French : la Nuit Bengali is a semi-autobiographical film. It is based upon the Mircea Eliade 1933 Romanian novel , Bengal Nights. Directed by Nicholas Klotz. it stars Hugh Grant, Soumitra Chatterjee, Supriya Pathak & Shaana Azmi.
Allan is an engineer working in 1930s Calcutta. He is invited to stay with the family of his boss, Narendra Sen. The family includes his wife, Indira & two daughters. Elder daughter Gayatri is an adolescent. The other daughter is a school girl.
Gayatri & Allan become romantically involved leading to tragedy.
The film was mostly shot at the huge Zamindar Mansion – ‘Gaine bari’ of the village of Dhanyakuria & some parts at Indrapuri Studios, Kolkata.
Production of the film occured about a decade after Maitreyi Devi ( the inspiration for the character Gayatri ) pulished her ersion of the story Na Hanyate ( originally published in Bengali). She also extracted a promise from Eliade that his version would never e published in English as long as she is alive.
According to Ginu Kamani in ‘A Terrible Hurt : The Untold story behind the publishing of Maitreyi Devi”, Maitreyi witnessed the making of the film ” The Bengali Night” which was shot in Calcutta from 1987-88 ( Eliade had died that year ).
Her protests culminated ‘in court cases against the film for insulting Hinduism & for being pornographic’.
The film was shown only once in India at a film festival in 1989 to mixed reviews & was never released in theatres in the US. Kamani notes : Devi was bitter about the whole affair. She wrote in 1988 ” Christine ( Eliade’s widow ) has hurt me very badly. She gave permission to a French Co. to film La Nuit Bengali. They came to Calcutta for shooting & gave huge publicity pointing at me as the heroine”.
It was a close enough breach of Eliade’s promise that his book would not come out in English during her lifetime. But it is not known whether Mrs Eliade was following her husband’s wishes or her own’.
All said & done, we lost a good film from reaching the masses. The Hindi film ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam’ is based on the same theme. An Indian girl falling for a foreigner. She is a Gujrati & he is from Italy.
Both the versions are different. Because love from each one’s eyes is different. Devi has a softer shade & Eliade’s is more direct. As is our culture, I presume.
I would ‘ve loved to have a clip of Hugh Grant & Supriya speaking about it. The media as today wasn’t this active. Boy, did I love to see both my fav actors in one frame !! Bonus, Shabana with her glance or just a look!
The story could n’ t have a happy ending. The moment her father invited the engineer in their household, it had to have deep ramifications.
Today, after so many decades we still worry about the linage, the parents & the ‘khandaan’ of the boy. This was India in 1930s! The outrage is understandable. But I still believe banning a film or a piece of art is not done.
Do we wear our beliefs, religion on our sleeve ? If we do, it is wrong. Suppressing expression is not done. As individuals looking to the future we need a wider perspective, outlook, vision…
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