''Meghe Dhaka Tara'' ( bn, মেঘে ঢাকা তারা ''Mēghē Ḍhākā Tārā'', lit. ''The Cloud-Capped Star'') is a 1960 film written and directed by

Ritwik Ghatak Ritwik Kumar Ghatak (; 4 November 19256 February 1976) was a noted Indian film director, screenwriter, and playwright. Along with prominent contemporary Bengali filmmakers Satyajit Ray, Tapan Sinha and Mrinal Sen, his cinema is primarily remembe ...

, based on a social novel by Shaktipada Rajguru with the same title. It stars Supriya Choudhury,

Anil Chatterjee Anil Chatterjee (Chattopadhyay) bn, অনিল চ্যাটার্জী (চট্টোপাধ্যায়) (25 October 1929 – 17 March 1996) was an Indian actor in the Bengali cinema during the early fifties through the mid-ni ...

, Gita Dey,

Bijon Bhattacharya Bijon Bhattacharya ( bn, বিজন ভট্টাচার্য; 17 July 1906 – 19 January 1978) was an Indian theatre and film actor from West Bengal. He was an eminent playwright and dramatist. Bhattacharya was born in 1906 at Farid ...

, Niranjan Roy, and Gyanesh Mukherjee. It was part of a trilogy consisting of ''Meghe Dhaka Tara'' (1960), '' Komal Gandhar'' (1961), and '' Subarnarekha'' (1962), all dealing with the aftermath of the Partition of Bengal during the

Partition of India The Partition of British India in 1947 was the change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: India and Pakistan. T ...

in 1947 and the refugees coping with it.

Plot outline

The film revolves around Nita (played by Supriya Choudhury), a young girl who lives with her family, refugees from East Pakistan, in the suburbs of

Calcutta 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, com ...

. Nita is a self-sacrificing person who is constantly exploited by everyone around her, even her own family, who take her goodness for granted. Her father has an accident and is unable to make a living. Her elder brother Shankar (played by

) believes that his craft (singing) needs to be perfected before he can make any income from it and therefore the burden of taking care of the family falls on Nita. Her life is ridden with personal tragedy: her lover Sanat leaves her for her sister Geeta, her younger brother is injured while working in a factory and finally she herself becomes a burden for her family by contracting

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in w ...

. Her mostly absent would-be singer brother is the only person who cares about her in the end. At the end of the film, she screams out her agony, throwing herself into her brother's arms. She utters her last words: "Brother, I want to survive (দাদা, আমি বাঁচতে চাই।)."

Cast

Production

This film was directed by independent filmmaker

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, comm ...

(then

). In contrast to many

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (f ...

films made in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the '' de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the secon ...

, India's main film center, Ghatak's films are formally elaborate and somber, and often address issues related to the

. Although Partition is never explicitly mentioned in ''Meghe Dhaka Tara,'' the film takes place in a refugee camp in the outskirts of Calcutta, and concerns an impoverished genteel Hindu

bhadralok Bhadralok (, literally 'gentleman', or 'well-mannered person') is Bengali for the new class of 'gentlefolk' who arose during British rule in India in the Bengal region in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent. Caste and class makeup Accor ...

family and the problems they face because of Partition. The film is perhaps the most widely viewed film among Ghatak's works; it was his greatest commercial success at home, and coincided with an international film movement towards personal stories and innovative techniques (the so-called 'new wave'). After Ghatak's death, his work (and this film in particular) began to attract a more sizable global audience, via film festivals and the subsequent release of DVDs both in India and in Europe. ''Meghe Dhaka Tara'' is strongly melodramatic in tone, especially as concerns the sufferings heaped on the protagonist. As in many of his other films, Ghatak also uses

surrealistic Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

sound effects, such as sounds of a lashing as the heroine suffers yet another tragic twist of fate.

Music

Jyotirindra Moitra composed the film score. He used classical Indian musical forms and included a song by

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...

, sung to Nita by her brother, Shankar. Moitra also wrote the film music for Ritwik Ghatak's Komalgandhar.

Credits

*Story: Shaktipada Rajguru *Screenplay: Ritwik Ghatak *Cinematography: Dinen Gupta *Assistant: Soumendu Ray, Sunil Chakraborty, Sukhendu Dasgupta, Krishnadhan Chakraborty, Shankar Guha, Mahendra Kumar, Agnu *Editing: Ramesh Joshi *Assistant: Gobinda Chattopadhay, Punu Sen *Sound: Satyen Chatterjee *Art Direction: Rabi Chatterjee *Music: Music Director:Jyotirindra Moitra
Assistant(s):
Ustad Bahadur Khan *Production: Chitrakalpa

Reception

Ghatak on the film

The title 'Meghe Dhaka Tara' was given by me, original story was published in a popular newspaper by the name of 'Chenamukh'. Something in this story stirred me. And that is why Shakespeare's 'The Cloud Capped Star' struck my mind and I decided to pen a new script all together. It could be a bit sentimental, but to throw overtones out of it came to mind gradually. Here I made use of Indian mythology which is a part of my life. 'Meghe Dhaka Tara' expressed my thoughts.

