Volume 03: Issue 01, 2021

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Rivers as the site of flood and drought through the lens of Ritwik Ghatak's Titas Ekti Nadir Naam
(In Search of Fearlessness Research Institute, 2021-04-08) Ray, Sinjini
India and Bangladesh since the very advent of their formation have been known to be heavily dependent on their rivers for resources of livelihood. The rivers, of both East and West Bengal are often addressed as 'mother', providing for everything necessary to live on. At times however, these very rivers acquire frightful shape wreaking havoc on and causing absolute jeopardy to the lives of the people depending on them. This frightful state of the rivers may occur both in forms of flood as well as drying up of river beds, causing drought. Bengal has been through some of the most severe droughts in history and in this paper, I shall try to look back at the catastrophes that they were. In this context, I would also like to discuss Ritwik Ghatak's film Titas Ekti Nadir Naam (A River Called Titas) for its portrayal of people's dependence on the river with their fates tied up with that of the river. Ghatak, in his movie, uses heavy symbolism to denote the role the river played in the characters' lives and how it influenced the sustenance of civilization around it.