Unsung auteurs of Bollywood

It’s an eternal mystery. So many stalwart directors who contributed immeasurably to Mumbai-produced cinema have neither inspired researched articles (forget books) nor any acknowledgement from the film industry associations which have lately rushed into the ever-ballooning phenomenon of award events.

Perhaps it’s too late now. The ignored ones are no longer alive — Satyen Bose, Asit Sen and Dulal Guha — and it’s too late to console their families with trophies or “tamrapatras”. These are just three eminently successful directors who have not received their deserved dues. Chances are that they never will.
There’s an endless number of unsung auteurs actually. Like Rajkumar Santoshi’s father P.L. Santoshi who directed the imperishable Barsaat Ki Raat (1960). Or S.U. Sunny who helmed the Dilip Kumar’s swashbuckler Kohinoor (1960). I bring up Bose, Sen and Guha — because like Bimal Roy and Hrishikesh Mukherjee — the three came from Bengal, with a certain aesthetic sensibility and social commitment. They were successful in various degrees, trained their sights on sensible-cum-commercially viable cinema. But their hits are associated more with the films’ leading actors and production banners. In an era — 1950s-1970s — when publicity was low-key, directors had to be either exceedingly flamboyant or mega-studio owners, or they were barely chronicled. Ipso facto, the mild-mannered ones are barely remembered.
It’s not just about the awareness of film history among today’s 20-somethings. The oueuvres of the three directors aren’t known, broadly, by any generation. Of them Satyen Bose, who passed away at the age of 77 in 1993, was the most prolific one and also the most versatile. Take three of his most successful works: Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi (1958), Dosti (1964) and Jeevan Mrityu (1970) — a wacky comedy, a tear-jerker about physically challenged friends, and a revenge caper with shades of Count of Monte Cristo respectively. Consistently, Bose constructed strong narratives which followed the classic tradition of an opening reel introducing all the principal characters, a middle with a blizzard of contentious situations, and a finale which sprayed happiness and sunshine.
Bose empathised with students coping with a regimented curriculum and dire poverty. Jagriti (1955) contained one of the most harrowingly moving sequences of a student pleading with his penury-stricken mother to escape to a world of dreams. Chalo chale maa sapno ke gaon mein… (Mother let’s escape to a world of dreams) the boy sang before his helpless mother. Adept at activating the viewer’s tear ducts, Bose’s Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi catches him in a far-out mood, handling the antics of the Ganguly brothers: Ashok, Kishore and Anoop Kumar. The film, though, is identified essentially with the brothers, Madhubala and its animated pre-credit titles.
Top actors of the time seemed to be partial to all the three directors. Bose fetched Nargis Dutt her National Award for portraying a schizophrenic personality in Raat Aur Din (1967). And Asit Sen, who died at the age of 79 in 2001, showcased Suchitra Sen, in the double role of a courtesan and her daughter in Mamta (1965), somewhat patterned on the Lana Turner weepie Madame X. Sen’s calling card was technical fluidity, knife-sharp editing and soft-glow colour cinematography, especially in Mamta, Annadata (1972) and Safar (1970). The black-and-white Khamoshi (1969), a commercial downer, is albeit today acknowledged ahead of its time, featuring Waheeda Rehman as an emotionally conflicted nurse. The then topical issue of the underprivileged turning into dacoits was tackled by him in Anokha Daan (1972).
Stories abound that Asit Sen, disillusioned with the Bollywood style of functioning — depending upon optimum profit and moody stars — chose to retreat into the shadows. Dulal Guha’s, too, was a premature career end. He died in 2001 at the age of 72, his last film Sagar Sangam (1988) virtually eclipsing his career. And to think that Guha had been a trade favourite, always confecting sprightly entertainment out of stories carroming between the contrasts of rural and urban life, as evidenced in the robust Dharti Kahe Pukar Ke (1969), Dushman (1971) and Dost (1974). He created the Jat pagla yamla deewana image for Dharmendra with Pratiggya (1975), which was recently repackaged. And Amitabh Bachchan featured in one of his darkest roles in Guha’s Do Anjaane (1976), which has been a bestseller on the DVD circuit.
A few articles like this one, or sporadic mentions in film books, are insufficient tribute to the three forgotten directors. Rather the film industry — be it directors, producers or actors — need to salute the work of Satyen Bose, Asit Sen and Dulal Guha. Then there would be a semblance of justice. But does anyone care?

The writer is a journalist, film critic and film director