Screening of ''Meghe Dhaka Tara'' in different festivals

*1968: Ritwik Film Festival by Calcutta Cine Institute *1968: Ritwik Film Festival by

Jadavpur University Jadavpur University is a public state university located in Jadavpur, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. It was established in 1905 as ''Bengal Technical Institute'' and was converted into Jadavpur University in 1955. In 2022, it was ranked fourth am ...

*1974: Ritwik Film Festival by Bengali club of Delhi *1976: Ritwik Ghatak Retrospective at Society Theatre by Federation of Film Society *1978: International Film Festival, Madras (Chennai) *1982: Ritwik Film Festival by London film and Theatre Festival *1983: Ritwik Film Festival, France *1985: Ritwik Ghatak Retrospective at India International Centre, Delhi *1985: 25 anniversary by Ritwik Memorial Trust at the Nandan *1985: Festival of India Celebration, USA *1986: Major Retospective of Indian Cinema, Lisbon *1987: Film section of Festival of India, Switzerland *1987: Festival of India in Japan *1987: Celebrating Ghatak's birthday at Nandan celebration *1987: Ritwik Festival by the Bombay Screen Unit *1988: Ritwik Festival at Gorky Sadan jointly organised by Ritwik Memorial Trust and Eisenstein Cine Club, Calcutta *1990: Ritwik Retrospective at Rotterdam Film Festival, Netherlands *1990: Ritwik Retrspective organised by Chennai Film Society, Madras *1990: Locarno Film Festival,

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

*1991: Ritwik Film Festival, Zurich *1992: Film Festival titled 'Amader Bhalobasar Ritwik' at Ganabhaban, organised by Uttarapara Cine Club *1997: New York film festival *1998: Part of 'Classic Film Classic Directors' category', Calcutta International Film Festival *1999: Best Masterpiece Film, Pusan Film Festival *1999: Barcelona, Madrid *2012: Toronto International Film Festival,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world ...

*2012: Kolar Hills Film Festival,

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

(Bettadalli Ghatak: A Festival of Ritwik Ghatak's Films) *2012: 10th Pune International Film Festival,

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, ( the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million As of 2021, Pune Metropolitan Region is the largest i ...

*2017: Ritwik Ghatak Retrospective UK, at Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee, Scotland, UK, Programme curated by Sanghita Sen, Department of Film Studies, St Andrews University, UK

Legacy

Accolades

In 2012, ''Meghe Dhaka Tara'' was ranked at #235 and #322 on the ''

Sight & Sound ''Sight and Sound'' (also spelled ''Sight & Sound'') is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). It conducts the well-known, once-a-decade ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time, ongoing ...

's'' critics' and directors' poll of "The Greatest Films of All Time" respectively. The movie is also listed in the book ''

1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die ''1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die'' is a film reference book edited by Steven Jay Schneider with original essays on each film contributed by over 70 film critics. It is a part of a series designed and produced by Quintessence Editions, a ...

'', which praises "the grace of Ghatak's mise en scène, his expressionist sound design, and the enormous sense of loss."Schneider, Steven Jay, ed. ''1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.'' New York: Quintessence, 2008. p. 378.

Releases

The Criterion Collection

The Criterion Collection released the latest and definitive restoration of the film on Blu-ray, DVD, and on their streaming platform the Criterion Channel in 2019.

Adaptations

In 2016,

Bratya Basu Bratyabrata Basu Roy Chowdhury (born 25 September 1969),Bratya Basu(collected plays), Ananda Publishers, 2004 also known as Bratya Basu, is an Indian actor, stage director, playwright, film director, professor and a politician who is serving a ...

made a Bengali drama based on the plot of this film. The drama was first staged on 2 January 2016 at University Institute Hall at Kolkata.

References

External links

*
''The Cloud-Capped Star: A Cry for Life''
an essay by Ira Bhaskar at the Criterion Collection {{Ritwik Ghatak 1960 films Bengali-language Indian films Films directed by Ritwik Ghatak Films set in the partition of India Partition of India in fiction Films about poverty in India 1960s Bengali-language films Films based on works by Shaktipada Rajguru