Chinnamul

Chinnamul (alternate spelling Chhinnamul, lit. The Uprooted) was a 1950 Bengali film directed by Nemai Ghosh.^[1][2] This was the first Indian film that dealt with the partition of India. The story revolved around a group of farmers from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) who were forced to migrate to Calcutta because of the partition of Bengal in 1947.^[3] Russian film director Vsevolod Pudovkin came to Calcutta at that time, watched this film, and being inspired, he bought the print of this film to release in Russia. The film was shown in 188 theaters in Russia.^[4]

Chinnamul
A scene from the film Chinnamul
Directed by	Nemai Ghosh
Story by	Swarnakamal Bhattacharya
Produced by	Bimal Dey
Starring	Gangapada Basu Bijon Bhattacharya Ritwik Ghatak Shobha Sen
Cinematography	Nemai Ghosh
Edited by	Gobardhan Adhikari
Music by	Kalabran Das
Production company	Desa Pictures
Distributed by	Union Distributors
Release date	1950 (1950)
Running time	117 minutes
Country	India
Language	Bengali

Plot

The film is based on the story of Swarnakamal Bhattacharya. Depicting the physical pain and crisis, the film is about the partition of Bengal and the flow of refugees from East Pakistan (present Bangladesh) into India's West Bengal. The story begins in a village of East Bengal where people (Hindus and Muslims) live peacefully. Govinda and Sumati are husband and wife who are about to have a child. However, the partition forces Hindu people to leave their ancestral village. So, they become refugees. They don't find any location or shelter in Calcutta and eke out their daily lives in temporary shelters in and around Sealdah railway station. Along with millions of refugees the family has to face untold misery in big city.^[5]

Cast and crew

Cast

• Gangapada Basu
• Bijon Bhattacharya
• Jalad Chatterjee
• Shanta Devi
• Ritwik Ghatak^[6]
• Shanti Mitra
• Prematosh Roy
• Shobha Sen
• Sushil Sen.

Crew

• Direction and cinematography: Nemai Ghosh.
• Writer: Swarnakamal Bhattacharya.
• Music: Kalabran Das

See also

• Pather Panchali, 1955 film directed by Satyajit Ray

References

1. Indu Ramchandani (2000). Students' Britannica India: Select essays. Popular Prakashan. p. 101. ISBN 978-0-85229-762-9. Retrieved 23 June 2012.
2. Laura E. Ruberto; Kristi M. Wilson (2007). Italian Neorealism and Global Cinema. Wayne State University Press. p. 81. ISBN 978-0-8143-3324-2.
3. Jonathan Crow (2013). "The Uprooted (1950)". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 10 May 2013. Retrieved 3 August 2012.
4. "Chinnamul" (in Bengali). 17 December 2010. Retrieved 10 March 2012.
5. Anjali Gera Roy (2008). Partitioned lives : narratives of home, displacement, and resettlement. New Delhi : Dorling Kindersley (India). p. 67. ISBN 9788131714164.
6. Very few people know that Ritwik Ghatak for the first time associated with this film through his acting. Ghatak was praised for acting in three of his own films later – ‘Subarnarekha’ (1962), ‘Titash Ekti Nadir Naam’ (1973) and ‘Jukti Takko aar Gappo’ (1974). Ghatak himself was a victim of partition and along with his family, moved to Berhampore (Murshidabad) and later to Kolkata just before millions of refugees from East Pakistan began to flood into the city. He also was a victim of catastrophic Bengal famine of 1943 before the partition of 1947.

External links

• Chinnamul at IMDb