2026 writing begins with this deeply personal and archival piece for Fipresci-India, where Sanjay Krishna and I revisited my family history, which led us to an overlooked but vital figure in Indian cinema: #Radhakrishna—litterateur, editor, screenwriter, linguist, and what I call Father of the Indian New Wave Ritwik Ghatak’s “invisible write hand” in Jharkhand.
“The voice, words, and worldview that flow through Ghatak’s first documentary, Aadivasiyon Ka Jeevan Srot, and his other documentaries focusing on the indigenous communities of Bihar have long puzzled scholars. Many have struggled to find the strot (source) of that distinctive narrative tone: the unnamed, unseen, and almost entirely uncredited collaborator from Jharkhand whose imprint is unmistakable but remains undocumented.
That man was Radhakrishna, a litterateur, editor, screenwriter, linguist, and one of Ghatak’s most important intellectual contacts and cultural collaborators in the region. But as his son, Ranchi-based writer and custodian of his legacy, Sudhir Lal, recalls, Radhakrishna has largely been made invisible in the mainstream discourse on Ghatak’s documentaries.
We explore how indigenous art forms profoundly shaped Ghatak’s cinematic aesthetics and worldview while focusing on his three notable documentaries scripted with the help of noted litterateur Radhakrishan—Aadivasiyon ka Jeevan Srot, Bihar ke Darshaniye Sthan and Oraon. Through these six essays, we trace Ghatak’s engagement with tribal rituals, folk traditions, and performative cultures, examining how these elements informed his larger body of work and differentiated his sensibility from the Western cinematic canons of his time. “
With inputs from
~ Sudhir Lal (Writer and Radhakrishna’s son), who spoke about Indigenous Art Forms, Radhakrishna, and Ghatak
~ Sanghita Sen, Assistant Professor of Visual Communication and Digital Culture at Northumbria University, UK, on Radhakrishna and Ghatak: Indigenous culture, collaboration, and collective action
~ Biju Toppo, an anthropological and national award-winning tribal documentary filmmaker from Jharkhand, on Ghatak, and how he understood the tribal philosophy of life well
~ Niranjan Kujur, National Award-winning filmmaker from Jharkhand, on their collaboration, deep engagement and nuanced representation
~ Arin Paul, an independent filmmaker currently working on a documentary titled The Ritwik Ghatak Experience, on collective voice being the biggest motif in Ghatak’s cinema
~ Shamya Dasgupta, editor, Unmechanical: Ritwik Ghatak in 50 Fragments, on Ghatak as a deft observer and interpreter of indigenous culture
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