The tragic and the lyrical are woven together in this later Ghatak film. In contrast to The Cloud-Capped Star, which places the daughter of the family as the core, A River called Titas – made 13 years later – is in a way centreless; or, rather, there is no one central character. Its numerous personalities interact with the great river of the title, as do all the elements of the story's mosaic. As Bengal is one of the world’s great deltas, it comes as no surprise that rivers feature so often in its movies. Mani Kaul, student of Ghatak and one of the founders – along with the Bengali Mrinal Sen – of New Indian Cinema of the 60s, says that Ghatak films melodrama as documentary. Certainly A River Called Titas has the great emotional amplitude of melodrama but also the visual honesty and openness to lived life of documentary. This combination gives Ghatak films their rare edge and heft, and the beauty and heartache of this film are hard to forget.