Synopsis
An in-depth look at the lives and struggles of the community of fishermen living by the river Titash.
A River Called Titas
1973 ‘তিতাস একটি নদীর নাম’ Directed by Ritwik Ghatak
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Alternative Titles
Titash Ekti Nodir Naam, Titas Ekti Nodir Naam, La Rivière Titash
Popular reviews
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True, this is a meandering multigenerational melodrama, but actually — it's pretty good! Once I got used to the face-aerobics and accepted that in this world frowns, yawns, and expressions in general are supercharged versions of their real-life equivalents; once I relaxed and rolled with the absurd plot contrivances as I would with a Dickens novel, I got into the saga of these poor Bengali fisherfolk. It helps that there's an intermission at the 80-minute mark, so you can go and spend some drunk time with something colorful and bewitching like The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and watch the rest of Titas (pronounced "Tee-TASH") the next day.
Events are set in motion when a fishing trip goes wrong and…
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As powerful a metaphor as can be found in film, the titular river is the source of life, a symbol of continuity and livelihood for the people in this film. The film tells the tale of traditions, their defiance, their reliance, and their changing, as well as the interconnected communities that the river feeds. It's also, like most stories, a bit about love, but unlike the previously lamented tacked on love stories, these are naturally fitting tales--the marriage traditions, courtship traditions, and religious traditions central to these communities derive from and dictate the relationships that are the basis of the communities.
It's hard to talk about this film without discussing its ending, and rather than try or spoiler-lock this, I'm just going to say that it really drives home the central metaphor. It comes close to being too much, but I think it works because it's a poetic image all on its own.
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☆"Will you ever understand how deep my river of pain is?"☆
Martin Scorsese's "World Cinema Project" collection -- film #3 of 18
Yesterday I watched what many claim was the first "neorealist" film, Fred Zinnemann's and Emilio Gómez Muriel's Redes. Tonight takes me to one of the earliest "hyperlink" films -- the interconnected narrative style popularized by Robert Altman and later tweaked by Paul Thomas Anderson and Alejandro González Iñárritu -- Ritwik Ghatak's underseen Bengali gem Titas Ekti Nadir Naam ["A River Called Titas"]. This patient story of Bangladeshi fishermen, their families, and the ties that bind a community is also unquestionably beautiful in its meditative portrait of a generation of triumphs and tragedies.
Scorsese calls the film "visually and…
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وكأن جميع ما صنعه ريتويك غاتاك كان جزءً لا يتجزأ من نهر تيتاس
ينتج العواطف ويحيكها من على ظهر القرية الممتدة على طول النهر الذي كان بمثابة أيدٍ خفية تحمل في أعماقها الأرواح الضائعة والمكسوة بالذكريات لو كنت سأتحدث عن ما شاهدته سأكون مبتذلة في روايتهِ ، أود فقط صيد الأسماك برفقة نهر تيتاس أريد أن أحمل معه جزءً مما يثقله سيكون طفلًا لي أسبحُ بخفتهِ بسلمهِ و وفرته
أشعر ببعض الحنين بعد إنتهائي وكأنه قد جفّ وانا لازلت ارتوي -
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Might very well be Ritwik Ghatak's best film from what I've seen thus far; there's never a moment that feels wasted but in how he depicts an economic struggle revolving around the area, it's a film that always remains ever so beautiful. But the way in which Ghatak establishes the titular river as a metaphor for how the lives for these people will turn out within the passing of time, A River Called Titas only ever turns for the more heartbreaking.
I can already imagine that Ghatak might be a favourite within due time - and once I see more of his works. Here's to hoping that more will be readily available.
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It could be a tad on the nose at times, and it's length doesn't do it any favors with stretches of truly slow material. On the other hand Titas feels like such a precursor to films like Nashville and Magnolia that it's impossible to ignore. The film focuses on several lives along the River Titas and spans some ten years. Like those two aforementioned films, who use a concert and a game show as their respective through lines. A River Called Titas is, as you probably guessed, all brought together by the titular river. As the lives of the characters degrade, so to does the river Titas, and while this metaphor can get a little carried away at times, it…
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“I miss my daughter. She left yesterday. My last dear one. She was all I had. My only daughter. That’s the way it happens. It all comes and then disappears again. There’s a spark of life. And suddenly it’s not there. It all becomes untraceable. You were a child yesterday. Today you’re a woman. This ever-flowing river Titas may become bone dry tomorrow. It may not even have the last drop without which our soul cannot depart. Yet these flocks of sails move on and on and on…”
Taken at face value, this film comes across as a long melodrama, and a pretty damn contrived one at that. A couple of young men go out fishing with their uncle, and…
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Metaphysical melodrama. Pound for pound some of the most beautiful, aesthetically sophisticated cinema there is. Wow, Ghatak.
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Filled with bickering, apathy and empathy, an abduction, a suicide, murder, scheming sorrow, starvation and stagnation — Bengali auteur Ritwik Ghatak is able to create a most powerful and primitive metaphor. River as an image of life itself. A life of people, of a community, of civilization. An image of all the courtship traditions, ritualistic traditions and religious traditions of these communities that is itself fed by and shaped by the titular river.
by Alana Putra
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78/100
"Of Mothers n Sacrifices"
Believed to be one of the pioneering work in 'hyperlink cinema', 'A river called Titas' is a collection of interconnected melodramas which features several strong themes like an abduction, a murder, suicide, descent into insanity etc. Ghatak's supremely composed frames are haunting n clearly disturbing considering the period it was made.The storytelling here is segmented and leans heavily on symbolism, but the acting is distractingly poor. Another flaw that I couldn't overlook was the sound, most of the scenes happen in open air, but it felt like as if itsrecorded in a narrow hall.
But nitpicking aside, what makes this film so memorable is Ghatak’s lyrical feeling for landscapes and the ordinary villagers Who's cynicism, anguish n desperation seems more important to Ghatak than any other Filmmakers till now.
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البطولة المُطلقة من نصيب النهر تيتاس حيث كان له التأثير المباشر على حياة القاطنين على ضفافة من مأسي
تحفة أخرى من البنغالي ريتويك جاتاك من بعد “النجم المغطى بالغيوم“