The illusion of cinema, its mellow, and melodrama
- Independent Ink
- Dec 9, 2025
- 2 min read
On his 100th birth anniversary, a tribute to legend Ritwik Ghatak and young, award-winning filmmaker Payal Kapadia whose bridges of realism, surrealism and illusion are building a new world.
By Raju Mansukhani
Shades of
black-white-and-gray
of light shining
through
illuminating
revealing recesses
The illusion of cinema
Its mellow, and
melodrama
with clashes
of people and dogmas
Ritwik born a Ghatak
a hundred years ago
living through
depths of trauma
reaching
with every movement
an unending cyclorama
With Ritwik
the famous Ghatak
we saw the light
breaking through
feature films
documentaries
those sharp edges
monochromatic shades
shredded at the core
gut-wrenching
daunting taunting
creativity
subsuming the light
Ritwik the Ghatak found
himself drowned
in tales of rivers and
ordinary-folk divided
hungry and distressed
homeless
rudderless
left with broken boats
and shattered homes
Ritwik was charred
burnt as he discovered
himself in the blinding
searing light
When Payal born a Kapadia
wrapped
buried herself
in Ghatak's illusions
and delusions
she imagined
re-discovered
found herself
trapping the light
its colours and
textures bland
and blue
The pathos of realism
and the cinematic
ethos of framing
fleeting moments
making the real
seem surreal and magical
All of Payal Kapadia could imagine
the universal urbania
the blues of survival and
homogeneity
the blues of a megapolis
surging crowds and
waves of religiosity
the infinity of
a sea
its golden shore
the complexity of
love and its desperate
passion
the simplicity of
lives lived and lost
With bits and pieces
like a magpie building
its nest
Payal created recreated
de-created the Ghatak
subsumed by the light
All of Payal Kapadia
could imagine the light
its ambit universal
the stage temporal
the actors metaphorical
only the light was real
the cord umbilical
joining Ritwik the Ghatak
and Payal the Kapadia
for the legacies
to live on…
Raju Mansukhani is a researcher-writer on history and heritage
issues; contributing columns and features in leading Indian and foreign newspapers, portals)