CALCUTTA - Part 1 of 3

An affectionate 70mins documentary about life in the great West Bengali city of Calcutta - now Kolkata, and once 'the Paris of Asia - as told by a dozen of the people who love to live there. Filmed in 1989 by Peter Middleton. Channel 4 TV. From a VHS tape.

[@perikaveera4438]

Calcutta: The Mother of Modern India. I'm from Bombay, Marathi speaking, been living in the United States for 25 years and have never been to Calcutta. It has always been my desire although there's a lot of negative things said about this great city. Calcutta can never be Bombay and Bombay can never be Calcutta. Even today, when you look at old pictures or films showing Calcutta, you can almost sense that old world imperial greatness of the city coexisting with the progressive, intellectual yet nationalistic Bengali spirit which gave India it's greatest scientists, poets, artists, economists, freedom fighters and revolutionaries. It gave us Guruji Rabindranath Tagore, Satyendranath Bose, J.C.Bose, Netaji Bose. It gave the world classics like Tagore's Geetanjali, like Pather Panchali (both the book by Bibhutibhushan Banerjee and movie by Satyajit Ray). It was this city that was so representative of the Eastern world besides being the real jewel in the British Crown. What London was to the west Calcutta was to the east. It gave India it's Indianness, it's Indian pride. Today this once greatest of cities may have fallen into decay but so have all great cities and empires eventually. I have no reservations in calling Calcutta the "Mother of Modern India". My annual visits to India (actually, only Bombay) are typically brief, 3 or 4 weeks but soon I will make the time to take a trip to Calcutta and pay my homage to this great city without which India would not be India as we know it today! JACKSON, Mississippi.

[@XX-gy7ue]

perikaveera , I am not Indian , but your comment is a poem and I'm glad to have read it !

[@RajeshS-pi3su]

Wonderfully expressed!! I too love Calcutta!

[@james2578]

usa and bombay are a dump. calcutta is amazing.

[@anthonybatista6693]

Calcutta is truly a Magnificent City. There is no Place on Planet Earth like Calcutta. There is Beauty everywhere you go in Calcutta. You just have to see pass the dirt. Beauty is not just something appealing to the eye. Beauty needs to be understood with Mind and Soul.

[@arghyapal9253]

MY "CITY OF JOY" .......It's so true that no one will ever find a city like kolkata; here inspite of different languages, different culture, different religions the peace prevails...Thank you sir for the documentary..

[@ChristopherSykesDocumentaries]

Glad you enjoyed it - as much as I enjoyed Calcutta!

[@dadsoldfarm]

Remember this programme is 25 years old people.

[@nabinbairagi]

My city is Kolkata. I can't explain how happy it is. At that time there was not so much artificiality among people. How many states there were people, everyone had a story.

[@janebooth9867]

I love my family ... I know Kolcutta is sheer volume of art.

[@kunwarsahab3307]

Calcutta great city. City of joy. My city where I was born which I leave due to some reason. Amar kolkata.

[@ahan2001]

Well made.Really describes Calcutta well.

[@UnorthodoxMiscellaneousVideos]

Oshadharon. Baakruddho Ami. Dhonnyobaad

[@xohaibiqbal4395]

I wish to visit this beautiful city

[@aniketsinghvlog8205]

Golden times of Bengal 👌

[@rajeshkumarsanghai]

What's the opinion of " Calcutta Chromosome " author Amitabh Ghosh's opinion ? Why no bengali intellectual came to make a truthful and Calcutta's own documentary ?

[@nutmedia]

Excellent. Thank you.

[@kumarmangalampatravali660]

I dare say that this city portrait does truly depict some aspects of even present day Indian cities, although a great deal of material progress could be made in the past decades. I would always prefer truth over consoling propaganda, even if truth is always hard to bear.

[@ranajit2355]

"telephone not working, electricity not there". Which city which year? Can't be Calcutta. There's no power cut in Calcutta.

[@arnabsanyal6603]

Was it filmed by Peter Middleton?

[@ChristopherSykesDocumentaries]

Yes, it was!

[@kumarmangalampatravali660]

"I love it here", I hear the 'lady' saying. I am still not sure what she means by 'here'. Do this 'here' refer to those gutters, slums and jammed transports or her noisy, although relatively cosy office.

