The poster-board in the GPO that says quinine is the only cure for malaria. Picture by Bishwarup Dutta

Satyajit Ray’s Sikkim will be screened at Calcutta Film Festival;

Quinine, discovered as the first effective cure for malaria almost four centuries ago, is still used for treatment of the disease. But once it was the only cure.

Discovery of quinine marked the first successful use of a chemical compound to treat an infectious disease. The medicine, known as “Jesuits’ bark” and “Sacred bark”, is produced from the bark of Quina-quina tree. Swedish botanist Carol Linnaeus named the tree as Cinchona in honour of the Countess of Cinchon in Spain.

It was considered a “God-gifted” cure for malaria. Which was taken quite literally at the time of its introduction in Bengal and Assam during the British era. Railway stations and post offices were used as outlets for the distribution of quinine. The price of 20 tablets was a few annas.

Materials to popularise quinine would show how it was gifted by the Gods. One poster-board that is exhibited at the gallery of the philatelic museum of the postal department at GPO in Calcutta shows Lord Shiva having descended from Kailash and administering quinine to a sick and emaciated Indian. The catchline: “Quinine is the only medicine for malaria.” The picture continued to be in use even after Independence.

Ray’s Sikkim

Neither Fassbinder nor Carlos Saura will be the star attractions at the 14th Calcutta Film Festival, starting Monday. The show is set to be stolen by Satyajit Ray’s lost-and-found documentary film Sikkim.

A DVD of the film is being flown down from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences, Los Angeles, in short, the Oscar headquarters.

The 60-minute film was commissioned and produced by the then Chogyal (title of Sikkim rulers) in 1971. It was banned in India when Sikkim acceded to India in 1975. The copyright of the film was later transferred to the Art and Culture Trust of Sikkim, which has granted the American Center the permission for a “one-time preview screening” at the Calcutta Film Festival.

Sikkim is likely to be shown on the final day, provided the censor board certificate posted by the trust reaches the Nandan authorities in time. It will be a wonder if there isn’t a stampede.

The film, out of circulation since the ban, which is not in force anymore, has hardly been exhibited in public. Its prints have not been available. It will be shown at the festival thanks to the efforts of noted Academy preservationist Joseph Lindner to digitally restore the film’s masterprint. Lindner is in town with four of Ray’s restored films. They will all be screened at Nandan during the festival week ending November 17.

“We are making a 35mm version of Ray’s documentary in Los Angeles. It will be completed by December 15. It’s a traditional documentary on Sikkim’s people and its landscape,” said Lindner.

Ray’s filmmaker son Sandip is elated about the first public screening of Sikkim. “It feels great. It’s like an achievement. Sikkim will be screened in India after 38 years. It had a private show at Priya but it’s largely unknown among people. The documentary was on Sikkim as a country. It’s a lovely film. Baba (father) shot it in various seasons and on several unreachable locations. Plus, Baba is the narrator of the film, an added attraction.”

Ministerial fire

It is known to many that our fire services minister Pratim Chatterjee has a flair for acting. Those frequenting the movie halls to watch Tollywood potboilers, especially the ones directed by Haranath Chakaborty, would be aware of his fiery performances. He can deliver punch-lines in real life, too, as the ministers from Rajasthan found out on their visit to the city to sympathise with traders from their community after the fire in Burrabazar earlier this year.

But not too many would be aware that the minister has a fiery pen too.

A booklet brought out by the fire services department for the festive season bears witness in print. It contains helplines and the dos and don’ts of handling fire at puja pandals, but right on the cover is an italicised verse carrying the title — Aaguner Kotha — in red. Then comes the minister’s name in bold.

Here is what follows: Puja pandel-er aagun/ Onek hoto amra jani/ Ekhon pujo committee o domkoler/ cheshtay agun onek komechhey/ Amra mani/ Tobuo cheshta kore agunke/ Aro bagey antey hobe/ Sokolke songe niye aguner/ Biruddhe loraiye namtey hobe.

“Ami ektu adhtu kobita-o likhi (I write a bit of poetry too),” the “multi-talented” man preened on being complemented on his acting skills at a social gathering and gifted away the booklet as proof. Did the attempt to extract poetry from doggerel leave the poor recipient singed?

(Contributed by Deepankar Ganguly, Mohua Das, Kushali Nag and Sudeshna Banerjee)