Ritvik Ghatak is a famous Bengali film director of the 20th century. A flamboyant artist who bursts into flames like a meteor. He was a film crazy person. Hrithik used to make movies to connect with people; To get your message across to people. Never bowed down to fame or awards. Hrithik is still a wonder to film buffs with only eight full-length films to his credit. Filmmaker Nandit was born on November 4, 1925 in Miyapara, Rajshahi, Bangladesh.
During his childhood, he was in Kolkata with his grandfather Manish Ghatak. He was studying at Ballygunge Rashtriya High School in South Kolkata. Later he returned to Rajshahi city during World War II. Spent a part of his childhood, adolescence and youth in his ancestral home in Rajshahi city. Mahasweta Devi, the famous fiction writer of the subcontinent, also lived in this house for some time. Ritvik Ghatak attended Rajshahi Collegiate School and Rajshahi College. After the partition of India in 1947, his family moved to Calcutta. Among Bengali film directors he is comparable to Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen. As he was acclaimed for his heterogenous filmmaking; He also played a controversial role. His name is widely mentioned in the history of Bengali films. Received BA degree from Krishnanath College, Baharampur in 1948. In 1950, he left the University of Calcutta without passing the MA course in English. His father Suresh Chandra Ghatak was a District Magistrate and wrote poetry and plays. His elder brother Manish Ghatak, a famous and exceptional writer of the time, was a professor of English and a social worker. Manish Ghatak was involved in IPTA theater movement and Tevaga movement. His daughter is famous writer and social activist Mahasweta Devi. Ritvik Ghatak’s wife Surma Ghatak was a school teacher.
Ritvik Ghatak wrote his first play Kalo Sayor in 1948. In the same year, he participated in a revival drama called Navanna. In 1951, he joined the Indian Census Association. During this time he wrote, directed and acted in plays and translated the works of Bertolt Brecht and Nikolai Gogol into Bengali. Among his famous films are Megh dhaka Tara, Komal Gandhara and Suvarnarekha. These three films are identified as a trilogy. In addition, he produced a short documentary in July 1971; whose name is Durbar Gati Padma. There, he presented the picture of the genocide committed by the Pakistani rulers in Bangladesh by combining various facts, events and symbols told in the words of a freedom fighter. Ritvik Ghatak lived in Pune for a short time in 1965. During this time he joined the Film and Television Institute of India as a Visiting Professor and later became the Vice Principal. Titus A Name of a River movie was released in 1973. The Government of India awarded him the Padma Shri in Arts. He died on February 6, 1976 in Kolkata.
