” Mukherjee added.
