https://indianpedia.org/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=AjantrikAjantrik - Revision history2026-07-31T12:27:37ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.45.4https://indianpedia.org/index.php?title=Ajantrik&diff=85119&oldid=prev>The VnB at 12:29, 18 May 20212021-05-18T12:29:46Z<p></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{short description|1958 film}}<br />
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2019}}<br />
{{Use Indian English|date=October 2015}}<br />
{{Infobox film<br />
| name = Ajantrik<br />
| image = Ajantrik, 1958 film.jpg<br />
| caption =<br />
| director = [[Ritwik Ghatak]]<br />
| studio = L. B Films International<br />
| writer = [[Subodh Ghosh]] (short&nbsp;story)<br/>Ritwik Ghatak (story elaboration)<br />
| narrator =<br />
| starring = [[Kali Banerjee]]<br/>Shriman Deepak<br/>Kajal Gupta<br/>Keshto Mukherjee<br />
| music = [[Ali Akbar Khan]]<br />
| cinematography = Dinen Gupta<br />
| editing = Ramesh Joshi<br />
| distributor =<br />
| released = 23 May 1958<br />
| runtime = 104 min.<br />
| country = [[India]]<br />
| language = [[Bengali language|Bengali]]<br />
| budget =<br />
}}<br />
<br />
'''''Ajantrik''''' (known internationally as '''''The Unmechanical''''', '''''The Mechanical Man''''' or '''''The Pathetic Fallacy''''')<ref name="Holden">{{cite news|last=Holden|first=Stephen|title=A Film Series On a Director|work=The New York Times|page=5|date=27 September 1996|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/27/movies/a-film-series-on-a-director.html}}</ref> is a [[1958 in film|1958]] [[Cinema of India|Indian]] [[Cinema of West Bengal|Bengali film]] written and directed by revered [[Parallel Cinema|parallel]] filmmaker [[Ritwik Ghatak]].<ref name="The Mechanical Man (1958)">{{cite news|title=The Mechanical Man (1958)|url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/176073/The-Mechanical-Man/details|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130130113632/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/176073/The-Mechanical-Man/details|url-status=dead|archive-date=30 January 2013|department=Movies & TV Dept.|work=[[The New York Times]]|publisher=[[Baseline (database)|Baseline]] & [[All Movie Guide]]|accessdate=3 August 2012}}</ref> The film is adapted from a [[Bengali literature|Bengali short story]] of the same name written by [[Subodh Ghosh]].<br />
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A [[comedy-drama]] film, ''Ajantrik'' is one of the earliest Indian films to portray an inanimate object, in this case an [[automobile]], as a character in the story. It achieves this through the use of sounds recorded post-production to emphasize the car's bodily functions and movements.<ref name=Carrigy>{{Cite journal|first=Megan |last=Carrigy |title=Ritwik Ghatak |journal=[[Senses of Cinema]] |date=October 2003 |url=http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/03/ghatak.html |accessdate=3 May 2009 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090430123322/http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/03/ghatak.html |archivedate=30 April 2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref><br />
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The film was considered for a special entry in the [[Venice Film Festival]] in 1959.<ref name="Calaccitra, mānusha ebaṃ āro kichu">{{cite book|last=Ghaṭaka|first=R̥tvikakumāra|title=Calaccitra, mānusha ebaṃ āro kichu|year=2005|publisher=De'ja Pābaliśiṃ|location=Kalakātā|isbn=81-295-0397-2|pages=349|edition=1. De'ja saṃskaraṇa.}}</ref><br />
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==Plot==<br />
Bimal is a [[Taxicab|taxi-driver]] in a small provincial [[town]]. He lives alone. His taxi (an old 1920 [[Chevrolet]] [[decrepit car|jalopy]] which he named ''Jagaddal'') is his only companion and, although very battered, it is the apple of Bimal's eye. The film shows episodes from his life in the industrial wasteland, delivering people from one place to another.<ref name=Carrigy/><ref>{{cite book |title=One Hundred Indian Feature Films: An Annotated Filmography|last=Banerjee |first=Shampa|author2=Anil Srivastava |year=1988 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=0-8240-9483-2 |page=22 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zX4GY37rG8kC&pg=PA22}}</ref><br />
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Film critic [[Georges Sadoul]] shared his experience of watching the film in this way. He said, "What does 'Ajantrik' mean? I don't know and I believe no one in [[Venice Film Festival]] knew...I can't tell the whole story of the [[film]]...there was no subtitle for the film. But I saw the film spellbound till the very end". According to the noted [[Bengalis|Bengali]] poet and [[Germans|German]] scholar [[Alokeranjan Dasgupta]], "The merciless conflict of ethereal nature and mechanised civilization, through the love of taxi driver Bimal and his pathetic vehicle Jagaddal seems to be a unique gift of...[[modernism]]."<br />
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== Cast ==<br />
* [[Kali Banerjee]] as Bimal<br />
* [[Gangapada Basu]]<br />
* [[imdbname:0080362|Satindra Bhattacharya]]<br />
* [[Tulsi Chakraborty]] <br />
* [[Anil Chatterjee]]<br />
* Shriman Deepak<br />
* [[Kajal Gupta]] as Young woman<br />
* [[Gyanesh Mukherjee]] as Mechanic<br />
* [[Keshto Mukherjee]]<br />
* Sita Mukherjee as Bulaki<br />
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== See also ==<br />
* [[List of works of Ritwik Ghatak]]<br />
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==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
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==External links==<br />
*{{IMDb title|id=051343}}<br />
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{{Ritwik Ghatak}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Bengali-language films]]<br />
[[Category:1958 films]]<br />
[[Category:Films directed by Ritwik Ghatak]]<br />
[[Category:Films based on short fiction]]<br />
[[Category:Indian films]]<br />
[[Category:1950s Bengali-language films]]</div>>The VnB