Sun, 19 Nov 2000

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.