Hemen Gupta

Hemen Gupta was born on 21st March 1914, in Rajasthan, British India. His father, Purnanand Gupta, worked in the State Treasury Office and for several years, was posted in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where Hemen spent his early childhood. His siblings were brothers Jogen, Biren, Rabin, Nripen and sister Amiya.

Hemen grew up in a very large joint family, together with several uncles, aunts and cousins. He was a good student and completed his high school and undergrad college studies in Dhaka, where he graduated with academic honors. After his undergrad, he moved to Calcutta (now Kolkata) in West Bengal, India.

In Calcutta, he was actively involved in the national revolutionary movement to obtain freedom from British Rule. He joined the youth wing of the local Congress Party in 1928 and was drawn into what the British authorities considered subversive activities. In1931, he was arrested by the British police and convicted on two charges. 1) for alleged complicity in the murder of the Midnapore District Magistrate, Mr. Paddy Douglas and 2) for his active participation in the Dacca-Assam Mail Train Robbery Case. He spent jail terms at Buxar jail (in the state of Bihar) and Deoli jail (in the state of Rajasthan) from 1932 to 1938. As collateral and punitive damage, his extended family also got incarcerated, whereby several members lost their government jobs and pension benefits. Their family printing business was also forced to shut down.

Film Career

During his jail term, he developed a keen interest in the art and science of film making, which was a new medium of mass communication in those days. While in jail, he resumed academic studies and earned his Master’s Degree in History. Immediately upon his release from prison, he worked in close association with the India’s celebrated leader Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, as his personal secretary. In 1939 he started his film career by joining the renowned New Theatres film studios, Calcutta, as a helper in the studio’s costume department. He was later promoted to becoming an Assistant Film Director.

In 1943, he got his break as a Director, with his first feature film titled “Dwanda” (Conflict). From 1943 to 1949, he directed seven feature films, mostly in Bengali language. The themes of several of his films were based on India’s freedom movement and he drew upon his personal experiences as a radical activist and the years he spent in prison. Most notable amongst these films, was “42” (“Biyallish” in Bengali), Due to it’s controversial political content, the film was initially rejected by the Board of Film Censors, but later allowed to be released. It is widely considered to be a milestone film, depicting the Quit India Movement in a village in Bengal, India. It has won universal acclaim and continues to be a perennial favorite amongst that genre of patriotic films. In Calcutta, he introduced film actor Pradeep Kumar Batabyal, music director Hemanta Mukherjee and cameraman Ajoy Kar (who later became a film director).

In 1950, he migrated to Bombay to pursue his film career there. His first film in Bombay was produced by Mr. Sasadhar Mukerji and titled “Anand Math”. This was also a patriotic film based on a novel by the renowned Bengali author Bankim Chandra Chatterji. He also brought his protégés and key technical team from Kolkata to Bombay. His next film titled Ferry (Kashti in Hindi) in 1952, was a love story that starred Dev Anand and Geeta Bali. It was the official entry from India at the Moscow Film festival.

From 1951 to 1967, Hemen directed seven feature films that were released and three films that remained unfinished, due to his untimely demise. The most acclaimed among them was the film “Kabuliwala’ based on a story by Nobel Laureate author Rabindranath Tagore. It was released in 1961 and it received a silver medal at the Indian National Film awards.

Death Hemen Gupta suffered a brain hemorrhage in May 1967 and died prematurely at the Nanavati Hospital, in Bombay. He was survived by his wife Ratna (1930 – 2000), son Jayanta, daughter Jayshree and son Jaijeet.

Legacy Hemen Gupta is best remembered for his patriotic films, which were widely acclaimed for their honest and hard-hitting realism. . Some critics and intellectuals held the view that the Indian masses of those days were not quite ready to accept such realism, as they were accustomed to the song and dance routines that were common in films in that period. His films won critical acclaim, but did not achieve box office success. He might have received greater recognition and commercial success today, in 21st century India, when parallel and commercial cinemas are arguably beginning to converge.

