An Embrace with the Epic Form

Abstract

This chapter will develop the manner in which many of Ghatak’s films follow the episodic structure which is an inherent part of the epic form. A significant aspect related to the epic structure is the notion of distanciation which breaks narrative continuity and diegesis This is incorporated, in his cinema through the self-conscious, self-reflexive and self-referential methods that include several inter-texts and operate implicitly through the principle of a framed narrative. Further, Ghatak also uses several devices which are related to the concept of authorial intrusion or introduces characters who are artists themselves and who self-consciously are grappling with issues related to formal experimentation in the field of art and creativity. Another significant alienation device that Ghatak employs at times is the violation of the dominant cinematic code of continuity that creates an illusion of reality. Moreover, he encodes his cinema within the melodramatic form which has a close connection with the epic as a form: as the principle of coincidences is common to both. Ghatak thus operates within the epic structure both in terms of the distanciating devices that are central to the epic as a form, as well as works within the tradition of the Mahakavya as he constantly incorporates stories within stories and develops his cinema within the epic tradition. It is all these aspects in their layered dimensions that are developed in this chapter.