Sunday, February 25, 2007

Satyajit Ray's documentary on Rabindranath

In 1961, on the insistence of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Ray was commissioned to make a documentary on Rabindranath Tagore, on the occasion of the poet's birth centennial, a tribute to the person who probably influenced Ray most. Due to limited real footage of Tagore available, Ray faced the challenge of making a film out of mainly static material, and he remarked that it took as much work as three feature films. [Link]

The script, commentary and direction is by Satyajit Ray. In a word, a brilliant documentary. Ray himself has mentioned, “Ten or twelve minutes of it are among the most moving and powerful things that I have produced”. [Link]
On the 7th of August, 1941, in the city of Calcutta a man died. His mortal remains perished. But he left behind him a heritage, which no fire could consume. It is a heritage of words, and music, and poetry, of ideas, and of ideals. And it has the power to move us, to inspire us today, and in the days to come.




Epilogue
: Developing a historical consciousness is important. It frees us from the bondage to the present, and from a fanatical devotion to the practical. It restores in us the dignity of thought, and instills in us a sense of what-could-have-been.

7 comments:

thalassa_mikra said...

Eimatro tomaar blog-ey Kanika-r gawa "Modhur tomaar shesh" shunlaam. Kanika-r gola ta opurbo.

Kintu aupras ta shudhu duti shobder noi? Karon "alingane" er por ekta "sakal" eshey jai. Ontoto school-e anupras olonkar er byaparey eitai shikhechhilam.

Anek dhonnobad gaan-ta upload korar jonyo.

thalassa_mikra said...

I was going through your archives? You like Shantideb Ghosh too. Shantideb Ghosh er gola amaar ottonto priyo. There is a certain puratoni charm to his voice that is hard to find anywhere else.

Have you heard his rendition of "Phagun hawai hawai" or "Jaatri aami"?

Holden Caulfield said...

thanks for visiting. hyan, kanika-r golai oi gan-ta khub bhalo lage sunte. anupras to alliteration - alingane-er agey angabihin achhe na?

ensips ektu slow, odeo te ekhon ar notun member-der upload korte dichchhena.

shantideb onoboddo. phagun hawai hawai / jaatri ami sunini.

napster e ja pai tai suni. kichhu gan achhe esnips-e.

thalassa_mikra said...

Tai bollam shudhu "angabihin alingane" tai anupras, baaki ta noi (I'm so sorry about this, it seems I'm an inveterate nitpicker :) )

Did you grow up in Bengal?

Holden Caulfield said...

oh so you wanted something like:

keshava kuru karuna (dine)
kunjakananachari

madhava manomohana mohana
muralidhari

yes, i did.

Anonymous said...

Many thanks for this link. I have been wanting to see this documentary for years.

Holden Caulfield said...

rama, thanks for visiting.