How the Academy saved APU from oblivion!

The three films Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road), Aparajito (The Unvanquished), and Apur Sansar (The World of Apu) — based on two books by Bibhutibhusan Banerjee changed the paradigm of Indian cinema to say the least.

Best Bengali movies of 2013 – First Quarter!

How are you movie watchers from the land of Rabindranath Tagore and Satyajit Ray? I hear, they cut cakes together now-a- days! Celebrated their birthdays recently!  The film industry of this part of the world is seeing some change. Some change for the good. I believe every time I am discussing something with someone from …

What is still wrong with Indian Cinema???

Remembering Ray on his birthday… 🙂

Robin Wood, Film Critic (The Apu Trilogy 1972)
“Can we [the Western audience] feel any confidence that we are adequately understanding, intellectually and emotionally, works which are the product of a culture very different from our own?

… What is remarkable is how seldom in Ray’s films the spectator is pulled up by any specific obstacle arising from cultural differences … Ray is less interested in expressing ideas than in communicating emotional experience. ”

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In a 1948 article entitled, “What is Wrong with Indian Films,” Ray criticized India’s movement away from art and towards either musicals or heavy mysticism:
“The raw material of the cinema is life itself. It is incredible that a country which has inspired so much painting and music and poetry should fail to move the movie maker. He has only to keep his eyes open, and his ears. Let him do so.”

After thousands of years of cultural ecstasy any individual will tend to believe that cinema, rather Indian cinema would reflect something of a corresponding breadth and depth. Unfortunately, in India, quite the contrary is true, especially after the explosion of trade affairs associated with the art of film making and a development of entertainment industry known as “Bollywood”. It is quite evident that the low tastes of people are governed by the media…

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Film criticism – Expecting more insight in film making…

In an attempt to describe and rate movies, the basic ethnicity of human instincts gets deceived very spontaneously. A film get released, hits the theaters, welcomed or rejected by audiences and then people speak about its success or failure stories. The entire routine of film making is more than what is described by the film …

Rejection in the Oscar Awards – Yawning audiences and Duping producers!

We watch movies in theatres and now we have multiplexes to cater our pride and beat the hectic city schedules. But, have we sold our logic and reason to some unknown sheriff from a distant land or are we relentlessly poised to receive whatever trash we are subjected to? The answer to the question seems rhetorical. …

Logically Disputing Stories – A tribute to Ritwik Ghatak!

     An accolade or a tribute to the great film maker and one of the pioneers of Indian parallel cinema, Mr. Ritwik Ghatak seems like a forced act to me right now. I do not know, for how many nights he stayed awake and for how many days he starved out of frustration, although I …

How I perceived Calcutta 71 – A tribute to Mrinal Sen!

A young man completes his degree in Physics from Scottish Church College, Calcutta and then becomes a journalist. Political backdrops and unseen personal clashes drive him out of the city and compel him to be a medical representative and medicine seller in an unknown land. He comes back to his city to take up a …

Shyam Benegal speaks about Satyajit Ray…

A living legend expresses his regards for another immortal artist that India ever had... How Satyajit Ray influenced Mr. Shyam Benegal was rather my curiosity and that makes me pen down some thoughts and impression about these two spectacular men that Indian Cinema has ever witnessed!                 I …

Development of authentic motion picture criticism in India…

A section of the audience in every movie theatre prefers to appreciate the work of the film maker keeping the flavour of the film and the message conveyed by the film in mind. They can see through the scenes of the film and read between the lines written by the writer and as the movie comes to the climax, …

Documentary on Tagore by Satyajit Ray

A documentary by Satyajit Ray on life of Ravindranath Tagore (Thakur) - the first non-European Nobel laureate (Literature, 1913). Narrated by Satyajit Ray. Some rare glimpses! To back my last pressed document, "A tribute to Ray...", I would like to post a documentary made by the man himself on Kobi-guru Rabindranath Tagore. His achievements in …

A tribute to Ray…

An effort to materialize a vision, a dream and an imagination is reciprocated by one and all if and only if you have the courage to define the form of art that you want to profess, preach and practice. Cinema is a huge subject which tends to have its direct effects on my imagination and …