I was in Shajadpur, a sleepy hamlet in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district about a fortnight ago. Work over, as the dusk settled in, I wanted to settle down for a relaxing cuppa at the local tea-stall. I called my chauffeur-guide Nurul over to join me but I sensed an unfamiliar edginess, [...]

The state of West Bengal is passing through tumultuous and momentous times. The over three decade old Left Front Government led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) by all accounts seems to be in its death throes. The zeitgeist, as coined by the Iron Maiden supreme of Trinamool Congress Ms. Mamata Bannerjee, is paribarton [...]

During my latest trip to Vasaipaikar, a remote village in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district, I had relaxed chat with Sk. Rajak Ali, who is the leader of the local wing of the youth Congress. A die-hard fan of Rahul Gandhi, Rajakbhai is a fourth generation Congressman. He is very proud of the [...]

I’ve never seen Bapi sad, worried or depressed. I must admit that I’ve seen him for only about 40-45 days in the past 2 years so I can’t be sure if on other days he has not felt the blues. I’ve chatted with his mother and the people who know him and they too have [...]

Basking in the mellow sun of a Kolkata winter, we share a chillum with Ghulam Fakir, one of the greatest living singers and ascetics of the Fakiri tradition of Bengal. The fresh weed, grown in Ghulam-da’s own backyard, is a knock-out. As the chillum goes around a friend who is a co-organiser of the Baul-Fakir [...]

The years I spent as a student at the Film & Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune were my salad days as far as watching films are concerned. Coming from Kolkata and already an avid cineaste, I did have an exposure to a various kinds of cinema, but at the FTII it was a veritable [...]

 “Sir, will you be kind enough to let us have a look at the photos of our vegetable garden?” Lily Baske requested. “We’d love to have a look at our vegetables”, Laxmi Soren and her sister-in-law Malati cried out in unison.

Lily, Laxmi, Malati and about thirty men, women and children belonging to the Santhal community [...]

A long time ago, 1994 it was. I was in Arunachal Pradesh co-directing a documentary on eco-forestry along with a FTII classmate. It was our first independent professional assignment. The videographer too was a batchmate and the production manager was a college friend of mine. Our first shoot outside Itanagar, the state capital, was at [...]

A few months ago, I had gone to the villages of Birbhum district, West Bengal on a recce trip for a documentary on people-centric development works carried under the aegis of the Gram Panchayats. Accompanying me were a couple of officials from the District Magistrate’s office, one of whom was also a cadre of the [...]

I.
It is afternoon and I am sitting on a small embankment by the river Bhagirathi – a branch of the mighty Ganges that flows through South West Bengal. The location is Shaikhpara, a small village in the Raninagar-I Block of Murshidabad, a district in South-Central Bengal. It’s winter, the river bed is almost dry and [...]