Directed by: Hemen Gupta Music: Salil Choudhury Lyrics: Prem Dhawan, Gulzar Starring: Balraj Sahni, Sonu, Sajjan, Usha Kiron, Asit Sen |
2 October 2024 was the legendary Bengali film director, Tapan Sinha’s birth centenary. Though not as well-known outside Bengal as his peers, Satyajit Ray or Mrinal Sen, Sinha holds a special place in the hearts and minds of Bengali cine aficionados. Back in March this year, Antara Nanda Mondal and Amitava Nag asked me if I would contribute a piece for the series on Tapan Sinha that they were curating for their literary magazine, Silhouette. I was more than happy to. I chose Sinha’s Kabuliwala, considered the seminal adaptation of Rabindranath’s short story of the same name. Since the story is so familiar to most people, Nag wanted me to do a rather more critical analysis of the film rather than a straightforward review. You can read that article here. [Fellow blogger Madhulika, over at Dustedoff, wrote an excellent essay that compared and contrasted Khaniker Atithi and Zindagi Zindagi, both directed by Tapan Sinha.]
Coincidentally, Tom Daniels, for whom I occasionally subtitle old Hindi films, sent me the Hindi version of Kabuliwala to clean up the subs and create additional ones. It seemed like fate.