A River Called Titas (1973)

A 1973 Bangladeshi film it describes the life of the fishermen on the bank of the Titas River in Brahmanbaria, Bangladesh.

Director:

Ritwik Ghatak

Writers:

Advaita Malla Burman (story) (as Advaita Mulya Barman), Ritwik Ghatak (script)

Stars:

Rosy Samad, Farid Ali, Fakrul Hasan Boiragi

Cast

Credited cast:
Farid Ali
Fakrul Hasan Boiragi	...	Nibaran
Narayan Chakraborty	...	Moral
Banani Choudhury	...	Moral ginni
Chetana Das
Ritwik Ghatak	...	Tilakchand
Abul Hayat	...	Thakur
Shafikul Islam	...	Ananta
Sirajul Islam	...	Magan Sardar
Abul Khair	...	Basanti's Father
Khalil	...	Sadar Miah
Prabir Mitra	...	Kishore
Golam Mustafa	...	Ramprasad / Kader Miah
Golam Rabbani
Sufia Rustam	...	Udaytara

Storyline

A fisherman, Kishore, marries Basanti when he visits a nearby village. After their wedding night (during which the couple is almost too shy to speak), she is kidnapped on the river. When she is found, she has amnesia; although Basanti does not remember her new husband's name or what he looks like, she remembers the name of his village. Ten years pass before she attempts to find him with their son, who sees his mother as a goddess. Some residents of Kishore's village refuse to share food with Basanti and her son because of the ever-present threat of starvation.

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Plot Keywords:

river | based on novel | 

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Genres:

Drama | Family

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

India Bangladesh

Language:

Bengali

Release Date:

27 July 1973 (Bangladesh)

Also Known As:

A River Called Titas

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

159 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White (35 mm version) Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Alongside Satyajit Ray's Kanchenjungha (1962) and Mrinal Sen's Calcutta 71 (1972), Titash Ekti Nadir Naam is one of the earliest films to resemble hyperlink cinema, featuring multiple characters in a collection of interconnected stories, predating Robert Altman's Nashville (1975).

User Reviews

Instructive how not to make films

Again an uneatable work by Ghatak.At least for the Westerner, who does not have much of a clue about Hindouistic mythology and the life style of the Bengali people. Confusing. Contains scenes where someone tells short stories. Deterrent for good film making. Hitchcock would have not liked.

I tried to remember pieces of seeming senseless conversation parts. I could for one: "I knew a man who could recite the whole Mahabharata ..." Would you embrace and be impressed by a Western film wherein you hear someone stating: "I know a man who knows the whole Bible by heart"?

These may be cultural relativity. But filmmaking should not be dependent so much on it, especially its technical aspects. I have hardly ever seen a worse photography, a worse soundtrack. When the scenery consists of a talking group of people, we see them occupying the lower third of the frame, the lower limb cut off. About half of the frame is filled by the sky! No sort of surrealism or experimentation or exxageration.

The sound in the mostly open air, natural village background sounds shouting like if recorded in a narrow hall.