We are talking about 1955-56. Nagarik had been made, and its release scotched in 1952. He married Surama in mid-1955. The story of those years – Ritwik’s time in the city he called ‘rotten’ and ‘crude’ and ‘materialistic’ and ‘completely unsuited to any creative work’ – is to be found in the letters he wrote to his wife, published by her in a book titled Ritwik (Anustup Prokashoni, 1996).

In the letters, we find a young man, just around thirty, missing his wife (to-be, to start with) and his city and the avenues to channel his creativity; not being able to build with his wife the life they might have hoped for, but also a man full of hope. Hope that he would be able to do something useful while at Filmistan; hope that he would earn enough money to put some sort of life together for hi

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