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Raja Mitra
Raja Mitra
A graduate from Calcutta University, Raja Mitra has been associated with several literary and film journals. He assisted Goutam Ghose in 1978-80. His first feature film, Ekti Jiban, had won the National Award for Best Debut Film of a Director in 1987 at the 35th National Awards. He had received a Golden Kamal (Swarna Lotus) for "a very courageous first attempt of a director in tackling the subject of an individual unwavering in his conviction in the cultural value of his language and single handedly making available its enriching value to the generation of his people who will come after him".He has directed 32 ...
Deep Focus
Filmography
- Coal for The Masses (1978)
- Economy of HS Oil in Railways (1980)
- Calcutta Footpath Dweller (1981)
- The Tribal Resistance (1987)
- Calcutta, Past and Present (1987)
- Scroll Painters of Birbhum (1989)
- Towards a Global Breakthrough (1991)
- Jiban Patua (1993)
- Ashray (1993)
- Vidyasagar (1993)
- Beyond a Head Count
- Kalighat Paintings and Drawings (2002)
- Mural Paintings of Orissa (2003)
- Nachni (Dancing Girls of Rural Bengal) (2005)
- Ananda Yatra (2008)
- The Enchanted Desk (2008)
- Mobile Motif (2009)
- A Journey from Regional to National
- An Author Speaks (2015)
Awards
- Raja Mitra's Scroll Painters of Birbhum won the Best Arts/Cultural Film at the 36th National Awards in 1988 for "portraying with sensitivity and insight the vanishing tribe of the Muslim scroll painters whose essentially secular art harmonizes painting and singing".
- His Jataner Jami was adjudged the Best Non-Feature Film at the 45th National Awards for the best of Indian cinema in 1997. Raja won a Golden Lotus (Swarna Kamal) for "moving portrayal of a landless peasants' empowerment and his ultimate betrayal". The film's editor, Ujjal Nandy, received the National Award in Best Editing for "seamless and rhythmic flow of visual images, juxtaposing hope and despair in a harmonious aesthetic".
- Raja received a Silver Lotus (Rajat Kamal) for Best Music direction for Kalighat Paintings and Drawings at the 50th National Awards for a "simple yet engaging music track that brings alive the Kalighat paintings in the film of the same title". This film received a Special Mention certificate at the 50th National Awards among the best of Indian cinema in 2002 for "its significant achievement in documenting the rich artistic tradition and its implicit social commentary".
Did You Know?
He, along with Goutam Ghose, had formed a company named Gra Films to make documentaries. "Under this banner, we primarily made newsreels produced by the government of West Bengal," Mitra said.
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