Ritwik Ghatak’s ancestral house in Rajshahi razed a day after govt fell
Times of India | 15 August 2024
Kolkata: The ancestral house of legendary filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak in Bangladesh's Rajshahi district has been demolished, much to the dismay of cine lovers on both sides of the border.
Ghatak, who was born in Dhaka, spent his youth in Rajshahi, where his father was the district magistrate. His home at Mianpara was a veritable pilgrimage destination for countless admirers in India and Bangladesh.The front portion of the property housed the Rajshahi Homoeopathic Medical College, while the rear comprised the rooms that were originally occupied by Ghatak and his family. Additionally, a modest hand pump on the grounds served as a poignant memory of the bygone days.
The house was reportedly demolished on August 6, the day after former PM Hasina fled the country and violence and arson engulfed the nation.
In 2017, the Ritwik Ghatak Film Society in Rajshahi had proposed that the building be declared a heritage site and converted into a Ritwik Centre, where films could be screened. "Despite engaging with the govt, the initiative failed to materialise. Everything has now been mercilessly razed to the ground. On Wednesday, we took up the issue with the district commissioner and he has constituted a committee to identify the culprits within seven days," said Mahmud Hossain Masud, general secretary of the film society. Film scholar Sanjay Mukhopadhay, who visited the house in 2002, said it occupied five bighas of land. "Rabindranath Tagore had visited this house as did sarod maestros Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and Ustad Bahadur Khan. Abroad such houses are tourist destinations because of their heritage value. We have lost a slice of history."
Premendra Mazumder, vice-president of Federation of Film Societies of India and Asia-Pacific secretary of the International Federation of Film Societies, said half the property still stood in its original form when he visited the house in 2014 as part of the first India-Bangladesh Bengali Film Festival in Rajshahi. "It felt like a young Ritwik would come out of any room any moment. It immediately occurred to us that we should try to preserve the property as an international centre for film culture," Mazumder said.
In 2017, Mazumder again visited the property for a programme in which theatre and film personality Bratya Basu and Bangladeshi actor Jaya Ehsaan received the Ritwik Ghatak Honorary Award for their contribution to cinema and theatre.
Photos of the house being razed has left Mazumder "shocked". "I have heard that Ritwik Ghatak Film Society in Rajshahi is protesting against this destruction. We condemn this incident and appeal to the govt to restore and protect it for posterity," he added.