Goutam Ghose

The violence and upheaval of Calcutta in the 1970s is focalized through a young man coming to the city to study.

Arijit and Nisha have reached a point in their relationship from where there is no turning back. Arijit is having an affair with his colleague, while Nisha has a special relationship with her film director mentor.

A hedonistic teenager in Mumbai is busted for dealing drugs and goes to his estranged sister for help, but complications land her in jail.

A father encourages his daughter to marry a dying man in order to inherit his wealth.

Set between 1945 and 1951 in the pre-Independence state of Hyderabad, the film tells the story of a young peasant, Ramiah, who rebels against the corrupt rule of the Nizam. Baring witness to the oppression and hardship faced daily by those around him, Ramiah leaves his village. However, after befriending a Marxist activist and participating in the Independence struggle, he eventually returns to wage guerilla warfare against the landlord class.

Subarna Sen, an Oxford University professor, travels to India after the death of his maternal uncle. He learns that his uncle's palace has a hidden treasure and decides to find it.

A serial killer terrorises the city of Kolkata and leaves behind verses of Bengali poetry. The police seek the help of a retired officer to unravel the case and find the perpetrator.

A documentary about HH the Dalai Lama.

The narrative in Parikrama travels through multiple spaces and times, through parallel experiences of its twin protagonists that criss-cross each other, though they come from worlds apart. Alessandro is an Italian writer-filmmaker making a film on Narmada Parikrama, an age-old pilgrimage along the holy river Narmada. In the course of his cinematic journey, Alessandro meets a village boy, Lala, who fled home to secure dignity and land for his displaced peasant family. Lala is almost the same age as his son Francesco, who lost his mother in the recent past. The narrative unfolds the story of two boys, one without his mother, the other without his motherland. Alessandro’s narrative takes a new turn as the river Narmada flows by.

Goutam Ghose's documentaries and feature films over the past five decades have explored the socio-economic, cultural, and political landscape of our nation. His early films captured the intensity of rural life of the subaltern people in various forms rich in anthropological diversity. Post-globalization, he started to focus on the decadence of the middle and upper classes and their servile submission to monstrous consumerism. During the making of documentaries on Bismillah Khan and Dalai Lama, Ghose's atheistic mindset evolved into comparative religion, which was reflected in the biopic "Moner Manush" on Lalan Fakir. "Moving Focus" is centered on Ghose's oeuvre, and presents the cerebral filmmaker in an insightful and thought-provoking way.

A documentary on life of Ustad Bismillah Khan by Goutam Ghose.

Four famous directors and old friends are reunited together by an unknown producer to make a film. They have to make four short story in this film with one common theme: Death.

The movie is about a poet and singer Lalon Fakir who belongs to a cult called baul and who believes and inculcates that the value of a human being is above the narrow belief of religions.

When a Dalit wins the elections for mayor in his small village in northeastern India, deadly rioting forces an impoverished couple to escape to Calcutta where they can hopefully find work. Instead, they end up sleeping on the streets until they have a chance at earning a little income -- a man has asked them to take his herd of pigs across a fast-moving river. The current is dangerous, and worse, the wife is pregnant and this would not be an easy task even if she were not. Undaunted and desperate, the couple accept the job and enter the river to face their destiny.

Johnny, a musician, joins Hameed the ventriloquist’s troupe, featuring the talking doll Urvashi. When Hameed loses his voice, Johnny buys Urvashi and returns to Mumbai, reuniting with his sweetheart Rosemary. Johnny’s performances with Urvashi are successful, but Rosemary becomes jealous. During communal riots, Johnny’s songs expose the culprits, leading to Urvashi’s destruction. Silenced, Johnny is comforted by Rosemary, who takes Urvashi’s place on stage, becoming the doll herself. Based on a play by Mahasweta Devi.

Ghose’s first major film is a documentary about the 1974 Bengal famine, analysing how famines come about and chronicling their impact in the cities and the villages of India. Made on a Paillard Bolex by a group calling itself the ‘Joris Ivens collective’, it was one of the first Indian documentaries to face censorship under the Emergency. Much of the footage reflects Ghose’s preoccupation, later developed in his features, with people surviving on the margins of society.

Mrs. Iyer and her infant son are traveling to Kolkata with the help of photographer Rajah. When religious tensions flare up and the bus travelers become stranded under martial law, she makes a choice to save him that entwines their lives.

Free as a bird. To wander. To nestle. To take flight. We are not. As India gained its much awaited independence in 1947, a race faced another struggle. Bengal was divided and hundreds of thousands of Bengalis were displaced and divided on the basis of their religion. The Hindus were forced out as East Bengal was made a part of Pakistan and the same fate lay in store for the Muslims of West Bengal. Millions became refugees in their own homeland, and thousands still bear the cross and the scar. The film is a human saga of a truncated land and how people are trying to relive their destiny.

Based on the timeless literary work by Manik Bandyopadhyay, Padma Nadir Majhi was directed by Gautam Ghosh. The movie illustrates the tumultuous lives of the fishermen and their families, living by the river Padma. Beautiful shots of the river, Ghosh's flair for realism and brilliant display of acting skills by noted actors of Bangladesh and West Bengal, including Utpal Dutt, Robi Ghosh, Abul Khayer, Raisul Islam Asad, Champa, and Rupa Ganguli, fetched the movie local and international honours.

Dasrath Joglekar (Nana Patekar), a celebrated writer, travels to Delhi to receive the prestigious Literary Award. During the journey he meets a young film maker (Nakul Vaid), an ardent fan of Dasrath’s writing and the encounter brings back memories from the past. Memories from the past and passion bring him to Mehendi galli where people flock to enjoy mujra dances. The entire area has changed. Lajvanti alias Lajobai has become Miss Lisa, presenting popular film songs numbers to entertain a new clientele. Dasarath’s sudden appearance is a great surprise for Lajvanti. The character of his novel Janaza comes alive at an unexpected juncture. Lajvanti shows her reverence to Dasrath by singing melodies from their past. Fate accomplices another journey into the unknown is created.

Documentary on Aparna Sen's life.

The film is about a woman belonging to nomadic tribe from Andhra Pradesh, known as crow hunters, who elopes and moves to south Bengal and makes a living by occult practices. It deals with the issue of exploitation of tribal people by the deceitful landlord.

The film revolves around an aging poet Sashi Bhusan Sanyal afflicted with glaucoma and nearly blind whose wife has deserted him because of his reckless lifestyle.

The film features the characters from Satyajit Ray's Aranyer Din Ratri, returning to the forest over thirty years later. Ashim, Sanjoy, Harinath and Aparna have grown old in this film; Shekhar has died. They set out on a journey to break off every link with civilisation for a few days. However, the trip turns sour when Ashim and Aparna's daughter, Amrita, goes missing. It transpires that she is being held for ransom by local tribespeople. Police intervene and the kidnapped girl is returned to her parents, albeit against her own wishes.