Highlights
- Dr Hood’s translations include Nihar Ranjan Roy's famous history book 'History of the Bengali People'
- Notable among his other translated books are ‘Love and Other Forms of Death-Poems of Buddhadev Dasgupta’, ‘Stories of the Partition and Beyond - Short Stories of Prafulla Roy’
- He has translated 'Savitri Upakhyan' by late writer Hasan Azizul Haque
Dr Hood, who studied at the University of Melbourne, has been travelling to Kolkata, India, regularly since 1966.
Though he did not have undertake any formal education in the city, he has since conducted extensive research on Indology, Bangla literature, film and history.
Dr Hood has researched the literary works of Nihar Ranjan Roy, also translating his famous history book into English as 'History of the Bengali People'.
His other major books include ‘Chasing the Truth, The Films of Mrinal Sen’, ‘The Essential Mystery - Major Film Makers of Indian Art Cinema’, ‘Beyond the World of Apu - The Films of Satyajit Ray’, ‘The Bleeding Lotus - Nations of Nation of in Bangladeshi Cinema’.
Notable among his other translated books are ‘Love and Other Forms of Death-Poems of Buddhadev Dasgupta’, ‘Stories of the Partition and Beyond - Short Stories of Prafulla Roy’.
In a conversation with SBS Bangla, Dr Hood talked about various issues including his studies and research in India.
He told SBS Bangla that he studied Indology in a very casual way and originally did not know any names other than Gandhi-Nehru.
Talking about the way he got involved in research and translation of Bangla literature and film, Dr Hood said, "I first arrived at Kolkata in the mid-sixties and came to know the name of Rabindranath Tagore."
At that time, he got Shivnarayan Roy and Atindra Majumdar as his teachers.
At one point he was attracted to the writings of the writer Prafulla Roy and translated his short story books.
Commenting on Prafulla Roy's writings, he said, "I am deeply moved by the way his writings portray the story of partition, communal relations and the rural underclass."
He has also written some original and translated books on films and poems by renowned filmmaker Buddhadev Dasgupta as well films on Mrinal Sen and Satyajit Ray.
Writer-filmmaker Buddhadev Dasgupta first encouraged him to write about Ray.
"At first I didn't have the confidence to write about Ray, but when the book on him was published and put on sale, it sold out within three weeks. However, that is not boastful comment from me. I just want to say how popular he is," he said.
He travelled to Bangladesh in the mid-nineties to extend his Indian visa. At that time, on New Elephant Road in Dhaka, he met Tanvir Mokammel, Tareq Masood, Morshedul Islam and a number of film activists and producers. He later got familiar with the literary and film culture of Bangladesh.
He has translated 'Savitri Upakhyan' by late writer Hasan Azizul Haque. Regarding this work, he said, the task of translating the book was very very difficult. Also, its narrative pattern was not easy to follow.
A few more of his books are going to be published soon, most notably ‘Focus on Bangladesh - Documentary Films of Tanvir Mokammel’.
Dr Hood's interview was taken in English in 4 parts, click on the links below to listen to all episodes of his interview:
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