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Golden Jubilee of A Lyric Poem “Atithi’

Pallav Mukhopadhyay

Atithi (1965)• BlackandWhite• Story:RabindranathTagore• Acting : Partha Sarathi

Mukhopadhyay, Basabi Bandyopadhyay,SalilDutta,SoumenMukhopadhyay,SmitaSinha,ShamitaBiswas,MitaMukhopadhyay,Ajitesh Bandyopadhyay, Bankim Ghosh,Binoy Lahiri, Rasaraaj Chakraborty, R.K.Sen, Sadhak Dasgupta, Satu Majumdar,TapanBhattacharya,SwapanBhattacharya,AchintyaBanerjee,SuryaChatterjee,ManajitLahidi, Krishna Bose, Dipali Mukherjee,SaswatiMukherjeeandothers.

• Cinematography : DilipRanjanMukhopadhyay

• ArtDirection:SunitiMitra• Editing:SubodhRoy• Producer:NewTheatres(Exhibitors)

PrivateLimited• Distribution : Chhayabani Private

Limited• Screenplay, Music and Direction :

TapanSinha• Release:Rupabani,Aruna,Bharati,

04.06.1965ProductionTapan Sinha directed ‘Atithi’ on

behalf of S. N. Sarkar, the youngerbrother of Birendranath Sarkar. ProducerAsit Chowdhury told Sinha, “Why didRabindranath remain in literatureonly?Hewouldbedraggedinfilmalso.Andifwecandoit,itwillbearealjob.”

SubtitleEminentjournalistSantoshKumarGhosh

translatedthesubtitleofthefilm.Ghoshhada good command over English language.He translated ‘EiAkasheAmarMukti…’as‘Iseekfreedominthesky-indust-ingrass’.

Journey to Venice International FilmFestival

Eminent Filmmaker Satyajit Raysuggested Sinha to conclude the film bythescenewhereTarapadajumpedintotheclusterofboats.HesuggestedtocutdownthetragicsequenceofTarapada’smotherinthelaterpartofthefilm.HequestionedeventheuseofTagoresongsasthebackgroundmusicofthefilm.Ray’sargumentwasitwasfit totheaudienceofKolkatabut inforeignnoonecouldunderstand.HetoldSinhawhythe director himself did not compose themusic.AccordingtoRay,thefilmendedwiththejumpingsceneandtheresultwasgood.

Director’sPointofViewI think every filmmaker or writer has a

certain responsibility to the society andheshould be committed. I personally think ofmyselfasahumanist.ItallstartedlongbackwhenImadethatfilm‘Atithi’(TheRunaway)inwhichthespiritoffreedomwasdepictedexcellently by Tagore in a very smallspace. This was in 1965/66. That broughta change inme,because Iwas lookingatit fromaglobalperspective; itwasas ifallthewindowsofmy roomwereopened, asIbeganexploring the freedomofmanwithrespecttothesocietyandhumanityatlarge.Itisimmaterialwhetherthatparticularhumanbeingisliterateorilliterate;handicappedorhealthy–itishislife,itishisstruggle.

Concept/MessageThefocalmessageof‘Atithi’iseternal.It

hasdeeprelationwiththeaspirationofhumanbeing. The wish of freedom of Tarapadais the wish of every human being. In hischildhoodTagorewasconfinedinhisroom.Howheviewedtheexternalworldperhapsremainedinhismemorywhilewriting‘Atithi’.Theexternalworldattractshimbutthereisnowaytotrespass.Eachandeveryhumanbeingliketoenjoythejoyfulnessoffreedom.Themusicoffreehumanbeingexistshand

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inhandwiththenature.That’swhyTarapadaleftthehomerepeatedly.Thejoyoffreedomhas been exhibited clearly in the film. Infact,‘Atithi’isoneofthefourfilmsofTapanSinhawhichthedirectorhimselflikedmuch.ItwasanadventurousjobtomakeafilmonthestoryofRabindranath.ButaccordingtoSinha,hisdependenceandassurancewasRabindranath.

According to him, Tarapada, the heroof this story is Tagore himself. He madeTarapadatodosuchthingwhichTagoredidnotdophysically.Thefilmshows thedeepartistic essence and treatment of TapanSinha.Sinhaagreedinoneofhisinterviewthat he wanted to view ‘Atithi’ repeatedly.Sinha believed on the universal freedomthat ‘Atithi’ catered. From the humanistangleitisthefreedomofthehumanbeing.Sinhamadeacandidconfessionthathedidnotgetanysecondfreedom-madcharacterlike in ‘atithi’. Nothing else, just freedomattractedhim.

DialogueThe dialogue of the film received

praiseworthyreactions.Therearesomanyuntoldstoriesbetween

twosentencesofanidealshortstory.‘Atithi’was not an exception. The director’s lovefortheshortstoryhelpedhimtowritesuchan attractive and mind blowing dialogue.The change of mental makeup of Charu,the intermingling of the tune of Tarapadaandthetuneofthenature,thesimplicityofSonamani all featureswere in a recessivestateinthestory.

ScreenplayDirector Tapan Sinha changed the last

scenefromthemainnarrative.Thetunewassameonly theperspectivechanged. In thestory,Tarapadajumpedinthelapofnature.Thecloud,storm,rainattractedhimandhewasmissing.Infilm,thedirectorbroughthiminthefairofhumanbeings.

MusicProducer of this film Mr. S. N. Sarkar

suggestedSinhahimselftodirectthemusicsinceSinhawasfondofTagoresongs.

The music of the film also received

praiseworthyreactions.TherewasaTagoreSong‘DharaDiyechhiGo,AmiAkasherPakhi’inTarapada’slip.Itwasnotaplayback.ActorPartha Sarathi Mukhopadhyay portrayingtheroleofTarapadahimselfsangthesong.ItwasspontaneouslysungbyPartha.

‘Atithi’ exhibited other types of songs.Variousformsofboatsarebeingapproachedtowards the fair. The audience witness asingleboathasauniquesong. In fact, fairmeans the assemblage of many people.The director’s point of viewwas to upholdthe cultural diversity of different peopleapproachingtowardsthefairbyperformingtheiruniquestyleandformofsongs.Varioussoundtrackswereusedsometimestogetherandsometimesseparatelylikethefolksongof Biharis, the courtesan’s song etc. Thedirectorwantedtoconstructavarietyofstyleandformbyamalgamationofvariousmusicandtunes.Itcreatedsuchahugeattractionthat Tarapada was compelled to jump inthe river. ‘Atithi’ is a lyrical film. A lyricalpoem.TapanSinha lovedtoread literatureand loved to seefilmsbasedon literature.The tone is in the story. The directorwholeheartedlytransferredittothecelluloidwithutmostdedicationandsincerity.

Themontageofsongsindifferentboatswas superb. Sachin Dev Burman andHemanta Mukhopadhyay liked the music.TapanSinhawasofopinionthat the fairofhumanbeingsappearsasmulti-dimensional.Though some critics opined that it was aoverlapping.ThestorywriterTagoreendedthe story in nature and the director TapanSinhaendeditintheassemblageofhumanbeing.

AwardPresident’s Award, Certificate of

Merit, 1965 ; Certificate ofMerit in VeniceInternationalFilmFestival,1966.