[Reader-list] IFS-07 7TH Posting.Cinematic City:Kolkata, Modernity, Middle Class and the Urban Woman - A study of 1950sand 60s Popular Bangla Cinema.

[smita mitra]

Dear All,

Sorry for the late posting. Was in Kolkata for collecting material. Managed
to do some work.

This time I concentrated on working in the Little Magazine Library located
in Temar Lane off College street. I have some photocopies from e few
magazines on cinema. For those of you who have access to Bangla this place
is a treasure trove for material on Literature, Arts, Poetry, Cinema etc. Do
try and visit this place if you can.

Most of the material that I collected is on Uttam and Suchitra-- I managed
to find an old copy of 'Television'(a popular magazine that is no longer
being published now) that had a special focus on Suchitra Sen and carried
one the very few interviews that she gave. Iam really grateful to Jyoti Babu
of the North Calcutta Film Society who waited patiently in pouring rain at
Esplanade to give me this issue from his personal collection.I also
accquired a copy of their journal 'Chitrabhas' that they had brought out on
Uttam sometime back. In conversation with him, he reffered to the sharp
polarity in perceptions of popular cinema-- he recollected that when they
decided to bring this issue many of their members and readers had
reservation about a special issue on a 'popular star', but according to him,
this issue has done quite well in terms of selling!!! They are also planning
to bring out their next issue on cinematographers. Really looking forward to
that as well. Will keep you all posted on these activities.

I also met Amal Sur, asst dir to Asit Sen for *Uttar Phalguni*,remade as *
Mamta* in hindi and *Kamallata* ,all big hits of Suchitra. Had a brief
conversation with him on the genesis of *Kamallata's* screenplay and the
songs that were used in the film. This film is interesting as the original
novel , the 4th part of *Srikanto* by Saratchandra ,where Kamallata appears
is not the narrative that we see in the film.Narayan Ganguly recreated the
screenplay ,and of course the two songs sung by Sandhya. They had a third
song, which was edited out after a week of release as the dir felt that the
song was impeding the narrative flow.Will have to track him later for more
reminiscences of his association with Suchitra. According to him he is the
only person who still has access to her home and visits her occassionally
with a packet of incense that she loves.

My visit to CSSS was great. Managed to finalise the list of pamphlets of the
films on my list from Gautam Bhadra's collection. Got to know of the latest
issue of 'Ababhas' from Bodhisatva who told me about Manas da's fascinating
article on 'Uttam's Saloon'.Just finished reading that and will try and
discuss it .

In the process of collating the material. Looking forward to the
presentations in December.

Regards,
Smita.