Chitrangada

Chitrangada: The Crowning Wish is a 2012 Bengali-language film written and directed by Rituparno Ghosh. The film premiered on 25 May 2012 at the New York Indian Film Festival. The film is based on the story of Chitrāngadā from the Mahābhārata. It tells the story of a choreographer who is struggling with his gender identity.

Rudra Chatterjee has spent his life going against social convention. As a young man he defied his father's wishes, and became a choreographer instead of an engineer. As he prepares with his team to stage Tagore's Chitrangada, he meets Partho, Jishu Sengupta who is a drug-addict percussionist introduced to the team by the main dancer Kasturi Raima Sen. Soon, Rudra develops a chemistry with Partho and they are deep into a passionate love affair. During the course of their relationship, they decide to adopt a child. But there is one problem: same-sex couples are not permitted to adopt children. So Rudra decides to go through a gender change treatment to embrace the womanhood he longs for. But will this surgery change his life and fulfill all his long-cherished dreams? The story ends with the line'Be What You Wish To Be'. The movie comes out with the message that it's your wish to choose your gender. The movie was a great success with the first class acting of Rituparno Ghosh and other casting crew. The movie exhibits the struggles and day to day life of a gay choreographer and his father and mother. It becomes an inspiration to a million for the acceptance of all people in the society and it also becomes an inspiration to the people who can relate themselves with Rudra. Hence the tagline of the film 'The Crowning Wish' is justified with this message. It is a must watch specially for the adult and young adults.
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Talented Bengali actor and director Rituparno Ghosh should have been celebrating his 50th birthday next week after viewing his extraordinary second-to-last feature film, Chitrangada: The Crowning Wish, at the Vancouver Queer Film Festival. But the multiple winner of India's National Film Award was tragically struck down by a heart attack in Kolkata in May.

The magnitude of the loss to Indian cinema is abundantly clear to anyone who watches Chitraganda: The Crowning Wish, a lusciously lit and deeply personal drama about a choreographer considering gender-reassignment surgery. The film opens with Rudra Chatterjee (played by Ghosh), a dynamic and decisive choreographer, preparing to stage Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore's dance drama Chitrangada.

Loosely based on the the epic Mahabharata, Tagore's 1892 version portrays Chitrangada as an Amazon who only discovers her feminine side after falling in love with the princely warrior Arjuna.

In a case of life imitating art, Rudra's life is similarly transformed after meeting the much younger Partho (played by Bengali actor and cricketer Jisshu Sengupta), a heroin-addicted and highly irresponsible drummer.
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