Beautiful Tribute to Tapan Sinha at the 30th KIFF

Wikipedia defines a film poster as “a poster used to promote and advertise a film primarily to persuade paying customers into a theater to see it. Before the digital age, film posters were hand-painted by artists who has specialized in poster paintings but after digitalization of art, posters are executed digitally and though they lack the originality of hand-painted posters, the artists have a large leeway of experimenting with creativity of colours, lines, lettering and aesthetics.

Every year, at the Kolkata International Film Festival, a photographic and graphic tribute is paid to the memory of a remarkable filmmaker. This year, it was Tapan Sinha’s centenary so, the filmmaker was automatically the subject of a photographic tribute through a wonderful exhibition of photographs, graphic details and posters of all his films along with screenings of important scenes from some of his films running right through the festival. 

Little is ever mentioned about the archivist and collector who supplies the posters, the photographs and the written matter for such festivals. This year, it is Sounak Chacraverti who is squarely responsible for supplying the entire photographic and poster support for this year’s exhibition. 

He has earlier organized a photographic exhibition in the past which was very successful. Chacraverti is an experienced curator and organizer of art exhibitions across the nation for several years and his name is known among major artists in Kolkata.

Says Sounak about his interest in becoming an archivist, “Since childhood photographs drew my attention. I used to source film magazines (saving my little pocket money) without my Mother's knowledge and gorge on them. I was a film buff; especially films which were made in Bombay! After joining the field of arts (initially a publisher; then started my own gallery at Swabhumi in 2002) in 2000, I was a in a vantage position. A lot of avenues opened up. In 2007, I came across Sukumar Roy, personal photographer to Tapan Sinha. Sukumar Roy was a thorough gentleman. After realising that he had never exhibited his photographs [especially on Sinha], I immediately decided to present an exclusive exhibition. The next year, I.e. 2008, I curated an archival exhibition on Tapan Sinha entitled The World of Tapan Sinha in Kolkata. After this successful exhibition, I travelled to other cities, especially Pune, where it was showcased at the FTII.
In 2014, I got another opportunity to curate another seminal exhibition on Basu Chatterjee, the noted filmmaker.”

On milk white posters, one can read the biography of Tapan Sinha spread across the walls of the Nandan foyer on the ground floor just outside Nandan II, one who is not acquainted with Tapan Sinha’s works will come out educated about this modest, grounded, soft-spoken filmmaker, whatever is written cannot cover his entire filmography. 

The posters attached to this article, suffice to show the artistry of the poster-designers of his time and the archival decision of Chacraverti. Among these are Kabuliwalla, based on a Tagore short story featuring Chhobi BIswas and little Tinku Tagore in the lead roles. The slightly cubistic figures on the poster are quite clear and yet, artistic. Jhinder Bondi is based on a novel by Saradindu Bandopadhyay in which Uttam Kumar played a double role and Soumitra Chatterjee was the villain. The poster is relatively simple with a portrait of Uttam Kumar with the title of the film written in bold Bengali script. It is said to have been a super hit.

There are many other posters with detailed synopses of the films below the posters. It is put together very well. Among these are Haatey Bajaarey with Ashok Kumar and Vyjayantimala in the lead, Sagina Mahato done in both Hindi and Bengali versions featuring Dilip Kumar in his only Bangla film pitted opposite Saira Banu and Anil Chatterjee as the villain. Then there is a straight thriller starring Basanta Choudhury and Moonmoon Sen in Boidurjo Rahasya, Aatanka based on a newspaper report starring Satabdi Roy in the main lead, and then, Adalat O Ekti Meye with Tanuj in the main lead. Jotugriha poster is also there which this writer considers among Tapan Sinha’s best films.

M.F. Hussain began his long and illustrious career as a painter of film posters. Today, posters are designed through computer graphics and designed directly on computers with their sophisticated graphic programmes believed to give an edge to the film’s total design and message. Stars may or may not feature in posters these days. The total design is more important than faces of stars. 

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