Indian films to be shown

Indian films to be shown

JAKARTA (JP): Bentara Budaya Jakarta will be screening old
quality films you would not find at commercial theaters. This
time, the theater, located at Jl. Palmerah Selatan 17, Central
Jakarta, will present Satyajit Ray's trilogy for three days,
starting on Monday, Nov. 20.

Satyajit Ray's name is on the same par as other
internationally noted film directors. Many Asian directors have
succeeded in penetrating western domination, but several decades
ago only Satyajit Ray and Japan's Akira Kurosawa received global
recognition.

Ray's top recognition was in the form of an honorary Oscar for
his mastery of the art of movies and his humanitarian view.

Satyajit Ray was born in a family well-known for their skill
in arts and literature in Bengali. As a 1940 university graduate
in sciences and economics, he joined a famous school established
by Rabindranath Tagore at Satiniketan. Tagore was also known as
the cultivator of India's cultural renaissance. It was this
figure that heavily affected Satyajit Ray in the area of movies.

In 1942, Ray moved to Calcutta and for the next 10 years he
worked as an art director at a British advertising agency. During
his leisure time, he wrote movie scripts. One of them was an
adaptation of Tagore's novel titled Ghare Baire. It was declined
by the producer as Ray refused to make changes which were
recommended by the producer. Upon India's independence in 1947,
Ray set up the first movie club in Calcutta together with
Chidananda Das Gupta. He wrote articles advocating the growth of
new cinemas.

Due to his expertise as a musical arranger, he was asked to
prepare the illustrations for the condensed version of
Bibhutibhushan Banerji's classic novel titled Father Panchali.
This became his first film after having met Jean Renoir, a
prestigious French director, in 1949, and getting an opportunity
to see Bicycle Thief in London in 1950. Ray was both the
screenplay writer and director. He shot the film on weekends. No
investors seemed to take an interest in it, and this film would
not have been completed if there had not been a request from New
York's Museum of Modern Art for it to participate in the Indian
Arts exhibition to be held there. For the first time in history,
the West Bengali administration funded a film.

Father Panchali succeeded in receiving several international
awards and installed Ray as a world class director. This film
turned out to be a box office hit in India, and thereafter Ray
had full control over the films he produced. In his succeeding
films, Ray not only acted as the screenplay writer and director,
but also as musical arranger from 1961 and as cinematographer
from 1963.

This success encouraged Ray to produce the film's sequels,
based on the same novel: Aparajito (1956) and The World of Apu
(1959). These three films were later known as the Apu Trilogy.
From 1955 to 1991 he produced some 30 films. He also received
dozens of international awards.

Synopsis

Father Panchali (1955, 112 minutes, b/w)

Awards: Winner of the Humanity Document Award at the 1956
Cannes Film Festival, Best Film at the 1957 British Academy
Awards, Best Foreign Film at the 1958 New York Film Critics
Circle.

The film centers around a poor family living in a village in
the federal state of Bengali. The father (Kanu Banerji) leaves
for the city to realize his dream: to become a writer. He also
leaves his wife (Karuna Banerji) who has to take care of their
children and her elder sister. The sister is taken to another
village, but she dies. When the wife returns home, she also finds
her daughter dead. The other two films in this trilogy are about
Apu, the son.

Aparajito (1957, 108 minutes, b/w)

Awards: Winner of the Gold Lion Cup and Fipresci Award at the
1957 Venetia Film Festival, Best Film at the 1958 British Academy
Awards, Best Foreign Film at the 1959 New York Film Critics
Circle.

The second in the trilogy, this film depicts the struggles in
life for Apu and his mother in a small town. She wants her son to
become an Indian priest, but Apu prefers going to school. He
turns out to be successful and receives a scholarship to study at
Calcutta University. Caught up in urban life and the demands of
his studies, Apu gradually forgets his mother.

The World of Apu (1959, 103 minutes, b/w)

Awards: Best Foreign Film at the 1960 New York Film Critics
Circle, Best Film at the 1961 British Academy Awards.

Apu (Soumitra Chaterji) has grown into a young man. Like his
father, he also wants to become a writer. He has to drop out of
university because of a lack of money, but his life changes when
he meets his old friend Pulu (Shapan Mukerji). Together they go
to the wedding of Pulu's niece, Aparna (Sharmila Tagore). It
turns out that the bridegroom suffers from a mental illness, so
the wedding is canceled. Apu agrees to marry Aparna to save her
reputation in society. The new couple returns to Apu's apartment
in Calcutta to start a new life, but they undergo hard times.