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Here is another one from the archives of Bengal – a 1970 short film by Ritwik Ghatak, made on behalf of the United Front Govt. of West Bengal. The film bears the unmistakable stamp of Ghatak, carrying liberal doses of melodrama and loudly speaking a language of idealism, hope and dreams of the times, most of which remain unfulfilled, almost obliviated, till date. It was the year of Vladimir Ilyich Uniyanov’s birth centenary, and countries such as the Soviet Union and Poland evinced keen interest for showing this film in their countries. The film however initially got banned by the National Film Censor Board of India. It could finally be released after Ghatak had to pull quite a few strings including personally meeting the then prime minister Indira Gandhi. 

The debut production from the house of Mahalanobis Club is a short instructional documentary on a glorious, but nearly forgotten, pursuit of medical science that happened in our subcontinent and the successful outcome subsequently replicated all over the world in the last century.