Chidananda Dasgupta

Chidananda Das Gupta (চিদানন্দ দাশগুপ্ত) (20 November 1921 – 22 May 2011)—family name sometimes spelled 'Dashgupta' and 'Dasgupta' —was an Indian filmmaker, film critic, a film historian and one of the founders of Calcutta Film Society with Satyajit Ray in 1947.

He lived and worked in Calcutta and Santiniketan.

Son of Shantilata and Manmathanath Dasgupta, a Brahmo missionary and social worker, he was born at Shillong, India in 1921.

Das Gupta first entered politics during the anti-British Quit India movement days of the 1940s, then began teaching at St. Columba's College, Hazaribagh, personal assistant to Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis at the Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta, teaching at City College, Kolkata, journalism, and then a plush job in advertising with Imperial Tobacco.

In 1944 he married, Supriya Das, a daughter of Brahmananda Dashgupta, brother of poet Jibanananda Das.

His daughter Aparna Sen is a well known actress and filmmaker.

Actress Konkona Sen Sharma is his granddaughter.

In 1947, Das Gupta, along with Satyajit Ray, RP Gupta, Bansi Chandragupta, Harisadhan Dasgupta and others, founded the Calcutta Film Society.

In 1957, he, Ray and others, started the Indian Film Quarterly.

His contributions to the British film magazine Sight and Sound have permanent archival value.

In 1959, the Federation of Film Societies of India was set up at the initiative of Das Gupta, Satyajit Ray, Mrs. Vijaya Mulay, Mrs. Ammu Swaminathan, Robert Hawkins, Diptendu Pramanick, Abul Hassan and A. Roychowdhury.

The Federation has played a major role in the spread of the film society movement in India.

Das Gupta is well known for his essays and translations of Rabindranath Tagore, Manik Bandopadhyay and Jibanananda Das.

He had a close association with poet Jibanananda Das during the latter's lifetime which gave him unique insights into the poetry of Jibanananda Das that is often alleged to be obscure and unintelligible.

One of the most famous poems of Bengali literature, namely, Banalata Sen by poet Jibanananda Das has been rendered into English by Das Gupta.

It reads as follows:

From the seas of Ceylon to the straits of Malaya

I have journeyed, alone, in the enduring night,

And down the dark corridor of time I have walked

Through mist of Bimbisara, Asoka, darker Vidarbha.

Round my weary soul the angry waves still roar;

My only peace I knew with Banalata Sen of Natore.

Her face the sculpture of Sravasti.

I saw her, as a sailor after the storm

Rudderless in the sea, spies of a sudden

The grass-green heart of the leafy island.

‘Where were you so long?' she asked, and more

With her bird's-nest eyes, Banalata Sen of Natore.

The raven wipes the smell of warm sun

From its wings; the world's noises die.

And in the light of fireflies the manuscript

Prepares to weave the fables of night;

Every bird is home, every river reached the ocean.

Darkness remains; and time for Banalata Sen.

Chidananda Das Gupta is best known as a film historian and film critic.

Das Gupta directed as many as seven films, namely The Stuff of Steel (1969), The Dance of Shiva (1968), Portrait of a City (1961), Amodini (1994), Zaroorat Ki Purti (1979), Rakhto (1973) and Bilet Pherat (1972) Of these he composed only two.

These are Bilet Pherat and Amodini, the latter starring both his daughter Aparna Sen and his granddaughter Konkona Sen Sharma.

He has studied closely the work of his friend Satyajit Ray, and his 1980 book The Cinema of Satyajit Ray remains one of the definitive works on Ray.

He has written over 2000 articles on cinema in various periodicals.

In 2004 Chidananada Das Gupta was honoured at the Osian Film Festival, 2004, with a Lifetime Achievement Award for writing on cinema.