Subodh Ghosh was a noted Indian author of Bengali literature and a journalist with the Kolkata-based daily newspaper Ananda Bazar Patrika. His best known work, Bharat Premkatha, is about the romances of epic Indian characters and has remained very popular in the Bengali literary world. Many of his stories have been adapted for classic Indian films, most notably Ritwik Ghatak's Ajantrik and Bimal Roy's Sujata, and even today filmmakers search his works for suitable plots. He won the Filmfare Award for Best Story twice, for Bimal Roy's Sujata and for Gulzar's Ijaazat in 1989. He was selected for Bharatya Jnanpith Award But he refused it.
Early life and education
Born at Hazaribagh on 14 September 1909, now in Jharkhand, he studied in St. Columba's College and in the library of the well known philosopher and scholar, Mahesh Chandra Ghosh. Later, before starting his professional carrier as a writer, he worked as a bus conductor in state bus transport service to support his livelihood in calcutta and continued his writing side by side.
Career
Literature
He shot into prominence with such stories as Fossil. Thereafter, he went on to produce a rich harvest of varied stories. While his Bharat Premkatha delves into the classics for both form and content, presenting immortal love stories, his Kingbadantir Deshe is composed of local legends, which are believed to have really taken place in the past, and which gained in popularity through oral transmission. His personal knowledge about and deep insight into Adivasi life and his grounding in military history was always well respected. Pradip Bhattacharya has translated, or rather transcreated Bharat Premkatha into English as Love Stories from the Mahabharata. Subodh Ghosh's House Combustible finds a place in Indian Love Stories edited by Sudhir Kakar.
While Subodh Ghosh was immensely popular with Bengali readers, he was to a large extent unknown as a writer to the outside world. Films gave him a break through to the vast Hindi-speaking world. His stories have been used for Hindi films as much as for Bengali films. Following on his critically successful 1944 debut Udayer Pathey, Bimal Roy shot Anjangarh in 1948, based on Subodh Ghosh's political drama Fossil, about collusion of aristocracy and business interests against the common man. Mrinal Sen's 1971 filmEk Adhuri Kahani, based on story, Gotrantar, which tells the story of a sugar mill and its agricultural neighbourhood where the workers are deprived of bare necessities and the farmers cheated. Agradoot's film Trijama in 1956 was based on his novel in the same name. Tapan Sinha picked up Subodh Ghosh's Jatugriha for a film on the same name, Jatugriha in 1964. Subodh Ghosh shot into limelight as the author whose work inspired classic films such as Ritwik Ghatak's Ajantrik and Bimal Roy's Sujata. While Sujata was the story of romance between a Brahmin young man and an outcaste woman, Ajantrik was the story of a taxi driverin love with his out dated vehicle. Subodh Ghosh won the Filmfare Best Story Award for Sujata. Both the films were made in the late fifties. Later, Subodh Ghosh won the Filmfare Best Story Award a second time, albeit posthumously, for Gulzar's Ijaazat, which was based on Jatugriho. The drama titled "Waiting Room" by noted Bangladeshi filmmaker Mostofa Sarwar Farooki is also based on this story. Basu Chatterjee made a Hindi filmChitchor, starring Amol Palekar on his story, Chittachakor. Even a recent Sooraj R. Barjatya potboiler Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon picked up the story idea from Subodh Ghosh. Such was the vast expanse of his writing.
Tribute
---- " In short stories, he opened a new horizon for us" – Mahasweta Devi " When we started writing, there were two paths before us – Tarashankar and Subodh Ghosh"—Ramapada Chowdhury " His writing was my inspiration"—Bimal Kar
