Tapan Sinha, a man with his dreams all packed up in the small bag which once boasted to carry elephants for the little Meenu, gets sealed up in the Hall of Fame's closet for ever, never to be opened. The legendary director, rather call an Instituition takes his last breadth in a Private Nursing home, here in Kolkata, today. The news flashed like the swirling fire, that did char a lot of film lover's heart. His charismatic movies like Kabuliwalla, a film based on the storyline set by The Great, Rabindranath Tagore bears a feather in his quite a large hat. The snubbed voice, talking about elephants in his bag, Kabulliwala remains as one the greatest creations of Indian Cinema.
His first film was ANKUSH, based on the storyline set by Narayan Ganguly. Films like HATE-BAZARE, LOUHO KOPAT, SABUJ DEEPER RAJA, GALPO HOLEO SOTTYI, are some of his family movies understood by the masses. I can still relate my childhood viewing of Sabuj Deeper Raja which was a child fantasy, a story mixed with mysterious ingredients of a mystery and adventure. The cinematography took some exotic pictures of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Mr. Sinha not only made his impression in the Bengali cinema. His creations in the Hindi Movie arena like SAFED HATHI, ZINDEGI ZINDEGI, KALAMATI are some of the pioneering works in Indian Cinema. SAFED HATHI was yet again a mesmerizing children film, which spoke about "airavat", the White Elephant, the King of the Jungle. The hunters wanted to make a huge business deal while a village boy along with his sister braved against all odds to save him. The film portrayed an intelligent work with animals starting from the elephants to the reptiles and other carnivores as well as hervibores who took the zeal to save their King!
Some of the other notable works of Mr. Sinha were like BANCHARAM-r BAGAN, TONSIL, SAGINA MAHATO, APANJAN, JATUGRIHO, etc. In an era when the greats like Satyajit Ray, Hrishikesh Mukherjee were trying to change the face of Indian Cinemas, Tapan Sinha had his own signature, for which he won NINETEEN NATIONAL AWARDS in Movie Making in various aspects. He alaso won the Most Prestigious DADA SAHEB PHALKE AWARD in 2006. He won the Music Award at the BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL in 1956 for his hugely acclaimed and sensitive film, KABULLIWALA.
Tapan Sinha was an instituition, and his demise at the age of 84 years is grieved in the world of film fraternity. He was suffering from Broncho-pneumonia.
I would remember him for his influence in creating a thought process and help me fantasize about many options starting from a White Elephant to meeting the SABUJ DEEP's RAJA. He was a great man, and a great Film Maker, who showed his presence in all forms of human emotions, starting from comedy to sadness.
good...............but orokom kore highlaight korata chokh e lagche
ReplyDeleteamongst the tapan sinha moves i have seen, golpo holeo sotti , kabuliwala and atanka are 3 films i deeply admire, not only in terms of story-telling, but also the acting, the cinematography, the music, the editing and other technical departments....a proper blend of each of these,along with the incorporation of a mass appeal and a social message into the presentation, shows the director's competence and tapan sinha was a master of all. a simple story line that can be easily conceived by the masses was his greatest strength. his films always had a mass appeal, but he never compromised his storyline to achieve it...he never incorporated unnecessary comedy or mystery to lure the masses. golpo holeo sotti was a milestone comedy, yet it threw a light on the problems met by the members of a joint family, and how an optimistic perception of life may bring about a lot of changes into the way u deal with the people around u. kabuliwallah was great in its own way, through the screenplay that never was too loaded...light moments of interaction between the girl and kabuliwallah, and a fantastic performance by chhabi biswas defined it all. atonko throughout had a sense of fear...that explained the dangers of youth, illeterate about politics, being involved in politics. his films show life, its happy moments, moments of fear, and how to escape them...his comedies were never of brainless genre, while his tragedies were never of the boring-fearful-cry genre...there was a perfect balance ..which made him a successful film maker..
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