Parallel Lines

In the 1940s, a new form movement would emerge in India's cinema, one that segued from their early realist genre of the 1920s. It was so abstract in it's context, that it was even considered incoherent, in both it's content and stylization. The travesty about this, was that irrespective of the many fine talents that were up and coming at the time, there was but a paltry number of cinema houses in it's home country that would foster their work. 

The undeniable fact has caused many an argument in a perennially argumentative nation. A young director has a far greater chance of making a film today in India than his equivalent in England, but to get it effectively released means he has to face similar red tape. The complications in India are even more intensified due to language, there are over a dozen official tongues that make widespread dissemination nearly impossible.

The link to parallel cinema Ritwik Ghatak

The Bengali auteurs  Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and Ritwik Ghatak can be regarded as the forefathers of Parallel Cinema. The young filmmakers chose the veteran Ghatak to chair the first public meeting of their Parallel Cinema group, seeing him as a valued teacher and a profound influence. Ghatak (1924-1977) whose work is virtually unheard of in the West was a wayward, troubled genius, his body of work only consisted of six feature films, all of profoundly inventive and visual qualities. Ghatak would be deeply affected by the tragedy of Bengali Partition, and the themes of desperation and rupture present themselves inconsistently throughout his films. Tragically, the young filmmakers organization proved short-lived; the man they had chosen as their chairman was soon to succumb to alcoholism.