Bengali Cinema's Dialect Crisis: Authenticity Lost?

Formal dialogue in Bengali cinema has historically been dominated by the Rarhi dialect. However, International Mother Language Day on February 21 highlighted concerns about the declining authenticity of dialect usage on screen. Directors and actors recall a period when speech patterns were integral to establishing character, place, and social reality, serving as a vital cinematic resource.

Older films treated dialect with the same seriousness as light or music, ensuring accuracy. Directors like Atanu Ghosh and actors like Sudipta Chakraborty point to filmmakers such as Rajen Tarafdar, Goutam Ghose, and Ritwik Ghatak as benchmarks for authentic dialect representation. They feel contemporary cinema, apart from rare exceptions like 'Mandar' and 'Adyama,' often fails to uphold this standard.

The current issue stems from an increasing urban gaze in Tollywood, which limits the space for diverse dialects. Filmmakers are criticized for directorial laziness and for using fabricated dialects, sometimes justified by claims of imaginary settings. This trend flattens linguistic diversity, erasing memory, origin, soil, class, politics, and the pulse of a region.

Efforts to reclaim authenticity are underway. Films like Ranjan Ghosh's 'Adyama,' set in the Sundarbans, focused on specific local dialects, involving villagers in workshops and dubbing to ensure accuracy and respect. Pradipta Bhattacharya also champions dialect as emotional truth, emphasizing research and rehearsal, though acknowledging budget and time constraints often hinder such meticulous work.