Among indian states Bengal is one of the smallest.It has an area of 88,752 sq km with population of 68,077,965 which means the population density is 776.With so many culturally sensitive people cinema should have flourished here.And in many ways it has.While the rest of the country was busy making full-blooded musicals bengali cinema dealt with serious human issues.The films made in the 50s,60s and 70s were not only entertaining & successful they represented good,robust cinema.Some of the stalwart directors of this era were  Satyajit Ray,Ritwik Ghatak,Tapan Sinha,Ajay Kar and Salil Datta.Their  movies won awards won awards at international fests.In fact Bengali movies still pick up trophies with amazing regularity.This is in stark contrast to some other regional cinema which do not win awards at all.After the death of matinee idol Uttam Kumar bengali films have gone into a slump.There are many reasons for this.The absence of a saleable star is the most important.Films have to face stiff competition from tv,theatre and local art forms like jatra.Most disturbing is the lack of talent in commercial cinema.What is redeeming however is that only good,well-made films have tasted any success.Sub-standard films have been completely rejected by the discerning audiences.Finally,gentle reader I wish to remind you that Satyajit Ray who made nothing but bengali films was given an OSCAR for lifetime achievement.That perhaps says something about bengali films.