Indian Film Culture - 16.cdr - federation of film societies of india

After the screening we met at Muriel Wasi's
house at Pandara Road. We had a question and
answer session. That must have been sometime
in early 1958. I do not quite remember when I
first met Chitu and whether I met him when I
went to Calcutta or when he came to Delhi. All I
remember is that by the time we met to form the
Federation of Film Societies of India, in 1959,
both he and his wife Supriya had become good
friends of mine. I met their three daughters -
Aparna, Ratna and Lakkhi later, when I took up
my job as a censor officer in Calcutta in 1965-
66.
Bengalis have this unique institution of 'Adda',
where talking, discussions reign supreme and
no subject is barred. At one such adda in
Calcutta, I remember Chitu reading a poem of
Supriya's paternal uncle Jibanand Das in
Bengali. He first read the poem in Bengali and
then his translation of it in English. The poem
was about one Banalata Sen of Natore. I was
amused to see that the last line always was
'Natorere Banalata Sen' on which he would
pause like a dancer holding a pose. To me both
the Bengali original and Chitu's English version
sounded excellent. Later I discovered that he
had the rare ability of writing equally well in
both languages. In 1963, after I had moved to
Mumbai, he once came and stayed with me and I
remember being spell bound by the wealth of his
knowledge about films, its craft and his
understanding of the Indian way of life. He was
a very gentle and a civilised person, with a fine
sense of humour. I discovered that he was
actually in Patna till 1942 though I never met
him then. But apparently he left Patna as a result
of the Quit India movement.
Outwardly, Chitu looked like a boxwallha in the
employ of the Imperial Tobacco Company; but
he had a soul of a poet and a dreamer. He read
assiduously and was familiar not only with
Sanskrit and Bengali literature but had a deep
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knowledge of world literature. I was appalled
when I learnt that he had decided to quit his
cushy job with ITC. He had a whole household
to look after and his daughters were still
studying; one of them Lakkhi also had lot of
health problems. When I spoke to him about it,
he said that he did not want to spend his life
promoting sales of cigarettes and he and Supriya
would try and manage. By that time, he had
already made his first film “The Portrait of a
City” about Calcutta under the aegis of Calcutta
Film Society. It had rightly received some praise
but I knew that it was not enough to put maach
bhaat on everybody's plate. Later, when pressed
for money, for some time, he took up a job with
the U.S. embassy as editor of their magazine
SPAN but he gave that up soon. He did not
particularly like Delhi. Like Ray, Sen and
Ghatak he was most happy when he was in
Calcutta. Later when Aparna had established
herself, and Ratna was married, he and Supriya
had moved to Shanti Niketan. I had a standing
invitation to visit them and I was planning to go
there sometime but that never happened. They
had to come to Calcutta for medical reasons.
They lived with Aparna.
Chidu with Aparna
June 2012
Indian Film Culture