[@marcus-tq7js]

I am a Nobel laureate and ok'd with the portrayal. I am one of the most renowned scientist in the world and I have heard of nobody as illustrated as me living in kolkota. Probably some self important PhD degree buyer here and there

[@mitramoso]

A Very well documented life story. But which year is this? Time moves on and things change. Excilent nonetheless. Thank you for the trip.

[@abdhfhhffh]

+mitramoso 1990

[@rajibrupnarayanmitra4369]

mitramoso 1990 s portrayal of Calcutta under corrupt Communist party

[@suman24karm]

and what this government is doing

[@Playhouse_Studio]

@@rajibrupnarayanmitra4369 yes because TMC is flowing with god-like spirituality huh?😂😂😂😂

[@lalalila8310]

I did like the video, I found it very interesting and I agree that we cannot and shouldn't hide poverty. It's a big part of our reality and sooner or later it will end up affecting us all. I'm not saying and naturallly I don't think that all Indian cities are this poor but it can't be denied that this type of sceneries is very common in many countries.

[@sasi_kumar96]

Are you from jnu?

[@rajeshkumarsanghai]

24 th August 1690 is not the birthday of Calcutta . Calcutta had been her entity before this . Read Radharaman Roy's " Kolkata Vichitra " bengali book by Dev Sahitya Kutir .

[@Gaur1983]

Got interesting towards the end. All the members of single caste,creating their own community, in one neighbourhood.

[@abhishekbasu6109]

I am a scientist of international repute. but this kind of biased pessimistic potrayal makes me abusive. I am holding my tongue because I am a calcuttan and i am aware of my heritage. I would request the film maker to come to calcutta and have a glimpse of the city. Even if the film is 20 years old, Calcutta was not like this 20 years back. it is just a miniscule part or outskirt or some specific slum areas of the city. every city in this world has some grey shades. if you can afford just come and visit city centre 1 & 2, south city, sector V, new town, then you will be ashamed of your city.

[@nabinbairagi]

Mithu Babu, this government stopped the tram.

[@kathavate80]

There were five birds who had 5 grains, one for each of them. Another dumb greedy big bully scavenger bird from elsewhere who was incapable of feeding itself came and snatched 4 grains from them, ate 2, sold 2, bought a video camera with that money and came back to make a video of the five birds fighting over the last grain.

[@ChristopherSykesDocumentaries]

I like your parable. But I think it's a little unfair - the documentary tries to tell a story about Calcutta through the eyes of Calcuttans who love the city they live in. So I'm not sure what we did to offend you.

[@kathavate80]

@@ChristopherSykesDocumentaries The documentary is great. It is not the documentary, it is the whole thing that offends us. What makes the Indians (and may be the former colonized countries) angry is the fact that you offenders never came up with an apology, no reparations, nothing of the colonial atrocities taught in your history lessons, your kids still think you once ruled the world and most of all the hypocrisy when you make the Nazis pay up for what they did while you yourself were involved in centuries of comparable atrocities and murder.

[@ChristopherSykesDocumentaries]

@@kathavate80 I am sorry

[@kumarmangalampatravali660]

@@ChristopherSykesDocumentaries I liked it how you handled these accusations. I do not think that accusing contemporary British could solve the problem of poverty in Calcutta or anywhere else (let it be even Ireland!). I would hold New Delhi response, and not London.

[@pritysingh3412]

I m from benares but i love kolkata n ya tram conductors r v gud in nature but i noticed ppl behave some time disturbing anyway kolkata a grt city

[@elqueseacomosea7714]

It's Kolkata, in your comments

[@Sov625]

absolute disliked the portrayal..... by the way..... i can also portray every major city.... in his manner.... \ very bad portryal.... will post something.... tht will open eyes

[@Sov625]

dont try this kinda portrayal of indian cities...... this is nt the truth...

[@WASILIWA]

HIGH CLASS 🎉

[@rider3630]

People of India, refugees or asylum seekers are also responsible for this condition. About making this sort of documentary will soon be stopped .. When people will start making video of beggars in the streets of London and council system..

[@janebooth9867]

I could do fully without Bradfords trash ...

[@subhadityapramanic6677]

আমাদের শহর তা তখন কী ছিল আর এখন সব বদলিয়ে গিয়েছে