''The Bengali Night'' (french: la Nuit Bengali) is a

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Bicenten ...

semi-autobiographical film based upon the

Mircea Eliade Mircea Eliade (; – April 22, 1986) was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. He was a leading interpreter of religious experience, who established paradigms in religiou ...

1933 Romanian novel, '' Bengal Nights'', directed by Nicolas Klotz and starring

Hugh Grant Hugh John Mungo Grant (born 9 September 1960) is an English actor. He established himself early in his career as both a charming, and vulnerable romantic lead and has since transitioned into a dramatic character actor. Among his numerous a ...

, Soumitra Chatterjee,

Supriya Pathak Supriya Pathak (born 7 January 1961) is an Indian actress who works in Gujarati and Hindi films and television. She has received multiple awards including three Filmfare Awards for Best Supporting Actress. She is mostly popular for playing the ...

and

Shabana Azmi Shabana Azmi (born 18 September 1950) is an Indian actress of Hindi film, television and theatre. One of India's most acclaimed actresses, Azmi is known for her portrayals of distinctive, often unconventional female characters across several ge ...

Plot summary

Allan (

) is an engineer working in 1930s

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

. He is invited to stay with the family of his boss, Narendra Sen ( Soumitra Chatterjee) which includes his wife, Indira (

) and daughter Gayatri (

). Gayatri and Allan become romantically involved leading to tragedy.

Cast

John Hurt Sir John Vincent Hurt (22 January 1940 – 25 January 2017) was an English actor whose career spanned over five decades. Hurt was regarded as one of Britain's finest actors. Director David Lynch described him as "simply the greatest actor in t ...

as Lucien Metz *

as Allan * Soumitra Chatterjee as Narendra Sen *

as Indira *

as Gayatri

Production history

Production of the film occurred about a decade after Maitreyi Devi (the inspiration for the character Gayatri) published her version of the story '' Na Hanyate'', (originally published in

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

). She also extracted a promise from Eliade that his version would never be published in English as long as she is alive. According to Ginu Kamani in "A Terrible Hurt:The Untold Story behind the Publishing of Maitreyi Devi," Maitreyi witnessed the making of the film "The Bengali Night," which was shot in Calcutta from 1987-88 (Eliade had died that year). Her protests culminated "in court cases against the film for insulting Hinduism and for being pornographic." The film was only shown once in India at a film festival in 1989 to mixed reviews and was never released in theaters in the U.S. Kamani also notes: :Devi was bitter about the whole affair. She wrote in 1988: "Christinel liade's widowhas hurt me very badly. She gave permission to a French Co. to film ''La Nuit Bengali''. They came to Calcutta for shooting and gave huge publicity pointing at me as the heroine." It was a close enough breach of Eliade's promise that his book would not come out in English during her lifetime. But it is not known whether Mrs. Eliade was following her husband's wishes or her own. The film was mostly shot at the huge Zamindar Mansion - "Gaine Bari" of the village of Dhanyakuria and some parts at Indrapuri Studios, Kolkata.

References

External links

A Terrible Hurt:The Untold Story behind the Publishing of Maitreyi Devi
* * * 1988 films 1988 drama films English-language French films 1980s French-language films French biographical drama films Films based on Romanian novels Films based on works by Mircea Eliade Films about interracial romance Films set in Kolkata Films set in the British Raj Films set in India Swiss biographical drama films British biographical drama films Films with screenplays by Jean-Claude Carrière 1980s British films 1980s French films {{1980s-drama-film-stub