1. Titash Ekti Nadir Naam (1973)
Alternative title: A River Named Titash
Language: Bengali
Director: Ritwik Ghatak
Running time: 159 mins
Starring: Fakrul Hasan Bairagi, Narain Chakraborty, Banani Choudhury
Based on a highly regarded novel by Advaita Mallaburman, the film is a stark but exquisite look at the life of a fishing community on the banks of the river Titash in East Bengal (now Bangladesh) in the early part of the 20th century. The fishing community acts as a backdrop while the story of a loving couple separated by the abduction of the wife plays out in the foreground. The cult Bengali director Ritwik Ghatak's masterpiece was also his most troubled shoot as he was suffering from tuberculosis and some personal demons at the time. Critic Jacob Levich describes Ghatak's body of work: "Each is a work of genuine distinction, marked by formal daring, intellectual vigour, and powerful emotional suasion".
