Ritwik Ghatak

Ritwik Ghatak
Image of Ritwik Ghatak
Native name	ঋত্বিক কুমার ঘটক
Born	Ritwik Kumar Ghatak (1925-11-04)4 November 1925 Dacca, East Bengal, British India (now Dhaka, Bangladesh)
Died	6 February 1976(1976-02-06) (aged 50) Calcutta, West Bengal, India (now Kolkata)
Occupation	Filmmaker and writer
Nationality	Indian
Citizenship	Indian
Notable works	Nagarik, Ajantrik, Subarnarekha, Meghe Dhaka Tara, Titash Ekti Nadir Naam
Notable awards	Padma Shri National Film Award's Rajat Kamal Award Best Story for Jukti Takko Aar Gappo Best Director's Award from Bangladesh Cine Journalist's Association for Titash Ekti Nadir Naam
Spouse	Surama Ghatak
Children	Ritaban Ghatak (son) Samhita Ghatak (daughter) Suchismita Ghatak (daughter)
Relatives	Manish Ghatak (elder brother), Mahasweta Devi (niece), Ghatak Family Tree

Manish Ghatak (elder brother), Mahasweta Devi (niece),

Ritwik Ghatak (Bengali: ঋত্বিক কুমার ঘটক, Ritbik Kumar Ghôţôk,  listen ; 4 November 1925 – 6 February 1976) was a Bengali filmmaker and script writer. Along with prominent contemporary Bengali filmmakers Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen, his cinema is primarily remembered for its meticulous depiction of social reality. Although their roles were often adversarial, they were ardent admirers of each other's work and, in doing so, the three directors charted the independent trajectory of parallel cinema, as a counterpoint to the mainstream fare of Hindi cinema in India. Ghatak received many awards in his career, including National Film Award's Rajat Kamal Award for Best Story in 1974 for his Jukti Takko Aar Gappo and Best Director's Award from Bangladesh Cine Journalist's Association for Titash Ekti Nadir Naam. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri for Arts in 1970.

Ritwik Ghatak was born in Dhaka in East Bengal (now Bangladesh). Ghatak's father Suresh Chandra Ghatak was a district magistrate and a poet and playwright; his mother's name was Indubala Devi. He and his twin sister Prateeti, were the youngest of nine children. The other children were Manish, Sudhish, Tapati, Sampreeti, Brototi, Ashish Chandra and Lokesh Chandra. He and his family moved to Calcutta (now Kolkata) just before millions of other refugees from East Bengal began to flood into the city, fleeing the catastrophic Bengal famine of 1943 and the partition of Bengal in 1947. Identification with this tide of refugees was to define his practice, providing an over-riding metaphor for cultural dismemberment and exile that unified his subsequent creative work. The 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, which led to more refugees fleeing to India, was to have a similar impact on his work.