Ritwik Ghatak

The Cloud-Capped Star

The Cloud-Capped Star

Directed by the visionary Bengali filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak, The Cloud-Capped Star tells the story of a family who have been uprooted by the Partition of India and come to depend on their eldest daughter, the self-sacrificing Neeta (Supriya Choudhury). She watches helplessly as her own hopes and desires are pushed aside time and again by those of her siblings and parents, until all her chances for happiness evaporate, leaving her crushed and ailing. Experimenting with off-balance compositions, discontinuous editing, and a densely layered soundtrack, Ghatak devised an intellectually ambitious and emotionally devastating new shape for the melodrama, lamenting the tragedies of Indian history and the inequities of traditional gender roles while blazing a formal trail for the generations of Indian filmmakers who have followed him.


The Cloud-Capped Star was restored in partnership with The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project and the Cineteca di Bologna, from elements preserved by the National Film Archive of India.

Film Info

  • India
  • 1960
  • 127 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 1.37:1
  • Bengali
  • Spine #993

Special Features

  • New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • New conversation between filmmakers Saeed Akhtar Mirza and Kumar Shahani
  • Stills gallery featuring rare photographs related to director Ritwik Ghatak’s life and work, curated by writer and photographer Nabarupa Bhattacharjee
  • New English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: An essay by film scholar Ira Bhaskar

New cover by F. Ron Miller

Purchase Options

Special Features

  • New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • New conversation between filmmakers Saeed Akhtar Mirza and Kumar Shahani
  • Stills gallery featuring rare photographs related to director Ritwik Ghatak’s life and work, curated by writer and photographer Nabarupa Bhattacharjee
  • New English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: An essay by film scholar Ira Bhaskar

New cover by F. Ron Miller

The Cloud-Capped Star
Cast
Supriya Choudhury
Neeta
Anil Chatterjee
Shankar
Bijon Bhattacharya
The father
Gita Dey
The mother
Gita Ghatak
Geeta
Dwiju Bhawal
Montu
Niranjan Ray
Sanat
Credits
Director
Ritwik Ghatak
Written by
Ritwik Ghatak
Produced by
Ritwik Ghatak
Story by
Shaktipada Rajguru
Director of photography
Dinen Gupta
Editor
Ramesh Joshi
Art director
Ravi Chatterjee
Musical direction
Jyotirindra Moitra
“On That Night” written and composed by
Rabindranath Tagore

Current

Ritwik Ghatak’s Pursuit of Truth Beyond Realism
Ritwik Ghatak’s Pursuit of Truth Beyond Realism

Acclaimed Indian filmmakers Saeed Akhtar Mirza and Kumar Shahani discuss how the Bengali master mixed expressionism and naturalism in his devastating domestic tragedy The Cloud-Capped Star.

The Cloud-Capped Star: A Cry for Life
The Cloud-Capped Star: A Cry for Life

In this landmark melodrama, director Ritwik Ghatak channeled his grief over the destruction of his beloved homeland, Bengal, in the wake of the Partition of India.

By Ira Bhaskar

An Anguish at Arm’s Length: Supriya Choudhury in The Cloud-Capped Star

Performances

An Anguish at Arm’s Length: Supriya Choudhury in The Cloud-Capped Star

The legendary Bengali actor worked within and against conventions of melodrama to embody the pain of a woman destroyed by her own selflessness.

By Devika Girish