Chidananda das gupta was never judgmental in his films or writings: sougata roy

NEW DELHI: Prominent actor-director Aparna Sen has described her father Chidananda Das Gupta - a prominent filmmaker and critic who died late last month - as a person with ‘elegant thinking‘ and a sense of humour which comes out as satire in his writings and his films.

In a memorial meeting organized by the Network for Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) in the capital, she was joined by a large number of eminent personalities who paid their tributes to the eminent filmmaker who had proved to be a guiding light to many young critics.

Professor Saugata Roy - who made it clear that he was speaking as a family friend and not as Minister of State for Urban Development - said it was interesting that Das Gupta was never judgmental in his reviews or articles on cinema or the three books he wrote including one on Satyajit Ray.

Others who spoke included NETPAC President Aruna Vasudev, the veteran intellectual Ashis Nandy, artist Jatin Das, and his son-in-law and senior film analyst Monojit Lahiri.

Das Gupta had received the Lifetime Achievement award in 2004 at the Osians Cinefan Film Festival for Asian and Arab cinema founded by Ms Vasudev.

Ms Latika Padgaonkar of NETPAC and renowned Sunit Tandon read some passages from books by Das Gupta.

The meeting was followed by the screening of the 1994 Bangla feature ‘Amodini‘, produced and directed by Das Gupta, which had won him the best National film award in the regional language category for Bengali and won for his wife Supriya the best costume design award.

The well-known film historian, director and critic had passed away from acute broncho pneumonia and Parkinson‘s disease last Sunday. He was 89.