The Bengali Night
Encyclopedia
The Bengali Night is a 1988
semi-autobiographical film based upon the Mircea Eliade
1933 Romanian novel, Bengal Nights, directed by Nicolas Klotz
and starring Hugh Grant
and the India
n actors Soumitra Chatterjee
and Shabana Azmi
.
). Gayatri and Allan become romantically involved leading to tragedy.
(the inspiration for the character Gayatri) published her version of the story Na Hanyate
, (originally published in Bengali
). She also extracted a promise from Eliade that his version would never be published in English. 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 and for being pornographic". The film was only shown once in India at a film festival in 1989 to mixed reviews and was never released in theaters in the U.S. Kamani also notes:
1988 in film
-Top grossing films :- Awards :Academy Awards:* Act of Piracy* Action Jackson, starring Carl Weathers, Craig T. Nelson, Vanity, Sharon Stone* The Adventures of Baron Munchausen* Akira* Alice...
semi-autobiographical film based upon the Mircea Eliade
Mircea Eliade
Mircea Eliade was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. He was a leading interpreter of religious experience, who established paradigms in religious studies that persist to this day...
1933 Romanian novel, Bengal Nights, directed by Nicolas Klotz
Nicolas Klotz
-Filmography:*Rendez-vous avec Marguerite 1983*The Bengali Night 1988 with Hugh Grant, Shabana Azmi and Soumitra Chatterjee*La Nuit sacrée 1993 with Goran Bregović*Chants of Sand and Stars 1996*Pariah 2000*The Wound 2004*Dans la peau de.....
and starring Hugh Grant
Hugh Grant
Hugh John Mungo Grant is an English actor and film producer. He has received a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA, and an Honorary César. His films have earned more than $2.4 billion from 25 theatrical releases worldwide. Grant achieved international stardom after appearing in Richard Curtis's...
and the India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n actors Soumitra Chatterjee
Soumitra Chatterjee
Soumitra Chatterjee or Soumitra Chattopadhyay is an iconic Bengali actor from India, known among other things for his frequent collaborations with the great Bengali film director Satyajit Ray and his constant comparison with the Bengali screen idol Uttam Kumar.-Background:Soumitra graduated from...
and Shabana Azmi
Shabana Azmi
Shabana Azmi is an Indian actress of film, television and theatre. An alumna of the Film and Television Institute of India of Pune, she made her film debut in 1974 and soon became one of the leading actresses of parallel cinema, an Indian New Wave movement known for its serious content and...
.
Plot summary
Allan (Hugh Grant) is an engineer working in 1930s Calcutta. He is invited to stay with the family of his boss, Narendra Sen (Soumitra Chatterjee) which includes his wife, Indira (Shabana Azmi) and daughter Gayatri (Supriya PathakSupriya Pathak
Supriya Pathak Kapur is an Indian actress hailing from a long line of performers. She is famous for her role in the Indian sitcoms Khichdi and Idhar Udhar.-Family:...
). Gayatri and Allan become romantically involved leading to tragedy.
Production history
Production of the film occurred about a decade after Maitreyi DeviMaitreyi Devi
Maitreyi Devi was a Bengali-born Indian poetess and novelist, the daughter of philosopher Surendranath Dasgupta and protegée of poet Rabindranath Tagore. She was the basis for the main character in Romanian-born writer Mircea Eliade's 1933 novel Bengal Nights...
(the inspiration for the character Gayatri) published her version of the story Na Hanyate
Na Hanyate
Na Hanyate, or It Does Not Die, is a novel written in 1974 by Maitreyi Devi, an Indian poet and novelist who was the protegée of the great Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore...
, (originally published in Bengali
Bengali language
Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...
). She also extracted a promise from Eliade that his version would never be published in English. 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 and for being pornographic". The film was only shown once in India at a film festival in 1989 to mixed reviews and was never released in theaters in the U.S. Kamani also notes:
- Devi was bitter about the whole affair. She wrote in 1988: "Christinel [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 and 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.