An elusive actor is a rarity. Talking Head is about the actor Dhritiman Chaterji. In October 1970, Pratidwandi (The Adversary) one of Satyajit Ray’s most political films was released. It was a film about the time; the moment of anger, disenchantment, strikes, injustice and unemployment among the young. It was a film about angry youth and it introduced Dhritiman Chaterji, into film acting. A new actor in Bengali cinema, Dhritiman Chaterji acted in few of the most prominent films of the decade. But he never quite plunged into mainstream commercial cinema always remaining a poster boy of Bengali parallel cinema. He acted in some of the most hard-hitting movies of its time. Ray’s Pratidwandi (1970) and Mrinal Sen’s Padatik (1973) being two of the most important ones.*Over the years he remained an odd man, defiant, never living in Calcutta where Bengali actors are worshipped, always eluding stardom. Like his first role he continued raising his voice when most actors were terrified to register their protests. Yet he is an actor still trying to fit in. Talking Head tells his story; and the story of India through the years. Stories that give a ringside view of cinema, its processes and the directors that lived and worked. It is a story about the time when movies were revolutionary and men and women were trying to build a just country. This biography of an actor is also about the time gone by and the world that has changed irrevocably.DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: Sometimes film is a form of memoir. In the summer of 2019, I started telling a story about an actor unattached to the frills of stardom. It was to be a story about parallel cinema and the untold around it. Life as we knew it changed around March 2020. This film is a biography of a person and an era. It is a memoir of a man, a time and a city that once was. It is an archive of stories that classify as film history. My purpose of a documentarian is also to capture and create an archive. I hope that Talking Head in the years that will unfold will become an archive of the kind of cinema and filmmaking we saw in the India of the seventies. This is also the second of my film series that will archive the stories and memories of Calcutta in the seventies. My earlier film You Don't Belong (2011) was about a song that tells a story of a specific time in the musical history of Bengal. Talking Head captures Calcutta, cinema of the seventies and eighties in India through an eminent actor. It unravels the mystery and mythology around an actor who worked with the masters of Indian cinema. It is about Dhritiman Chaterji, who takes us with him on a journey into life and cinema over 5 decades.