• ISBN13: 9789381523131
• Binding: Paperback
• Subject: Creative Writing, Fiction
• Publisher: Niyogi Books
• Publisher Imprint: Niyogi Books
• Publication Date: November 16, 2012
• Pages: 304
• Original Price: 1250.0 INR
• Language: English
• Edition: N/A
• Item Weight: 787 grams

The film-script of The Quest (Moner Manush) is much more than a biography of Lalon Fakir. It reveals the stages of a simple young man’s emergence as Lalon Fakir, the prevailing social scenario, a disciple’s faith in his Guru and a man’s endless journey in quest of the single entity that his heart craved for. Lalon’s songs were devotional lyrics-poetic and passionate, carrying deep philosophical annotations-in tune with the music of the Baul community of rural Bengal. The baul community renounced all recognised institutional religions and revolted against long-established rites, customs and faiths. Breaking down the barriers of the narrow confines of communal faith they had found a large expanse under the sky, which had served as bountiful meeting place for many religions. In Lalon’s words, they were like ‘a rudderless raft in a shore-less river’, a ‘hidden current’ where ‘those who wanted to get lost can get lost.’

Goutam Ghose (b.1950) launched into documentaries, group theatre and photo journalism in 1973 after graduating from Calcutta University. His second documentary, Hungry Autumn won him the main award at the Oberhausen Film Festival. Since then Ghose has produced several documentaries on prominent personalities like Ustad Bismillah Khan, Satyajit Ray and HH Dalai Lama, in addition to ten feature films and a number of advertisement, corporate and short films. He has won fifteen National Awards, besides Filmfare Awards and a number of international awards like Silver Balloon, Nantes Film Festival, UNESCO Award at Venice, Golden Semurg at Tashkent, Fipresci Award and Red Cross Award at Verna Film Festival. He is the only Indian to win the coveted Vittori Di Sica Awardand was awarded the nighthood of the Star of Italian Solidarity in 2008. Shankar Sen (b.1936), an engineer and a retired bank executive, writes prose and poetry in both English and Bengali and has had nine books published since 2005. In addition to his own collections of poems in English and Bengali and short stories in English, he has translated in English the best poems of Shamsur Rahman, some rare poems of Utpal Dutt, selected short stories of Buddhadev Guha, five adventures of Saradindu Bandyopadhyaya s Byomkesh, Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyaya s Datta and Tarapada Santra s writings on the folk arts of West Bengal