Dakhal

Dakhal
Directed byGautam Ghose
Written byGoutam Ghose
Partha Banerjee
Story bySushil Jana
Produced byGovernment of West Bengal
StarringMamata Shankar
Robin Sen Gupta
Sunil Mukherjee
Sujal Roy Chowdhury
CinematographyGoutam Ghose
Music byGoutam Ghose
Release date
  • 1981 (1981)
CountryIndia
LanguageBengali

Dakhal (transl. The Occupation) is a 1981 Indian Bengali film directed by Gautam Ghose, with Mamata Shankar, Robin Sen Gupta, Sunil Mukherjee and Sujal Roy Chowdhury in lead roles. The film is about a woman belonging to a nomadic tribe from Andhra Pradesh, known as crow hunters, who elopes and moves to south Bengal and makes a living by occult practices. It deals with the issue of exploitation of tribal people by a deceitful landlord.[1][2] The film was based on Amma, a short story of Sushil Jana.[3][4]

This the first Bengali-language feature film by Ghosh, who had previously made documentaries and Maa Bhoomi in Telugu.[2] At the 29th National Film Awards it won the awards for Best Feature Film.[5][6] At the 11th International Human Rights Film Festival in Paris it won the Grand Jury Prize.[1]

  1. ^ a b Banerjee, Srivastava (2013). One Hundred Indian Feature Films: An Annotated Filmography. Routledge. p. 140. ISBN 978-1-135-84098-3.
  2. ^ a b Ray, Bibekananda; Joshi, Naveen; Division, India. Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Publications (2005). Conscience of the race: India's offbeat cinema. Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. ISBN 978-81-230-1298-8.
  3. ^ Natuna Bāṃlā sinemā (in Bengali). Bāṇīśilpa. 1984.
  4. ^ "কলকাতার কড়চা". www.anandabazar.com (in Bengali). Retrieved 30 July 2021.
  5. ^ "29th National Film Awards". International Film Festival of India. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 8 October 2011.
  6. ^ "29th National Film Awards (PDF)" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 4 October 2011.