Buddhadeb Dasgupta

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Buddhadeb Dasgupta (1944-2021)

Buddhadeb Dasgupta
(1944-2021)

Bengali poet and director Buddhadeb Dasgupta was a lecturer in economics at Calcutta University. Many of his poems have been published in various journals. His lyricism has been extended to cinema as well. Besides feature films, Buddhadeb also directed many documentaries. In his own words, he always followed up a feature film with a documentary. "A feature film, from the process of writing down the first word of the script till the colour correction of the first print, drives you crazy and pushes you to a stage of fear psychosis when you are left all alone after the film is over," he said. Apart from ...

Deep Focus

Sankha

Produced by the Sahitya Akademi, this documentary has poet Sankha Ghosh himself doing the voiceover and reciting his works. The poet spoke about his early life in Bangladesh (first in Barishal and then a town named Pakshi ...

Filmography

Sankha
The Continent of Love (1968)
Dholer Raja Khoride Natta (1973)
Fishermen of Sundarban (1974)
Saratchandra (1975)
Vigyan O Tar Avishkar (1980)
Rhythm of Steel (1981)
Indian Science Marches Ahead (1984)
Story of Glass (1985)
India on the Move (1985)
Ceramics (1986)
Aranyak (1996)
Contemporary Indian Sculpture (1987)
History of Indian Jute (1990)
A Painter of Eloquent Silence: Ganesh Pyne (1998)
Bankim Chandra (1998)
Jorasankho Thakurbari (2000)
Uma (2000)
Meeting Manjit (2002)
Rabin (2003/04)
University of Calcutta (2006)
Naushad: The Melody Continues (2006)
Bengal Engineering and Science University (2010)
Three Times, Three Women and the Border (2010)
Mayurbhanj Chhau: The Art and The Artist (2015)

Awards

The Story of Glass won the Best Industrial Film at the 34th National Awards that feted the best of Indian cinema in 1986. As a director, Buddhadeb won a Rajat Kamal (Silver Lotus) for his "comprehensive and engaging treatment of glass-making in our country".
Buddhadeb won two Rajat Kamals (Silver Lotuses) for directing and producing A Painter of Eloquent Silence: Ganesh Pyne at the 46th National Awards that feted the best of Indian cinema in 1998. The film was adjudged the Best Arts/Cultural Film for "a moving tribute from one artist to another and an appreciation of a painter's hidden expression". For the same film, Biswadeb Dasgupta won the award for Best Music Direction for "enriching the visuals with a contemplative sense of rhythm".
His Jorasanko Thakurbari won the Best Non-Feature Film Direction award at the 49th National Award that feted the best in Indian cinema for 2001. He won the Swarna Kamal (Golden Lotus) for "artistically unfolding the history of the house of the Tagores".
Meeting Manjit won the Best Biographical Film at the 50th National Awards that feted the best in Indian cinema for 2002. As a director, he won a Rajat Kamal (Silver Lotus) for "making incisive use of the visual potential of cinema to give us rare insight into an artist's life, his subconscious and its articulation on canvas. The film brilliantly juxtaposes the journeys of the artist, his friend Ina and the film maker himself".

Did You Know?

In 1999, Sankha Ghosh directed a documentary on Buddhadeb titled Portrait. It had footage of the director playing the piano. In 2015, Supriya Suri has directed a 52-minute-long documentary on him titled Maestro - A Portrait (Buddhadeb Dasgupta).