La Musique Selon Deben Bhattacharya

La Huit Productions, France/Ekushey Television, Bangladesh

Filmed in Dhaka and Paris in 2001, this one hour documentary traces the extraordinary life and work of music researcher, translator,and film maker Deben Bhattacharya.

Brought up in a Bengali family of Sanskrit scholars, Deben spent nearly fifty years recording the hidden music of southern Europe, North Africa and Asia. Late in life, Deben retraces the footsteps he trod as a young man. Always full of insight and good humour, Deben created deep and lasting bonds with the musicians he recorded; Never more so than with the Bengali musicians that he worked with in 1971, during Bangladesh's bitter struggle for independence. In his last visit to Bangladesh, thirty years later, Deben re-records those musicians, and the beloved music of his homeland.

Produced as a co-production between Paris TV production company La Hui, and Bangladesh broadcaster ETV, the film followed Deben on his last journey through his ancestral homeland.

Directed by Stephane Jourdain. Produced for ETV by Mike Sweet.