E-Flat(a.k.a A Soft Note on a Sharp Scale (Komal Ganhar))

The second film of Partition Trilogy, said to be Ghatak’s own favourite film, centres around the cultural unity of two Bengals fractured by Partition. Enabled by the box-office success of The Cloud-Capped Star, Ghatak experimented radically with film language in this film. Its multilayered narrative interweaves episodes from South-Asian history, his life and artistic philosophy, and a critique of the leftist theatre movement. Autobiographical references and self-criticality are common in most of Ghatak’s films, but E-Flat is one of his most directly political ones. Ghatak placed himself at the centre of the story, reflecting on displacement, collective memory, and the unrelenting hope for cultural reconciliation.