The Citizen

+ intro by Ashvin Devasundaram, Queen Mary University of London

Nagarik

Ritwik Ghatak’s film explores ideas of lost home and hope in post-Partition Kolkata.

  • Director

    Ritwik Ghatak

  • With

    Satindra Bhattacharya, Prabhadevi, Sova Sen, Ketaki Devi

  • India 1952. 123min

  • Digital 4K (restoration)

  • English subtitles

This crowdfunded film, released posthumously in 1977, could have marked the beginning of the Indian New Wave. The story of a displaced family taking shelter in a rental house resembling a claustrophobic well, The Citizen heralds Ghatak’s cinematic universe, structured around the themes of dislocation and the lost ‘home’, and underpinned by resounding optimism.

See other screenings of The Citizen.