Book Review : A directory of Bengali Cinema

Some rare, some unknown and most unseen visuals make up 'A Directory of Bengali Cinema', a first-of-its-kind book that maps Tollywood's journey from the silent era to the present, bringing chronological order to the glorious, eventful and chaotic history of Bengal's film industry. Compiled by Kazi Anirban and Parimal Ray and written by Ankan Kazi, it is essentially a collection of booklet covers of over 1650 Bengali films from Rustomji Dhotiwala's 'Satyavadi Raja Harishchandra' (1917) to Aparna Sen's 'Iti Mrinalini' (2011) with a small section devoted to other fascinating aspects like the film-magazine adverts.

The book is visual rich and one of its kind with interesting anecdotes including rare films by Uttam kumar, Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak. The book provides a ringside view of the evolution of Calcutta, its cinema and culture, connecting Hiralal Sen to Anjan Dutt, Satyajit Ray to Rituparno Ghosh and Ritwik Ghatak to Aparna Sen. It also joins the dots between various defining eras - bio-scope to multiplex.

This book can be considered as a gold mine of Bengali cinema and any person interested in the field is bound to get hooked on to it. It is very well compiled and will prove to be very important for all individuals who want to do any kind of research on the Bengali Cinema. The books aims to bring the past in the lime light and is very useful for students and researchers interested in film making. It is such unique directory that it has garnered the attention of huge number of people interested in knowing about the journey of Bengali cinema since its inception.

Flipping through the book is like taking a walk down the memory lane which conjures up nostalgia and powerful images. It provides emotive account of the journey of Bengali cinema. It is indeed a work of lifetime and phenomenal asset for cinema lovers and students.