Satyajit Ray’s Pratidwandi starring Dhritiman Chatterjee, the first of his Calcutta Trilogy, released in October 1970. K Balachander’s Varumayin Niram Sivappu released almost exactly ten years later, in November 1980, and starred Kamal Haasan and Sridevi. The two films bookend an important decade in Indian history. Pratidwandi came at the height of the Naxalite movement in West Bengal and Varumayin Niram Sivappu was made in the immediate aftermath of Emergency and the Lok Sabha elections of 1980. A tumultuous decade for India, Congress and Indira Gandhi, possibly casting a long shadow in the political landscape of today.
Deepauk and Aditya are joined in this episode by Sohini Chattopadhyay, an award winning independent journalist from Kolkata with bylines in New York Times, Al Jazeera, Mint, The Hindu and SCMP among others.
Listen on.
Also on:
Some of Sohini’s work in the context of topics discussed in the podcast:
Why Don’t These Girls Work? Women and work in recent Hindi film
https://www.livemint.com/Leisure/gW0RmkMUb27QUducQZaLIL/Why-dont-these-girls-work.html
Work and recent Hind film
https://www.livemint.com/news/india/full-time-romantics-in-a-nation-of-job-seekers-1549567469480.html
Housework and women in Bengali film and Hindi film:
https://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/two-bengali-films-delve-into-the-emotional-cost-of-women-s-housework-like-no-hindi-film-has_in_5f5d1b9cc5b67602f605fa06
Looking at Work in Panga and Chhapaak:
https://www.filmcompanion.in/features/bollywood-features/panga-and-chhapaak-what-happens-when-women-tell-womens-stories/