Nityananda Datta (born 13 August 1933) was an Indian filmmaker who was originally from Chittagong, then in Bengal Presidency. [1]
Datta is best known for his work with Satyajit Ray as his assistant director. [2] [3] His body of work includes some of Ray's most renowned works depicting life and struggles of people in Calcutta and West Bengal, such as Charulata , Aparajito , Kanchenjungha , Devi, The World of Apu , and Jalsaghar . [4]
Later in his career, Dutta also directed his own features, including Baksa Badal (1970) (written by Ray, who also composed the music [5] ) and Hathat Dekha (1967). [6] [7] [8]
After relocating to Bombay, Datta supported filmmaker Hrishikesh Mukherjee as associate director in several more films. He also worked on several documentary films sponsored by Doordarshan between 1977 and 1983. [1]
Feluda is a fictional detective, private investigator created by Indian director and writer Satyajit Ray. Feluda resides at 21 Rajani Sen Road, Ballygunge, Calcutta, West Bengal, India. Feluda first made his appearance in a Bengali children's magazine called Sandesh in 1965, under the editorialship of Ray and Subhas Mukhopadhyay. His first adventure was Feludar Goendagiri. Feluda is one of the most impactful Bengali characters of all time.
Pather Panchali is a 1955 Indian Bengali-language drama film written and directed by Satyajit Ray in his directoral debut and produced by the Government of West Bengal. It is an adaptation of Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay's 1929 Bengali novel of the same name and features Subir Banerjee, Kanu Banerjee, Karuna Banerjee, Uma Dasgupta, Pinaki Sengupta and Chunibala Devi in major roles. The first film in The Apu Trilogy, Pather Panchali depicts the childhood travails of the protagonist Apu and his elder sister Durga amidst the harsh village life of their poor family.
Shyam Benegal is an Indian film director, screenwriter and documentary filmmaker. Often regarded as the pioneer of parallel cinema, he is widely considered as one of the greatest filmmakers post 1970s. He has received several accolades, including eighteen National Film Awards, a Filmfare Award and a Nandi Award. In 2005, he was honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India's highest award in the field of cinema. In 1976, he was honoured by the Government of India with the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian honour of the country, and in 1991, he was awarded Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian honour for his contributions in the field of arts.
Ritwik Kumar Ghatak was an Indian film director, screenwriter, actor and playwright. Along with prominent contemporary Bengali filmmakers like Satyajit Ray, Tapan Sinha and Mrinal Sen, his cinema is primarily remembered for its meticulous depiction of social reality, partition and feminism. He won the National Film Award's Rajat Kamal Award for Best Story in 1974 for his Jukti Takko Aar Gappo and Best Director's Award from Bangladesh Cine Journalist's Association for Titash Ekti Nadir Naam. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri for Arts in 1970.
Sonar Kella, also Shonar Kella, is a 1971 mystery novel written by Bengali writer and filmmaker Satyajit Ray. In 1974, Ray directed a film adaption of the book, also named Sonar Kella, starring Soumitra Chatterjee, Santosh Dutta, Siddartha Chatterjee and Kushal Chakraborty. The movie was released in the United States as The Golden Fortress. It is the first film adaptation of Ray's famous sleuth Feluda and was followed by Joi Baba Felunath, in English The Elephant God.
Bengali Brahmos are those who adhere to Brahmoism, the philosophy of Brahmo Samaj which was founded by Raja Rammohan Roy. A recent publication describes the disproportionate influence of Brahmos on India's development post-19th Century as unparalleled in recent times.
Distant Thunder is a 1973 Bengali film by the Indian director Satyajit Ray, based on the novel by the same name by Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay. Unlike most of Ray's earlier films, Distant Thunder was filmed in colour. It stars Soumitra Chatterjee, who headlined numerous Ray films, and the Bangladeshi actress Bobita in her only prominent international role. Today the film features in The New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made. It marked the debut of the theatre star Mrityunjay Sil.
