Meghe Dhaka Tara or The Cloud Capped Star, a film by Ritwik Ghatak

Meghe Dhaka Tara, or The Cloud-Capped Star was introduced to Indian cinema in 1960. This film originally produced in the Bengali language, West Bengal, India was directed by Ritwik Ghatak and based off of the original novel by Shaktipada Rajguru.

The film is centered on a young beautiful Indian woman by the name of Neeta who lives with her refugee family from East Pakistan in Calcutta. She is a kind soul, and is easily taken advantage of. Her life has many tragic speed bumps in the way, from losing her fiancé and job and then finally being diagnosed with tuberculosis. Her brother is the only person in her life who cares about her. This piece is heavily melodramatic, especially when portraying the suffering endured by the heroine, Neeta. Ghatak uses a number of surreal sound effects throughout the picture, such as a lashing, for instance, to indicate another sad experience.

The cast is composed of Supriya Choudhury, Anil Chatterjee, Niranjan Ray, Gita Ghatak, Bijon Bhattacharya, Gita Dey, Dwiju Bhawal, Gyanesh Mukherjee, and Ranen Ray Choudhury.

Meghe Dhaka Tara was directed and written by Ritwik Ghatak based on a novel by Shaktipada Rajguru. The film was edited by Ramesh Joshi, and produced by Chitrakalpa. The cinematography was overseen by Dinen Gupta, the art direction was provided by Rabi Chatterjee, and the sound was produced by Satyen Chatterjee.