Filmography

1943 DWANDA (Bengali) Dir ; Hemen Gupta Cast ; Dhiraj Bhattacharya, Chhabi Biswas, Molina. 1945 TAQRAAR (Hindi) Dir ; Hemen Gupta Cast : Iftekhar, Jamuna, Molina, Nawab. 1946 BENGAL FAMINE Not permitted by the British Govt. to complete this documentary. 1947 ABHIJATRI (Bengali) Dlr : Hemen Gupta Cast: Bikash Roy, Binata Roy. 1948 BHULI NAI (Bengali) Dlr : Hemen Gupta Cast : Bikash Roy, Pradeep Kumar, Tulsi Chakravarty, Radhamohan Bhattacharya 1949 Biyallish, "42" (Bengali) Dlr : Hemen Gupta Cast : Bikash Roy, Pradeep Kumar, Sambhu Mitra, Manju Dey 1952 ANANDMATH (Hindi) Dlr : Hemen Gupta Cast : Prithviraj Kapoor, Ajit, Geeta Bali, Bharat Bhushan, Pradeep Kumar 1954 FERRY (Hindi) Prod : Film Trust of India. Script-Dir : Hemen Gupta. Cast : Dev Anand, Geeta Bali 1955 MEENAR ( Hindi) Prod : Vishwabharati Films. Screenplay-Dir : Hemen Gupta : Bina Rai, Bharat Bhushan, Pran 1956 TAKSAAL ( Hindi) Prod Hemen Gupta Prod. Script-Dir : Hemen Gupta. Cast Balraj Sahni, Nirupa Roy 1957 Raaj Kamal ( Hindi) Script•Dir-Prod : Hemen Gupta

	Production incomplete. ( Madhubala, Pradeep Kumar)

1959 INSAAF KAHAN HAI ( Hindi) Script•Dir-Prod : Hemen Gupta

	Not released.  ( Usha Kiron)

1960 Producer : Filmistan . BABAR ( Hindi) Dir : Hemen Gupta. Cast : Jagirdar. Azra 1961 KABULIWALA (Hindi) Producer : Bimal Roy Productions. Dir : Hemen Gupta, Cast : Balraj Sahni, Usha Kiron 1966 NETAJI SUBHAS CHANDRA BOSE (Hindi) Produced by : B.K. Adarsh (Adarshtok) Dir : Hemen Gupta_ Music : Salil Chowdhary. Cast; Abhi Bhattacharya, Bipin Gupta, Ulhas. 1967 ANAMIKA ( Bengali) Dir : Hemen Gupta.

	Cast : Madhabi Mukherji, Anil Chatterji. Dharmendra. 
	Incomplete due to his premature demise.  

Government Recognition 1) His Bengali film Biyallish (“42), about India’s Independence movement, was featured at the 38th International Film Festival of India held in Goa, India in 2008. 2) His film “Ferry” (1954) was one of the entries from India at the Moscow International Film festival 3) National film award presented to Hemen Gupta by the Prime Minister of India, Mr. Jawaharlal Nehru - Hemen Gupta receiving award from PM Jawaharlal Nehru, for the film Kabuliwala. 4) The Government of India posthumously recognized him as a Freedom Fighter and awarded his widowed wife a monthly pension. Notes & Pictures

Photo taken in 1954 during a special showing of the film “Ferry” in Bombay. From left, Menshikov, Soviet Ambassador to India; Ratna Gupta, wife of Hemen Gupta, Maya Plisetskaya (Ballerina of Russian Bolshoi) and Hemen Gupta.

With producer –director Mehboob Khan and producer Sasadhar Mukherji (Filmistan & Filmalaya)

With film producer-director Bimal Roy during shooting of the film “Kabuliwala”

With film actor Prithviraj Kapoor at a function during filming of “Anandmath”

With Music Director Hemant Kumar and playback singer Geeta Dutt during a song recording session for the film “Ferry”

Satyajit Ray talking to Hemen Gupta at a mahurat ceremony of his Benali film ‘Anamika’ which was left unfinished due to his passing away in 1967.

References

http://indianexpress.com/about/hemen-gupta/ https://indiancine.ma/JXP/info https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0348472/ http://osianama.com/mast-cpe-0005072

External links

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0216266/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast Kabuliwala (1961) http://www.indiaabroad.rediff.com/movies/2002/may/30dinesh.htm

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