Camera Commune presents “Revolution is an adult business: An introduction to Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen’s Calcutta trilogy”.

The conflicting attitudes towards the aesthetics and politics of filmmaking of Ray and Sen make their way into their respective Calcutta trilogies. When the
filmmakers started filming the first instalments of their city trilogies, their debate about the relationship of cinema and politics became all the more immediate because of the political milieu of the times. Focusing on the first instalments of their respective city trilogies – Pratidwandi and Interview– the chapter charts how the turmoil of the 1960s became the crucible in which two very distinct cinematic idioms were formed. The protagonists of both films are young men who are interviewing for jobs at a time of political unrest and a steadily worsening unemployment crisis. And yet, despite the similarity of story and the shared political milieu, the films present two different tales of a city.

In Interview, particularly in the final sequence, Sen adopts a distinctly Brechtian stance, while Ray carefully treads the fine line between hamfisted propaganda and puerile aestheticism throughout The Adversary. Both films offer their viewers an occasion to rethink the relationship between art and political engagement and also query if there is a measure of adequate political commitment that art can or should demonstrate without losing its status as art.

In continuation with our previous theme of “Marxism art culture and praxis”, what Ghatak summarizes in his thesis on cultural front that “We must understand that Revolution is an adult’s business. Unless this attitude develops, which, alas, is so absent in us, nothing of value can be created” is what guides us to a new chapter to explore the relationship between asthetics and commitment through the cinema that defined an important period of our history. And thus we call upon you to participate in the first chapter of this trilogy.

Interview by Mrinal Sen screened on 6th February.

Free entry.