The Partition Trilogy

The Cloud-Capped Star

+ intro by Manishita Dass, author of BFI Film Classic: The Cloud-Capped Star

Meghe Dhaka Tara

A cinematic masterpiece that portrays sacrifice and Partition’s enduring trauma.

  • Director

    Ritwik Ghatak

  • With

    Supriya Choudhury, Anil Chatterjee, Bijon Bhattacharya, Geeta De

  • India 1960. 127min. Total running time 137min

  • Digital

  • Certificate

    PG

  • English subtitles

The only commercially successful film during Ghatak’s lifetime depicts the rupture of Partition through a refugee family. Developing the ‘Great Mother’ archetype, Ghatak politicises melodrama with radical sound and image. Personal suffering transforms into a haunting expression of collective trauma and enduring social injustice that refuses to fade from memory.

+ Civil Defence

Nagarik Sanrakshan

India 1965. Director Ritwik Ghatak. 10min. Digital. With English subtitles

Made during India-Pakistan War, Ghatak’s short was created to offer protection guidance during an air strike.

We are delighted to present the new 4K restoration of the film, carried out by the NFDC-NFAI.

Courtesy of Film and Television Institute of India.

Film and Television Institute of India

See other screenings of The Cloud-Capped Star.