Subimal Misra and Nabarun Bhattacharya

It is strange that till now the critics who praise Nabarun Bhattacharya's literary works have refrained from comparing with the staunch anti-establishment writer Subimal Misra who did not get much support from the coterie that surrounded Nabarun Bhattacharya during his lifetime. Subimal Misra made all-round attack where as Nabarun Bhattacharya avoided attacking the Left extablishment of West Bengal. Nabarun Bhattacharya only passively referred to the action of the Left government where as Subimal Misra raised the basic questions of life and living. Subimal Misra did not have at his disposal a personal literary periodical like Nabarun Bhattacharya and wrote only in littlest magazines. A time has come when we should compare the literary contribution of Nabarun Bhattacharya and Subimal Misra.

Nabarun Bhattacharya and Kolkata's Page3 Coterie

It is strange that when film director Srijit Mukherjea made the film "Baishe Srabon" he presented a distorted picture of the Hungry Generation movement by giving the role of a lunatic Hungry Generation poet to another famous director Goutam Ghose. The character who had been after editors for publishing his poems lived in a dilapidated building and talked rubbish. The story also presents him as a convict who had set fire to Kolkata International Book Fair at Park Street. There was no need to bring in the Hungry Generation movement into the story. However, it was done by the RITWIKTANTRA of Kolkata to denigrate the Hungry Generation movement.
Compare this idiocy to the role played by RITWIKTANTRA in presenting Nabarun Bhattacharya's novels in films and drama on stage. This was possible because Nabarun Bhattacharya was an aristocrat intellectual belonging to the Page3 circuit of Kolkata whereas the poets and writers of Hungry Generation movement came from slums and refugee families. Prof Sutapa Sengupta was right when she said that Nabarun Bhattacharya had used the tools of Hungry Generation writers for presenting popular narratives for public consumption.

Why did Nabarun Bhattachaya accept Sahitya Academy Award from the State

The 'RITWIKTANTRA' coterie in which Nabarun Bhattacharya was entrenched has always been singing about his views against the State of West Bengal as well as the Central Government. None of the coterie members ever explained as to why Nabarun Bhattacharya accepted the Sahitya Academy award from the same power structure against which he has been writing. The main reason why he accepted the prize is because of publicity of the book Herbert and subsequent rising sale thereof.
The Hungry Generation anti-establishment writer Malay Roychoudhury was also awarded a Sahitya Academy award but he refused to accept it and wrote a strong letter to the Secretary of the Sahitya Academy.

Nabarun was silent about Stalin's mass murders

Nayantara Dash has written that Nabarun not only kept silent about Stalinist purges, Stalin's dictates of executing writers and poets despite having been in Soviet Union for sometime. She further adds that Nabarun Bhattacharya never protested against the killing fields of the Communis Party of India ( Marxist ), especially the Sainbari killing incident in which the widowed mother was fed rice soaked in his son's blood. Her sons were killed and a baby was thrown into the fire by goons of the party. Nabarun kept quiet during the rape and murder of two Unicef ladies who were dragged out of their car and killed ; in one of the lady's vagina a metal torch had been inserted by the goons. Nabarun Bhattacharya kept quiet when petrol was poured on seventeen Sadhus and set on fire who were charred to death. In view of such silences how could one call him Anti-Establishment writer ? Just because he criticised Ananda Bazar Patrika ?
                                     

Hungryalist tools used by Nabarun Bhattacharya

Prof Sutapa Sengupta of Jadavpur University has stated that Nabarun Bhattacharya used the literary tools developed by the Hungryalist writers and created popular narratives for public consumption.
                                        

Nabarun refused to publish Hungries in his magazine 'Bhashbandhan'

Malay Roychoudhury has stated that Nabarun Bhattacharya refused to publish his writings in Nabarun Bhattacharya edited literary periodical 'Bhashabandhan' because in Malay Roychoudhury's 'Namgandha' novel, based on the plight of potato growers of West Bengal, Malay Roychoudhury had created a character whose car is stolen from the theatre hall where Bijon Bhattacharya's drama 'Nabanno' was being staged.
                                       

Not Correct to label Nabarun Bhattacharya as Anti-Establishment.

Bengali poet Anupam Mukhopadhyay has written that "Nabarun Bhattacharya did not have to bear the wrath of the State and the Indian Establishment as were faced by the Hungry Generation writers. His 'Herbert' and 'Kangal Malshat' did borrow the diction, mentality and form developed by the Hungries during the 1960s. Nabarun was the son of Mahashweta Devi and Bijon Bhattacharya. His family resided in the sanctum sanctorum of Bengali literature. Hungries like Malay Roychoudhury did not get that benefit. Right from the beginning Nabarun resided in atmosphere which is known in Bengali as RITWIKTANTRA ( sort of pseudo-intellectualism which is a stage actor's presentation as Bengali culture ). Nabarun knew how the develop the myth of Anti-Establishment and he has utilised the same in a clinical way in his life."