West Bangal’s former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya breathed his last on August 8. As per his will, his body was donated to a government hospital for medical research on August 9. Dignitaries from different walks of life paid tribute to him before that. 

Filmmaker Goutam Ghose has been a friend of Buddhadeb Bhattacharya since the ’70s. When he was making the film Padma Nadir Majhi, Buddhadeb was the Minister of Culture and Information in West Bengal. He played a big role in making the film and encouraged Goutam. “He told me, ‘You must make the film. We will do whatever we can for that,’” he recalled. Buddhadeb resolved the copyright issue and arranged the permit, talking to the Bangladesh government, to shoot on river Padma. Then the film was made, jointly produced by India and Bangladesh. It did a good business and was critically praised. Goutam Ghosh won the national award. After the film got international recognition, how did Buddhadeb smile? Goutam said ‘I still remember that face’. 

Goutam said ‘When the film society was founded in Bengal, Buddhadeb made me the founder chairman. Buddhadeb and I went to Manikda’s place and made Nandan’s logo. Nandan was his weakness. We filmmakers needed a lab which was made at his initiative. However, that does not exist now. I was reading one of his articles on Jibanananda Das three days back. What wonderful writing! See the irony of destiny. We lost the cultured man.’ 

Nandan was the epicenter of Bengali cinema as well as a favorite space of Buddhadeb Bhattacharya. It was due to his mentorship that Nandan was built and directors like Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Tarun Majumder, and Goutam Ghosh could make many beautiful films that will stay as the living archives of Bengali cinema. 

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