The Animesh quartet is a series of four novels by the

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

writer

Samaresh Majumdar Samares Mazumdar ( bn, সমরেশ মজুমদার, born 10 March 1944) is an Indian Bengali writer from West Bengal, India. He is best known for his Animesh series of novels, the second of which (''Kalbela'') won the Sahitya Akadem ...

. The principal character of the series is Animesh Mitra who, much like the author himself, grows up amid the tea estates of the

Dooars The Dooars or Duars ( as, দুৱাৰ, duar, rkt, দুৱাৰ, duar, bn, দুয়ার, duyar) () are the alluvial floodplains in eastern-northeastern India that lie south of the outer foothills of the Himalayas and north of the ...

in northern Bengal, but then moves to

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

in the 1960s in order to study at

Scottish Church College Scottish Church College is a college affiliated by Calcutta University, India. It offers selective co-educational undergraduate and postgraduate studies and is the oldest continuously running Christian liberal arts and sciences college in A ...

. Animesh then plunges into the Naxalite rebellion that rocked

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

in the late 1960s and 1970s. Through the character of the protagonist, Majumdar portrays the tumultuous political history of

in the post-independence era. The first three novels in the series - ''Uttoradhikar'', ''Kalbela'' and ''Kalpurush'' - were published between 1979 and 1989. ''Kalbela'' was serialized in the prestigious literary magazine '' Desh'' in 1981-1982, and won the Sahitya Akademi Prize in 1984. The last book in the series ''Mousholkal'' was published in 2013, after a gap of nearly 25 years, as a response to the rise of

Mamata Banerjee Mamata Banerjee (; born 5 January 1955) is an Indian politician who is serving as the eighth and current List of chief ministers of West Bengal, chief minister of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of West Bengal since 20 ...

and the

Trinamool Congress The All India Trinamool Congress (English: All India Grassroots Congress; AITC), colloquially the Trinamool Congress ( TMC) is an Indian political party which is predominantly active in West Bengal. The party is led by Mamata Banerjee, the cur ...

. The Animesh series is widely regarded as Samaresh Majumdar's finest work, as well as being one of the most significant works of modern

Bengali literature Bengali literature ( bn, বাংলা সাহিত্য, Bangla Sahityô) denotes the body of writings in the Bengali language and which covers Old Bengali, Middle- Bengali and Modern Bengali with the changes through the passage of time ...

Adaptation

''Kalbela'' was filmed as ''

Kaalbela ''kaalbela'' ( bn, কালবেলা ''Calcutta My Love'') is a 2009 Bengali film directed by Goutam Ghose. The film stars Parambrata Chatterjee, Paoli Dam, Soumitra Chatterjee and Santu Mukherjee. This film is set against the background ...

'' by the director

Goutam Ghose Goutam Ghose (also spelled Gautam Ghosh born 24 July 1950) is an Indian film director, Actor, music director and cinematographer, who works primarily in Bengali cinema. He is the only Indian to have received the "Vittorio Di Sica" Award, Italy ...

in 2009 with

Parambrata Chattopadhyay Parambrata Chattopadhyay (born 27 June 1980) is an Indian actor and director. Parambrata started his career with Bengali television and films. He has acted as the fictional character Topshe from Feluda under Sandip Ray's direction. He made his ...

in the role of Animesh and

Paoli Dam Paoli Dam (born 1980) is an Indian actress who started her career with the Bengali television serial ''Jibon Niye Khela'' (2003). She then worked in Bengali television serials such as ''Tithir Atithi'' and ''Sonar Harin''; the former ran for ...

as Madhabilata. Kalpurush and Uttoradhikar were also released as TV series.

Works

* ''Uttoradhikar'' (''The Inheritance'') * ''Kalbela'' * ''Kalpurush'' (''A Man of Our Time'') * ''Mousholkal'' (''The Age of Iron'')

References

{{reflist Bengali-language literature category:Literary tetralogies