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Journalism of Courage
As I walk down the long, pillared corridors of Ballabh House, I can feel Chhoti Bahu of Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam track me intently with her kohl-lined eyes from behind the shutters of the green Venetian windows upstairs. Can I also hear her sultry voice call out to Bhootnath, asking him to get some Mohini sindoor from the factory? I feel a shiver run down my spine as a voice shouts 8216;Cut,8217; breaking my trance.
I look up at the terrace balustrade to find Kumudini step out of Tagore8217;s Jogajog, defining a small dot against the canvas of a palm-covered skyline. My heart leaps, the red dot morphs into a smiling face8212;it8217;s not Kumudini but actress Monami Ghosh, playing out the last scene in Gul Bahar Singh8217;s Jogajog.
In a small village in West Bengal, the two beautiful homes where Guru Dutt filmed Sahib8230; continue to be favourites with film-makers.
8216;8216;Guru Dutt did the entire location shooting of his Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam at the Ballabh and the Gayen houses for three long months,8217;8217; says 78-year-old Bulu Rani Ballabh, the grand-daughter-in-law of the builder of Ballabh House, Shyama Charan Ballabh.
Three zamindari families in Dhannokudiya village in Boshirhat, 24 Parganas North8212;the Ballabhs, the Gayens and the Shaus8212;have maintained the upkeep of these mansions. And the Ballabh and Gayen houses have been given for shooting films since the silent era. 8216;8216;The Shaus were a bit conservative and never gave their house for shoots,8217;8217; says Bulu Rani Ballabh, who still opens up her doors to producers and directors without charging a single paisa.
The paintings and oil portraits of ancestors lining the walls of the long corridors, a cane easy chair in one corner, detailed architecture, plaster peeling off at places to reveal an earlier wash of paint but not the brickwork, and a chandelier hanging from the high, boarded ceiling of the room used as the makeshift make-up room, hark back to the period in Bengal when zamindars had not yet declined because of a life of self-indulgence.
These houses, at least, have managed upkeep. 8216;8216;We still perform every festival and religious ritual in our village house and these are like family reunions,8217;8217; says Bulu Rani. 8216;8216;Maintenance is getting difficult. My husband and the other descendants, as well as the Gayen family, are struggling to run the houses.8217;8217;
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8226; The mansion was built by landowner Shyama Charan Ballabh. Shyambazar, in north Kolkata, is named after him. |
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And though many films such as Mahasweta, Indira, Anustup Chhanda, Surjoapa, Abichar, Karunamoyee, Mandira and Bengali Nights have used the mansions as a backdrop for their films, none has been able to capture and freeze in time the essence, the aroma, the colours and the sounds, the way Dutt8217;s Sahib8230; did.
The latest attempt to recapture the magic of an era is being made by Singh, who has shot a major part of the footage of his telefilm Jogajog on location in these two homes.
8216;8216;I am making a period piece, which is expensive, and having to make it for the small screen makes it more difficult. Jogajog, penned by Tagore in 1929, but left unfinished, is a story that spans three generations of conflict between two feudal families whose social and economic destinies take frequent somersaults and trap a young girl Kumudini by turning her into a scapegoat in the feud,8217;8217; he says. 8216;8216;When someone suggested this place, I at once felt this is where my film ought to be shot.8217;8217;