Utpal Dutt was an Indian actor, director, and writer-playwright. He was primarily an actor in Bengali theatre, where he became a pioneering figure in Modern Indian theatre, when he founded the "Little Theatre Group" in 1949. This group enacted many English, Shakespearean and Brecht plays, in a period now known as the "Epic theatre" period, before it immersed itself completely in highly political and radical theatre. His plays became an apt vehicle for the expression of his Marxist ideologies, visible in socio-political plays such as Kallol (1965), Manusher Adhikar, Louha Manob (1964), Tiner Toloar and Maha-Bidroha. He also acted in over 100 Bengali and Hindi films in a career spanning 40 years, and remains most known for his roles in films such as Mrinal Sen’s Bhuvan Shome (1969), Satyajit Ray’s Agantuk (1991), Gautam Ghose’s Padma Nadir Majhi (1992) and Hrishikesh Mukherjee's breezy Hindi comedies such as Gol Maal (1979) and Rang Birangi (1983). He also did the role of a sculptor, Sir Digindra Narayan, in the episode Seemant Heera of Byomkesh Bakshi on Doordarshan in 1993, shortly before his death.
Hirak Rajar Deshe is an Indian Bengali dystopian fantasy musical film and a sequel to the 1969 anti-war fantasy musical Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne directed by Satyajit Ray. In the film, the musicians Goopy and Bagha travel to the kingdom of the Diamond King, to find a sinister plot at work – subjects are being brainwashed by rewriting their thoughts with rhyming slogans.
Satyajit Ray was an Indian filmmaker who worked prominently in Bengali cinema and who has often been regarded as one of the greatest and most influential directors in the History of cinema. Ray was born in Calcutta to a Bengali family and started his career as a junior visualiser. His meeting with French film director Jean Renoir, who had come to Calcutta in 1949 to shoot his film The River (1951), and his 1950 visit to London, where he saw Vittorio De Sica's Ladri di biciclette (1948), inspired Ray to become a film-maker. Ray made his directorial debut in 1955 with Pather Panchali and directed 36 films, comprising 29 feature films, five documentaries, and two short films.
Santosh Dutta was a Bengali actor, best known for playing the character of Jatayu in Satyajit Ray's Feluda movie series Sonar Kella and Joi Baba Felunath.
Parallel cinema, or New Indian Cinema, is a film movement in Indian cinema that originated in the state of West Bengal in the 1950s as an alternative to the mainstream commercial Indian cinema.
Dutta, also spelled Datta, is an Indian family name. Its variation is Dutt.
Satyajit Ray was an Indian film director, screenwriter, author, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligrapher, and composer. Ray is widely considered one of the greatest and most influential film directors in the history of cinema. He is celebrated for works including The Apu Trilogy (1955–1959), The Music Room (1958), The Big City (1963), Charulata (1964), and the Goopy–Bagha trilogy (1969–1992).[a]
Cinema of West Bengal, also known as Tollywood or Bengali cinema, is the segment of Indian cinema, dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Bengali language widely spoken in the state of West Bengal. It is based in the Tollygunge region of Kolkata, West Bengal, India. The origins of the nickname Tollywood, a portmanteau of the words Tollygunge and Hollywood, dates back to 1932. It was a historically important film industry, at one time the centre of Indian film production. The Bengali film industry is known for producing many of Indian cinema's most critically acclaimed global Parallel Cinema and art films, with several of its filmmakers gaining prominence at the Indian National Film Awards as well as international acclaim.
Baksa Badal is a 1970 Bengali film directed by Nityananda Datta. The film was released by D. M. Productions, with music composed by Satyajit Ray. The film starred Soumitra Chatterjee, Aparna Sen, Prasad Mukhopadhyay, Satindra Bhattacharya, Subrato Sen, and Sabitri Chatterjee in lead roles.
Gitali Roy was a Bengali film actress. She acted in four of Satyajit Ray's film Mahapurush, Chiriakhana, Mahanagar and Charulata. Among other notable films she also acted in Baksa Badal, a story by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay and directed by Nityananda Datta in 1970.
Aparajito, also known as Aparajito – The Undefeated, is a 2022 Indian Bengali-language biographical film directed and co-written by Anik Dutta. Produced by Firdausul Hasan and Probal Halder under the banner of Friends Communication, it is based on the making of the cult classic film Pather Panchali by Satyajit Ray. The film, being shot in black and white, stars Jeetu Kamal in the titular role of Aparajito Ray.
Uddharan Dutta Thakur (উদ্ধারণ দত্ত ঠাকুর) was an Indian philosopher and saint from the Gaudiya Vaishnava school of Vedanta tradition, producing a great number of philosophical works on the theology and practice of Bhakti yoga, Vaishnava Vedanta and associated disciplines. He is known as one of the Dwadasha gopas,.