Probashi- Cover Story
Probashi- Cover Story
Interview with Goutam Ghose
Gautam Ghose as a child : Leading from the front .
12yr old my uncle gifted me with a Kodak box camera . Looking through the view finder I suddenly realised that I had a choice of what I wanted to see in the frame and what to discard . That was very liberating . Exposure to music and photography in childhood significantly influenced my career in film making .
I was lucky to have experienced a very liberal atmosphere during my formative years in school . Till kinder garden I was in St John ’ s Diocesan School , Calcutta , a girls school which then allowed boys till KG , incidentally Sharmila Tagore was my senior there . Then I shifted to Cathedral Missionary Boy ’ s School where I was exposed to Christian , Muslim , Buddhist and Hindu culture . My parents would gift my friend Akhtar with new clothes during Puja , and I would get a set of new clothes from Akhtar ’ s parents during Id . With Chinese classmates we would celebrate the Chinese New Year . Secularism and respect for different cultures got ingrained in me at school .
Today in an academic fuelled childhood how do we bring back culture and creative pursuits into the family setting ?
The orientation towards creative pursuits for a child starts at home . Today while children have excessive information through technology and nothing is left to imagination . they have forgotten to dream of the unknown . In our times Jules Verne ’ s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea would bring forth imagination of the world water . That need to dream has somehow got lost . Also today the children are self centered , the sense of sharing is completely missing . Our generation was brought up on the concept that happiness can never be bought through money .
Your father Prof Himangshu Kumar Ghose was a respected professor . How did your family react to your choice of becoming a theatre person and a film maker ?
Feature Films Directed Maabhoomi in Telugu ( 1979 ) Dakhal in Bengali ( 1981 ) Paar in Hindi ( 1984 ) Antarjali Jatra in Bengali ( 1987 ) Padma Nadir Majhi in Bengali ( 1992 ) Patang in Hindi ( 1993 ) Gudia in Hindi ( 1997 ) Dekha in Bengali ( 2001 ) Abar Aranye in Bengali ( 2003 ) Yatra in Hindi ( 2006 ) Kaalbela in Bengali ( 2009 ) Moner Manush in Bengali ( 2010 ) Shunyo Awnko in Bengali ( 2012 )
Select Documentaries Directed 1973 : New Earth 1974 : Hungry Autumn 1976 : Chains of Bondage 1980 : Film on irrigation projects 1984 : Indian Classical Music 1986 : Land of Sand Dunes ,
A Tribute to Odissi , 1987 : Ek Ghat ki Kahani 1989 : Documentary on Bismillah Khan 1990 : Documentary on Utpal Dutt 1991 : Documentary on Kanika Bandhapadhyay 1994‐95 : Silk Route 1999 : Documentary on Satyajit Ray 2001 : Kalahandi 2001 : A documentary on Asia ’ s upland poor for IFAD 2002 : A Treasure in the Snow , A documentary on Sikkim 2004 : Documentary on Dalai Lama 2005 : Documentary on Jyoti Basu 2007 : Ramkrishna Mission 75 years of Service 2008 : A film on Raja Ram Mohon Roy 2009 : A film on Asiatic Society 2011 : A film of Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics
My father was an adventurist with a history of failed business ventures . When I was 11 , my father became totally bankrupt , and many of our possessions had to be sold off . My maternal grandfather advised my father that he was a man of letters and it would be good if he sticks to