Hemant Bala’s Letter (Documentary): Looking Back- Review by Sudeshna Sanyal
Director: Abhishek Ganguly, Cinema For A Cause and Jayanti Sanyal
Produced in collaborationThe depth of the old letters, architecture, and collected historical documents used in the making of the documentary touches the viewer’s mind. And here, Hemantbela’s letter is not limited to just a documentary but becomes a sense of time, a kind of audio film. Here, the camera does not move quickly, but waits; and the letter becomes a delayed dialogue, where both the sender and the recipient are absent. Director Abhishek Ganguly makes this absence the main character of the film.
Those behind this sensitive production—especially Jayanti Sanyal (Hemantaba’s stepdaughter)—researchers and archive collectors, silent artists of camera and sound design, restrained hands of editing (Soumyajit De, Tinku Sarkar, Siddharth Sengupta), mature acting of Rohini Barik and Anupriya Banerjee Mishra, moderate sense of music and atmosphere creation, moody ambient music (Arjun Roy), emotional use of Rabindra Sangeet (artist: Indrani Mukherjee Bandyopadhyay); – all in all, ‘Hemantabelar Chithi’ is a deeply collaborative memory practice despite being the work of a solo director.
The tireless efforts of script researcher and screenwriter Arundhati Chowdhury, providing assistance, especially the use of her picturesque residence during the production, and the meticulously researched and choreographed scenes, made them timely.
Jayanti Sanyal, Debanjana Sadhukhan, Dr. Pritha Ghosh Sen, Phullara Mukherjee, Shubhmoy De, Rabindra-researcher Bijan Ghoshal and Dr. Pavitra Sarkar—the presence of more voices makes the film not one-dimensional but deep and contemplative. The selection of letters, documents and contexts here is not just a matter of gathering information; it is a kind of moral duty towards memory. Because of this attitude, the archive here does not become evidence, but a space for feeling.
The documentary revolves around the relationship between Hemant Bala Devi and Rabindranath Tagore. But love here is not a romantic reconstruction. This love lives in the language of letters, in waiting, in the unfinished. Hemant Bala’s love is not spoken here – it is preserved. The love that has not found a full language of expression due to the pressure of society, time and silence; – that love, deep friendship, self-dedication and the social practices of that time are the deepest appeal of this film. The combination of news, personal experience and literary criticism together creates a continuity on the celluloid of memory, which is easily revealed on the screen of the mind.
The greatest courage of this documentary is its non-illustrative approach—the past is not shown, it is heard. The archive is not evidence here, but sensation. The letters never become sensational revelations. Rather, they remind us—history is not about telling everything; it is better to leave some incompleteness. This is an example of a very high level of documentary ethics.
The voice-over is not an authoritative voice. It is the voice of a man who is not even sure what he is reading. These hesitations, the pauses, the breathing spaces of the voice transform Hemantbela’s Letters into a kind of quiet resistance cinema.
A letter is a journey from one time to another. But in this film, time does not move forward—it keeps spinning. Here, the letter’s journey stops because the recipient is gone. Only questions remain. As a result, the viewer is stuck in a temporal limbo—neither the entire past, nor the entire present.
Among the most memorable elements of this film are the silence and the restrained use of the camera. This silence conveys that not all memories are meant to be expressed, but some are meant to be carried. This cinematic restraint is extremely rare in today’s world.
Hemant Bala is not a link here. She is a woman whose voice has not been fully recorded in history. Her love is therefore not an object of curiosity; it is a kind of silent right. This documentary asks us—why do we see women’s personal writings as curiosities, not as history?
Director Abhishek Ganguly consciously distances himself—he sits next to the letter instead of standing on it and speaking. This is where Hemantabela’s Letter becomes a kind of listening-driven cinema.
Today, when personal writing easily becomes a public spectacle, archives become data and memory content—the letters of Hemantabela teach a kind of slow, ethical resistance.
Reading a letter does not mean gaining ownership—it means bearing the responsibility of knowing the past.
The film ends with a strange personal sadness and question mark—an unease that may be the only way to keep the memory alive.
Sudeshna Sanyal considers writing to be the language of her thoughts. While her profession lies in teaching at primary schools, her deeper passion is education—an area she constantly explores and reflects upon. The many dimensions of learning, both inside and outside the classroom, the imaginative world of children’s minds, and the overlooked stories of society inspire her to think critically and express herself through words.
She enjoys writing on diverse subjects, often positioning herself between what is considered relevant and irrelevant. Reading is her daily companion, and alongside writing poetry, she also draws—gradually shaping her identity through dialogue with art. For Sudeshna, embracing an artistic sense of life is a way to survive and thrive, and she seeks to share that life with readers through her words.
Sudeshna Sanyal, Kalyani, Mobile -8334878094, Email – suchetana943@gmail.com | Facebook profile
খুবই সুন্দর, ভারসাম্যময়, যুক্তিপূর্ণ রিভিউ। সুদেষ্ণা যে মন দিয়ে ছবিটি দেখার সময় আবেগ ও যুক্তিবোধকে সমান প্রখর রেখেছিলেন তার প্রমাণ এই লেখা।