Admission: $3.50
Ghatak's most passionate theme--the disintegration of life for Bengali refugees--is at the core of Hidden Star, the film that most critics consider to be his masterpiece. The story, intensely dramatic and at times effectively melodramatic, focuses on the indomitable young woman Neeta, who, as sole physical and moral support for her refugee family, sacrifices everything including the man she loves. With her story Ghatak introduces another theme fundamental to his work, that of the “Great Mother” image, “...with both its benevolent and terrible aspects...(it) has been in our civilization since antiquity...(and) has been the archetype of all daughters and brides of Bengali households for centuries.” The unmarried Neeta epitomizes for Ghatak the child-bride, with all the nostalgia for lost youth that this image implies, and so her tragedy takes on a folkloric dimension in addition to its obvious implications for contemporary life.
The soundtrack, always an important element of Ghatak's works, is here beautifully integrated into the film's many levels of meaning. Musicologist Bhaskar Chandavarkar notes Ghatak's effective use of the Hamsadhwani raga as well as other folk songs and mountain songs; he writes, “all are mixed with masterly exactitude and intensity. His sensitivity could turn mundane sounds into creative music...the drone of frogs...the sounds of a train...the chirping of crickets...but above all...the sound of the whip (that) turns like a hacksaw blade within you.” (Quotations from Film India: The New Generation, a Museum of Modern Art publication)