Satyajit Ray

[Michael Kerpan]

Devi (Goddess) was pretty chilling -- a religious "horror" film somewhat like the later Himala (Miracle) of Bernal. Quite impressive -- but not a film I can imagine watching very often.

[ando]

Well, I guess tracking down a copy of Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne will be a task. I saw one of the two or three versions on YT, all of whcih are poor but tolerable. But what a wonderful ride - even if it was created for children. That aspect is part of its charm (the dark ghost makes meat and rice suddenly materialize for our musically gifted, but hapless duo to eat, but first they must wash their hands!).For those unfamiliar with this legendary story - and film - Goopy and Bagha are musicians and exiles from their respective kingdoms, banished for insulting their kings with bad performances. They meet in the forest, sing to scare away a tiger, but attract a powerful dark ghost who grants them three wishes - all of which start them on a path to becoming wildly famous. Contemporary Bollywood romps aren't half as fun.



Any marketplace suggestions?

[chatterjees]

The story was written by his own grandfather. The follow up to this film Hirak Rajar Deshe, a political satire, was also brilliant. I am eagerly waiting for a Criterion release, so that I can show it to my 3 years old. I do have this particular DVD, I guess I can just use the DVD to introduce my daughter to Ray's films

[Michael Kerpan]

Unfortunately the Ciematheque Francaise showed Goopy and Bagha at the same time as something else we were already scheduled to do.

[Stefan Andersson]

Two (1964) including restoration info:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zACGLjd9JNY


Restoration info and David Shepard´s 1993 rundown on extant materials for Ray films:
http://satyajitrayworld.org/restoration ... estoration

[L.A.]

Scroll.in has an interview with actor Dhritiman Chatterjee who talks about his role in Satyajit Ray’s Pratidwandi (1970) and about the director’s legacy in the year of his centenary.

[L.A.]

Firstpost has an interesting piece on Joi Baba Felunath by Jai Arjun Singh.

[Calvin]

The National Film Archive of India has restored The Adversary, Hirak Rajar Deshe, Sonar Kella, and the short documentary Sukumar Ray in 4K. The restored The Adversary will premiere as part of Cannes Classics.

[Calvin]

The BFI Southbank is having a 2 month Ray retrospective, which includes a new 4K restoration of Distant Thunder

[L.A.]

Mira Nair in discussion of the restorations for Ray’s films.

[kuzine]

The unique universe of Satyajit Ray, about Ray's The Alien.

[Stefan Andersson]

The Home and the World restored:
https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/44713.html
French theatrical re-release in 2025:
https://www.acaciasfilms.com/film/la-ma ... -le-monde/

Elephant God, The Stranger and other Ray restorations:
https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/programme/sat ... ay/1361664

[kekid]

The last link did not work for me.

[Stefan Andersson]

The last link did not work for me.

Thanks for pointing this out. Sorry about that. Updated last link in previous post, plus the next to last link.

[Stefan Andersson]

News from Nov. 2025 -

Satyajit Ray´s Kanchenjungha (now in the public domain according to Sandip Ray) to be restored; restoration of Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne has begun.

Shivendra Singh Dungarpur of the Film Heritage Foundation: "For ‘Kanchenjungha', we are going to work closely with the British Film Institute, the Academy, and the National Film Archive of India."
https://bengalinfo.com/newsdetail.php?newsid=437848
Dungarpur says that rights for Kanchenjungha was in dispute, but Sandip Ray has secured the clearances:
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ent ... 872125.cms

Info from 2009 re: Kanchenjungha:

Sandip Ray: “The Academy will have to do with the copy of the master negative of the film, made by the maestro in 1962, as the original negative was destroyed due to mishandling,”. the master negative of the film, starring one of the Bengali film doyens Chhabi Biswas, was damaged beyond repair as the canned stock was kept exposed to the sun and rain on the roof of a film laboratory in Mumbai.
Ray: “This happened as the producers probably lost interest since the film did not bring the expected box office returns and the storage fee was not given to the lab,” he said.
The film’s titles show the NCA as the production company while Harrison Pictures were the Indian distributors.
“In the absence of the original negative, they had to scour other sources and procured another negative, copied from the original lying with the Pune Film archives,” Sandip said.

Plans for restoring Chiriakhana (1967), and the documentaries about Sikkim and Rabindranath Tagore are also mentioned.
https://satyamshot.wordpress.com/2009/0 ... from-copy/

[beamish14]

Kanchenjungha was far and away the roughest looking of all the Ray films I saw at the Academy’s retrospective. It looked like a Polaroid photo that had been left out in the sun. No vibrancy at all. They’ve got a lot of work ahead

[mteller]

Chiriakhana is his worst film, IMHO. But very excited about Kanchenjungha. GGBB is not one of my favorites (though I recognize its cultural significance). As for the two docs, they're totally fine but not something I'd watch over and over again. As a Ray completionist, of course, I'd buy them all. Any news of possible future releases is most welcome... but come on already with the Calcutta trilogy! Please?

[Stefan Andersson]

Info from 2024:

Seemabaddha has been shown at a film festival in Goa, "restored through the efforts of the NFDC-National Film Archive of India under the National Film Heritage Mission, funded by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. /.../ "The restoration /.../ utilised a 35mm fine-grain master provided by the Academy Film Archive, which had photochemically preserved the film elements in the late 1990s and early 2000s," an NFDC official explained. The restored version includes a one-minute colour sequence featuring a Peter Fan advertisement, which was absent in earlier versions and will now be shown in its original form. This effort is part of the ongoing restoration of Ray's "Calcutta Trilogy," with "Pratidwandi," the first film in the trilogy, restored in 2022."
https://www.thedailystar.net/entertainm ... fi-3763631