Africa in the Bengali literary and cinematic imagination: Kamaleshwar Mukherjee’s 2013 film adaptation of Bibhutibhusan Bandapadhyay’s African adventure novel, Chander Pahar (1937)

Abstract

ABSTRACTAs part of the recent worldwide cinematographic trend in adapting children’s fantasy and adventure stories into films, this article offers critical insight into contemporary West Bengali film industry’s reworking of this trend in its 2013 cinematic adaptation of Chander Pahar (1937) by the Bengali novelist Bibhutibhusan Bandapadhyay (1894–1950). I argue that in this adaptation the filmmaker deliberately expands on the author’s original vision of the intricacies of race relations. The film’s staging of the fateful encounter of Bengal with Africa is grounded on a common history of the past between India and Africa linked by migration and settlement and of more contemporary large-scale ventures in commerce and investment. A comparative analysis of Chander Pahar from fiction to film will shed light on the strategic shifts in Indian-African relations. The film’s updated vision of the growing affiliations between Africa and India is not only influenced by the impact of the Indian diaspora on the Indian economy but also by India’s changing role as an aspiring economic and political powerhouse.