{"product_id":"nagarik-ira-bhaskar-9788194126041","title":"Nagarik: The Screenplays, Volume 1","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe journey of Ritwik Ghatak's \u003ci\u003eNagarik \u003c\/i\u003efrom the shooting of the film to its release was an extremely chequered one. While it was shot in 1952, three years before Satyajit Ray's \u003ci\u003ePather Panchali\u003c\/i\u003e, it was released only twenty-five years later, in 1977, after Ghatak's death in 1976. Set in Calcutta in the immediate aftermath of the Partition, the film chronicles the struggles of a family from North Bengal as they desperately strive to survive in a metropolis that is unable to address the necessities of thousands of people pouring in from across the border. The protagonist Ramu, like hundreds of other young men, struggles to find that elusive job which will enable him to stabilize his disintegrating family. Unemployment, starvation, incessant dislocation, and the yearning for stability and a home mark the lives of the families in this film. While there is no explicit mention of the Partition, the circumstances, poverty, survival struggles, desperation, and the intense and desirous memory of a different past - all indicate that it is Partition that is the structuring absence of this film. Ghatak was to return to the theme in three other films that have been known as the Partition Trilogy: \u003ci\u003eMeghe Dhaka Tara\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eKomal Gandhar\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eSubarnarekha\u003c\/i\u003e. With this recreation of the screenplay of Nagarik, it will be clear that Ghatak's Partition films, those that deal with the lives of refugees in Calcutta directly, or as in this one analogically, form a quartet and not a trilogy. \u003ci\u003eNagarik \u003c\/i\u003ealso represents an enticing historiographical idea, the 'what if' of Indian film history: perhaps if it had been released in 1952 when it was made, and before \u003ci\u003ePather Panchali\u003c\/i\u003e, the accounts of Indian art cinema that have privileged the Ray film would have been different, and Ghatak may have been accepted as an important Indian auteur in his lifetime. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe screenplay of \u003ci\u003eNagarik \u003c\/i\u003ein this volume has been recreated from the released version of the film on DVD and the published text of \u003ci\u003eNagarik \u003c\/i\u003eby Ira Bhaskar and Rani Ray.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Ira Bhaskar\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 8194126045\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9788194126041\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Tulika Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 02\/15\/2022\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 128\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.55lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.37h x 6.14w x 0.39d","brand":"Ira Bhaskar","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":43941642502399,"sku":"9788194126041","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/products\/img_c5d8fd2c-793b-4e5f-911c-50fd3a209425.jpg?v=1681454115","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/nagarik-ira-bhaskar-9788194126041","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}