The Postcolonial and Matrixial Gaze in Ritwik Ghatak’s Partition Trilogy

Godwin Emmanuel; Richard Rego

doi:10.5195/cinej.2026.1073

The Postcolonial and Matrixial Gaze in Ritwik Ghatak’s Partition Trilogy

Authors

Godwin Emmanuel St. Joseph's University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9422-5256
Richard Rego St. Joseph's University https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4588-5044

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/cinej.2026.1073

Keywords:

Ritwik Ghatak, Partition trilogy, Partition of Bengal, matrixial gaze, postcolonial cinema, feminist film theory, Bracha L. Ettinger

Abstract

Ritwik Ghatak’s Partition trilogy, Meghe Dhaka Tara (1960), Komal Gandhar (1961), and Subarnarekha (1965), explores displacement through the lives of three female protagonists: Nita, Anusua, and Sita. Scholarship on these films has illuminated the allegorical relationship between gender, nation, and the loss of Bengal. This article extends that scholarship by bringing postcolonial film theory into dialogue with Bracha L. Ettinger’s concept of the matrixial gaze. Through close analysis of framing, duration, editing, sound, and narrative position, it distinguishes two competing modes of looking: a postcolonial-nationalist gaze that risks fixing women as figures of collective loss, and a matrixial mode of wit(h)nessing grounded in borderlinking, fascinance, and co-emergence. In Meghe Dhaka Tara, the two modes coexist as Nita’s family instrumentalizes her while the film opens intervals of ethical proximity. In Komal Gandhar, theatrical and national allegory contend with Anusua’s relational agency. In Subarnarekha, caste, patriarchy, and social exclusion progressively constrict Sita’s possibilities, although the ending retains a fragile image of renewal. The argument is not that historical Partition is identical to Ettinger’s prenatal model but that matrixial concepts can illuminate the trilogy’s cinematic forms of shared, irreducible loss.

References

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Published

2026-10-15

How to Cite

Emmanuel, G., & Rego, R. (2026). The Postcolonial and Matrixial Gaze in Ritwik Ghatak’s Partition Trilogy. CINEJ Cinema Journal, 14(2), 779–798. https://doi.org/10.5195/cinej.2026.1073

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Issue

Vol. 14 No. 2 (2026): Fall

Section

Ritwik Ghatak: The Visionary of Cinema

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