Neglected and misunderstood during his lifetime, feted and acclaimed thereafter, a strange irony imbued the life and works of Ritwik Kumar Ghatak. Even as his memory and works are being drowned in accolades after he turned 100 this year, it is time to focus on the themes and questions which Ghatak’s films raised.
In the run-up to the West Bengal Assembly elections slated for March-April next year, the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the principal Opposition BJP are caught in a new conflict, this time over two of the state’s cultural icons – Rabindranath Tagore and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay.
The atmosphere was truly electrifying. The Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, set the ball rolling for the 26th edition of the Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF) at the famous Netaji Indoor Stadium. Often referred to as India’s oldest film festival and the cradle of avant-garde cinema, KIF continues to be the confluence of art and heartfelt emotion, which was evidently the mainstay this time too. The festival took the form of a homage to Bengal’s film past while being profoundly receptive to future cinematic voices.
Following the decision of the West Bengal government to exclude a large number of different Muslim communities from the state’s Other Backward Classes (OBC) list, the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is being heavily criticized.
Stepping up her attack on the special intensive revision (SIR) of voter list in the State, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday led a protest march in Kolkata and asserted that she would ensure the fall of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre if a single eligible voter was omitted from the electoral rolls.
At a first glance, a war of words seems to be raging between Trinamool Congress and BJP leaderships in West Bengal in the run up to the 2026 Assembly elections in the state. But a second glance, longer and more searching at the two poll bound political outfits reveals the TMC leadership to be more focussed while the state saffron unit is yet to fix its priorities.
Former Kolkata Mayor and once a Trinamool Congress heavyweight, Sovan Chatterjee formally returned to TMC on Monday (November 3, 2025) after a 7-year break. Once a close aide of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, he had also joined the opposition Bharatiya Janta Party for a brief period, but termed it a “Himalayan mistake” after leaving.
The newly appointed Vice-Chancellors (VCs) of six state universities in West Bengal by Governor C. V. Ananda Bose signify a significant change in the management of higher education in the state and the long-running stalemate on the appointment of the important leadership roles.
In a political converging point that happens rarely, both the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) have received the recent Supreme Court order on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) with open arms, terming it as a “victory of the rural poor” and a “reminder of the government’s responsibility to its people.
The 2025 edition of the Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF), starting November 6, will open with the eternal Uttam Kumar–Suchitra Sen romantic classic Saptapadi (1961), minister Aroop Biswas announced at a press conference on Tuesday at Rabindra Sadan. Marking 50 glorious years of Sholay, director Ramesh Sippy will be in Kolkata to deliver this year’s Satyajit Ray Memorial Lecture, one of KIFF’s most-awaited and prestigious sessions.
