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A still from the film depicting a patachitra themed on fish |
People from neighbouring states have for ages made Bengalis the butt of jokes for their obsession with fish. Considered auspicious, fish has made a special place for itself in the folklore, visual arts, songs, literature and culture of Bengal, whose biodiversity is largely dependent on the rivers that course through it, wetlands that are ideal for fish to flourish, and ponds and tanks that every neighbourhood could be proud of once.
Film-maker Nilanjan Bhattacharya has made a delightful short on this “love story”, titled Bengalis in the World of Fish, which was screened last week at Experimenter along with two other works of his, The Dark Faces of Drowning and It’s Open.
This was part of the gallery’s ongoing festival of films. Bhattacharya, who is in his early 40s, did not have any formal training in cinema but had assisted Tapan Sinha on two films. He has made several films since. Of these, Under this Sun, on biological diversity, had won the national award for the best environment film of 2005. Johar: Welcome to our World, on Jharkhand’s indigenous food culture, also won an award in 2010.
Bhattacharya creates a fascinating world dominated by piscine culture through a series of interviews — with watercolourist Pradip Moitra; a man who earns his living by angling for others; anglers who wait patiently for hours at Laldighi opposite Writers’ Buildings; a patua who sings about the marriage of a fish while rolling out the patachitra; men who sell fish in the markets; a man who talks about the best ways of attacking a piece of cooked fish to savour it; and a Bangladeshi woman who speaks nostalgically about a past when fish were in abundance.
In between, some friends throw a party in a flat where several fish courses are served. It is here that the sharp divide in the two halves of Bengal over mastery in cooking fish surfaces, albeit with humorous overtones. Ranu Ghosh is the cinematographer. Bhattacharya makes tiny sketches of artefacts related to fish, and a series on various nets used to catch them was on display. He will perhaps collaborate with Pradip Moitra to make a book on fishes. |
