Limits of Representation: Ritwik Ghatak’s Subarnarekha

This article takes a close look at the Indian filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak (1925–1976) and his 1962 film Subarnarekha (The Golden Line). The film responds to the partition of Bengal/India in 1947, avoiding a simple representation of events in favor of figuring traces of history. It tries to raise the experience of homelessness to the level of a universal predicament. This required an approach where representation is ‘not in place’ since its object is not really present. Here the article author explores how the film’s form contemplates the processes of dislocation, death, and madness by working out spaces of connection. Thriving on these connections, Subarnarekha often ends up mirroring consciousness, which is understood here as a space of unconstrained connection/recombination. The director made this space partially independent of characters. The article author sees in this a philosophical potential, which is different from films presenting philosophical thought.