Have You Seen Them?

“Since 2007,I have been trying to find these six films but these are either untraceable or their distributors have declared insolvency,” says Chacraverti,who intends on releasing the book by year-end.

The films include Sinha’s first work Ankush (1954),an adaptation of a Bengali short story called “Sainik”,which was distributed by Rana and Datta that reportedly declared insolvency in the late 1950s. The film was screened only for three days in Bengali theatres. Sinha’s first comedy,Tonsil (1956),which was adapted from another Bengali short story “Barjatri” and distributed by Prabha Pictures,too is reportedly missing. As is the 1958 feature Kala Mati in which Sinha cast his wife,Arundhati Devi,for the first time. One of Sinha’s more important works,Arohi (1964),is also untraceable. A film on adult education in India,it won the Silver Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival and a Silver Medal for the second best film and the Best Story Award in India. In the 1980s,Chayabani Distributors acquired a print from producer Asim Pal. “After we bought the rights to the film we received a print in a bad condition. So we scouted the open market to procure a 16 mm print and some beta tapes of the film. Using this we pieced together a VHS tape,which was not in good condition either,” says Saugata Nandi,of Chayabani that have also produced and distributed Sinha films such as Kabuliwala (1952) and Atithi (1965) which are available on DVD. “My father was very anguished by the news of his earlier works being untraceable. But it is alarming how the negatives and positives of some of his later films are not available. He made several futile attempts at locating their whereabouts,” says Sinha’s son Anindya,49. A professor of ecology at the National Institute of Advance Studies,Bangalore ,he is making attempts to acquire prints from private collectors.

The missing list also includes Ekhoni and Raja from the ’70s. “I believe these films were passed on to a third party by distributors before they disbanded. But there is no record of that tradeoff,” says Anindya,who is not too confident of getting hold of these films.