A River Called Titas (1973)
A Review of A River Called Titas / তিতাস একটি নদীর নাম (1973), directed by Ritwik Ghatak
As soon as I got my subscription to Criterion, there was something specific I was looking for as I signed up. I wanted to know what Bangla-language films they had to offer, especially since Netflix obviously had a lack of the major Bengali directors of the 1950s-1970s.
And while Criterion also didn’t have as many Bengali movies as I had wished for initially, I instead found joy in the movies of Ray and eventually stumbled upon this movie in the Bangladeshi filtered section.
This movie was freshly made after Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan in 1973. This film, along with other Bengali films at the time by Ray and another major director, marked the beginning of hyperlink films.
This is a distinct narrative style interconnecting the stories of many individuals at once, which is now seen in modern films like City of God (2002) and The French Dispatch (2021). So this movie really was a pioneer during its time, and it’s also really beautiful to watch.
Whoo! I’ve said a lot, so let’s begin this review.
Content
The River Titas is a river that flows through India and Bangladesh into the Bay of Bengal. It is the main setting of our film, as we focu in on a fishing village that lives on the river, one that is still quite traditional.
It’s an epic tale about a disappearing way of life, even in the 1970s, and is based off of an autobiography that was published in the 1950s. A fisherman named Kishore manages to accidentally marry a girl in a neighboring village, but literally right after they get married, in the night she’s kidnapped.
The boy goes mad, while his wife jumps off the boat and loses her memory. We then jump ten years in the future, where the woman now has a son and is looking for the village that her husband lived in—literally the only thing she can remember.
This is a very long, sweeping melodrama, and at times it can seem unbearable. The events depicted in it feel extremely constructed, especially considering how the wife just randomly constructs amnesia.
I’m not well-versed in psychology, so perhaps something that traumatic can induce memory loss, but on the screen it feels very sudden and very interesting that she literally only remembers the name of the village that her husband is from. Then because they slept together on their wedding night, because they managed to accidentally get married and don’t know each other at all, she is pregnant and has a son.
The context is what makes this film extra special to me. The area around this river is one of the poorest in the world, especially in South Asia, and a lot of what happened in this film merely was reality for the people who lived there.
Women are not treated as something to be adored and worshipped, they are seen as burdens and as someone to potentially abduct. There are no sunshine and rainbows in this film because very often there isn’t any of that in poor areas. There’s people trying to capitalize off of the poverty, those evil capitalists trying to make a quick buck off of everything.
Narrative and character itself also plays an interesting role in the tide of the river’s story. We focus on one character telling the story for a certain chunk of time, but then we transition to another character. I imagine at the time people were absolutely confused at this kind of narrative filmmaking because even today it’s not that popular.
People tend to like sticking to one protagonist because it’s also a lot easier to write a story like this, since you don’t have to focus on the background characters as much. But when you fade the story from what seems to be a main character to what was previously a minor background character, you have to make sure everyone all-around has some stellar writing for their character.
The merits of this film lie in the strength of the filmmaking techniques. While some may not find the style of narrative palatable for their tastes, the actual blocking and visuals in the scenes are stunning. Shot in black-and-white, it strips the world of color, forcing you to see the world in a way that has a particular kind of beauty.
Also, as someone just starting to study Bengali culture and history, as well as the language, it can be a bit confusing if you’re not familiar with the region in context.
I’m not sure how you can really stumble across this film without, say, a Criterion account, and no interest in Bangla cinema or culture, but I recommend reading up on the customs and the area before or after watching this film. Trust me, it’ll benefit you more than you think. This was a disappearing way of life, captured beautifully on camera.
Overall Thoughts
As this Criterion article writer wrote, the director “was a poet of rupture.” He utilizes the traditional Indian characters in cinema and storytelling in order to return us back to the roots of story in the subcontinent. And I truly that’s how we can describe this film as well: the poetry of rupture.
Of a time long gone, where we often have nostalgia for, but is actually quite brutal. It’s a stunning film, but it can drag its feet at times and can have your eyebrows raising in disbelief at what happens. I think it’s genuinely worth sitting through, even if it can be a tad too melodramatic at times.
Trust me, it’s worth it if you’re even vaguely interested in the premise or the history behind the work. If not, you might find this a bit painful to sit through.
