jadavpur universitys head of film studies department a film about current issues is not necessarily a political film though one may read politics in all films a political context is necessary to make films which propose political change in the 70s four of sens films padatik calcutta 71 chorus interview were entrenched into a particular political context and thought they were connected with the political movement of the period as well as the experiments with form that were forged in world cinema these experiments with form were related to his political ideology too she saysshyamal karmakar the current dean of the satyajit ray film and television institute had made a feature film on the nandigram issue titled chokher pani designed to expose the landacquisition politics of nandigram involving the left and subsequently trinamool karmakar claims that the movie is one of the most hardhitting political and antiestablishment films in recent times it is narrated from the point of view of a student of a kolkata university we also used interviews of survivors like malati jana in the films narrative karmakar says however prerelease fiasco regarding directorial credit with the producer landed the film in a controversy not too many watched or discussed it eitherkarmakar admits that the current bengali cinema doesnt talk about the common man postindependence people had big dreams of development in india by mid 50s their dreams had already crashed refugee problems and unemployment haunted them people found an alternative in marxist ideology students took to the streets with a belief that things could be changed cinema also reflected that but that dream crashed as well contemporary bengali cinema is a reflection of that loss of faith it is busy with the hollow crisis of the decadent middle class karmakar sayshowever the decadence in political cinema of bengal isnt a recent phenomenon it started way back in the 80s since the soviet russia had an iconic presence in the left political thought mukherjee believes that its disintegration subsequently weakened the lefts promise that the world will change this affected sens cinema in the 1980s think of ek din achanak from street fighting we became involved in squabbles inside the apartments the nature of political movements has changed now madhuja mukherjee saysbut why would that not inspire directors todays directors working in the contemporary political climate might not risk making a film on an incident like the marichjhapi massacre when sen was making movies he was deeply involved in the marxist ideology that reflected in his films but those who are politically active today are primarily using theatre as a platform one exception is suman mukhopadhyays herbert and kangal malsat he is borrowing from nabarun bhattacharyas plot and ideology she explainsthe current scenario has also seen the rise of social media as a new platform for giving vent to political thoughts sen never had social media access when he made his political films no one is hazarding a guess about what he would have done had