Rituparno Ghosh, you are much missed

I still remember the morning when I heard of Rituparno Ghosh ’s sudden death. Had he lived, he would have been 59 on 31st August. But that was not the way his screenplay was written. Ritu was born to die, bit by bit. Like Meena Kumari in Pakeezah, one of his favourite characters from the movies.

Although, he was closest to Jaya Bachchan , with whom he did only one film, Sunglass, which never got released, Ritu’s favourite actress was Rekha . He was spellbound by her beauty and especially her makeup tricks. Although, Aparna Sen thinks Ritu wanted to look like her, I think Ritu wanted to look like Rekha. He died trying to surgically transform into a woman, lonely and loveless.

No one except those closest to Ritu know this: he was in a long-term relationship with a married Bengali superstar. Ritu often spoke to me about this  superstar’s lack of commitment “He is a coward and a hypocrite,” Ritu  would say angrily. “He is also a very clumsy lover,” Ritu would add playfully.

“He got upset very easily and wouldn’t speak for days, sometimes months, for something silly, like something I wrote or something I didn’t write. We had long heated arguments on cinema, which often ended on one or both of us banging the phone down. There were films he hated and I loved, like Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Saawariya , which he initially hated. But then, he came around.”

Ritu was never afraid to admit his mistake. I first met him in Kolkata when he was shooting a whodunit Shubho Mahurat with two temperamental Bengali actresses, Sharmila Tagore and Raakhee Gulzar, who had a history of differences. Ritu was tense. He was always nervous, anxious and stressed. Many feel it was his gender confusion that killed this brilliant filmmaker, considered  next only to Satyajit Ray in Bengali cinema. Ritu worked with Ray’s actors Soumitra Chatterjee and Sharmila Tagore , also more contemporary artistes like Prosenjit Chatterjee and Nandita Das.

Rituparno’s greatest failing as a professional artiste was his predisposition to offer the same role to a number of actors. His films, whether it was Utsab, Dahan , Unnishe April or The Last Lear (the bombastic theatrical thunder-flick with Amitabh  Bachchan) re-defined Bangla cinema. Working on water-tight budgets, Ritu owned the cinematic space like an astronaut in space.

But that was his professional triumph. At home, all alone, Ritu was a lost, frightened soul, often scared of the inner demons that attacked him when no one was looking. That’s the price you paid for your honesty. In a world where everybody hid in the closet, Ritu came out of the closet wearing women’s clothes. Ritu was very lonely after his parent’s death. He spoke to me often of ending his life. He  discussed his love life with me, spoke of his long-standing affair with a married Bengali matinee idol.

After Ritu lost his parents, he lost control of his feelings. He wanted to not just look and feel like a woman. He wanted  to be a woman. I hope he passed away peacefully, all the licks and lashes of life forgotten.

I remember how hurt Ritu was when a superstar Khan’s little son had asked him, ‘Should I call you Uncle or Aunty?’

That question haunted him every time he looked into the mirror.

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha.

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