Birthday anniversary of Tagore

[Bhaskar Jyoti Talapatra]

Today is the birthday anniversary of Tagore. But this year we can't observe this day as we had done so far. During lockdown most of us are at home and we commemorate this great soul in various ways. Sadly this year schools ,colleges ,universities can't arrange any programme. However, I am at home and listening to Rabindrasangeet and commemorating the bard.

 

[Ashenden]

Satyajit Ray had made a wonderful documentary on Rabindranath Tagore and it was released in 1961, coinciding with Tagore's birth centenary year. The video combines archival material with dramatized scenes from Tagore's biography. Ray had once mentioned in an interview that this project was more difficult than a feature length film, as he had to work with static images and very less video footage. However, sadly Ray's video has been badly damaged over time and the Criterion collection edition also suffers from this as they have found it very difficult to restore this gem to its past glory.

Bonus feature: Ray's rich baritone voice-over narrating Tagore's life

 

[Bhaskar Jyoti Talapatra]

This documentary is a must watch for those who like to know more about Tagore and also learn how Ray paid his homage to the poet of International acclaim through this . Years back in 90's Delhi Doordarshan telecast it on the birthday anniversary of Tagore and I , a college student then had the chance to watch it on our Black and white TV. Generally I did not watch documentary but I was keen on learning more about both Tagore and Ray so I watched it and till date I can remember how nice was the project. But felt bad learning that even criterion collection is not so good as most other restored movies of Ray. But this is our tragedy and most of the old Bengali movies are also in bad condition and some of the movies are unavailable.