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Goutam Ghosh makes documentary on physicist Meghnad Saha

The life and times of world-famous physicist Meghnad Saha have been captured in a new documentary by ace film-maker Goutam Ghosh.

Kolkata: The life and times of world-famous physicist Meghnad Saha have been captured in a new documentary by ace film-maker Goutam Ghosh.
The English documentary, will focus on milestones in the physicist`s career, including the discovery of the famous `Saha Equation` which describes the chemical and physical composition of stars. Ghosh told reporters that the documentary, which was completed in February, has a story line involving the physicist and a fictional researcher, Sampurna, who works at the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Saha`s brain child. The researcher narrates the history of the premier nuclear research institute which Saha founded in 1948, devoted exclusively to researching nuclear energy. Though Saha retired in 1952 from the post of the director of the institute as per its rules, he was associated with its activity in an honorary capacity. "This is my attempt to remind science students as well as lay enthusiasts of the achievements of the genius," Ghosh said. The documentary will shed light on Saha`s interest in nuclear physics, his keenness to have a cyclotron in Kolkata and his instrumental role in setting up the only facility in the country which ironically became operational only after his death in 1956. "During my research on Saha, I found that he had an abiding interest in the activity of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science right from the early 30s. He became the president of the institute and initiated several new research programmes," the director said. Saha was born at Seoratali, about 40 km from Dhaka in present Bangladesh, in 1893 and died here in 1956. PTI