Of films that critiqued the present and the pasts leading to it

New Delhi, Oct 21 How is it that Bengal has stood out in nurturing great directors like Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and Ritwik Ghatak, whose films "contain in them visions of many possible futures" and "critiqued the present and the pasts leading to it"?

"There is no doubt that the cultural scene in Bengal during the 1940s-1970s period was very rich. Not only art films but mainstream Bengali films also flourished. There were legions of directors, cinematographers, art directors, music directors, actors, and singers who did remarkable work.

"Moreover we must not think of film in isolation. Bengali literature, music, and theatre was also flourishing during this period. Ray, Sen, and Ghatak must be situated within this cultural milieu," Rochona Majundar, an Associate Professor in the Departments of South Asian Languages and Civilisation and Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Chicago, told in an interview of her book "Art Cinema and India's Forgotten Futures Film and History in the Postcolony"

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