On the morning of February 7,1976, when Calcutta woke up to the news of Ritwik Ghatak’s untimely death the previous night, stunned citizens poured out onto the streets. Barely three months ago, the auteur had turned 50. When the funeral procession started from the Presidency General Hospital in the afternoon, thousands singing Ghatak’s favourite songs, trailed the vehicle that carried his body to the burning ghat in Keoratala. In an essay titled The Genius that was Ritwik Ghatak, the late theatre artiste Safdar Hashmi recorded the outpouring of grief in what he called “a unique funeral of a unique man”. Thirty-seven years later and 60 years since he made his first movie Nagarik (1952),Ghatak remains one of the most underplayed cinematic legends of India. He was a flawed genius — erratic, eccentric, and impulsive to the point of being self-destructive. ” Ghatak was an anarchist. Yet, he remains the most authentic voice in Indian cinema. Despite his lack of formal grammar in moviemaking, his works remain highly relevant today,” says Nabarun Bhattacharya,Sahitya Akademi award-winning Bengali …