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Since the advent of the talkie era, playback has played a big role in Bengali cinema. From Kanan Devi’s Ami banaphool go to Arati Mukhopadhyay’s Ami Miss Calutta — our films have a song for every emotion. In this segment, BFA tunes in to the music composers, singers and lyricists who made all that happen. The bonus is a chance to listen to the BFA-curated list of hits across seven decades!
Watch Time: How Bangla Cinema’s Female Gaze Rewrites Intimacy, Power, and Audience Ways of Seeing
In 1964, Tapan Sinha’s Jatugriha ends with a woman’s refusal — she declines to reunite with her former husband, honouring a boundary once drawn. Two decades later, Gulzar’s Ijaazat shows an ex-wife seeking permission before moving forward with her new life. This fundamental divergence reveals cinema’s deepest question: not just who is looking, but how. On International Women's Day, filmmaker and writer Debarati Gupta explores the female gaze — a way of seeing that transcends the male perspective itself. Drawing from three transformative Bangla films spanning 1937 to 1964, she uncovers how cinema can challenge patriarchal structures of representation and shows what becomes visible when we decode a look differently?
The iconic Paradise Cinema has been a cherished part of Kolkata's cine history. Nirmal De’s Sare Chuattor marked its first Bengali screening in 1953, amidst a legacy primarily dedicated to Hindi films. From the triple-layered curtains covering its single screen to the chilled air from the running ACs wafting through its doors during intervals, each detail of Paradise’s majestic allure is still ingrained in the fond memories of its patrons. One such patron is Junaid Ahmed. BFA joins this Dharmatala resident as he recollects his days of being a witness to paradise on earth in this Bijoy Chowdhury film
Almost anyone with a wee bit of interest in cinema from Bengal can lead to Satyajit Ray's rented house on Bishop Lefroy Road. But how many know where Ajoy Kar, Asit Sen, Arundhati Devi or Ritwik Ghatak lived? Or for that matter, Prithviraj Kapoor or KL Saigal during their Kolkata years? In case you are among those who walk past iconic addresses without a clue about their famous residents, this section is a must-watch for you. We have painstakingly tried to locate residential addresses of icons from the early days of their career and time-travelled to 2022 to see how the houses are maintained now.