I have written earlier about my fears of introducing my students at Meerut to Satyajit Ray.
As it turned out, the first viewing of a Ray film happened with one of personal favourite films; Aranyer Diner Ratri (Days and Nights in the Forest).
In a motif of the times we live in, a student downloaded the movie onto his phone, and then we saw it on a laptop.
A film made in 1968, in Black and White and Bengali. For its times, it was a multi-starrer, but to modern day kids, Soumitra Chatterjee or Simi Grewal or Sharmila Tagore mean very little. So for me, the movie started with the fear, how are these kids going to react to it?
I need not have worried at all, as the movie was a hit with the audience. The kids loved it.
Of course I knew it was a superb piece of cinema, each nuance beautifully worked out by a master filmmaker. But to see it look fresh and wonderful after all these years, ahhh, that's a wonderful moment. I can only compare it to my emotions when my son watched 81/2 and loved Marcello Mastronioni. You feel you have passed on a part of your heritage to another generation.
The real magic came in re-discovering Ray for myself, how wonderfully a great filmmaker works. The simplicity, the sheer elegance of the narrative moments, in the business of living one forgets what a great filmmaker does to his audience.
If this is classical filmmaking, why on earth does one need to go against these classical rules?
I guess at a certain level you feel relief that the classics are still valid, have a value.
As it turned out, the next day we saw Satyajit Ray's Charulata, to me one of the greatest pieces of cinema ever made.
What a pleasure to see the students loving it, and saying how does Ray make the movies so close to our lives. This in 2016 is a testimony to Ray's greatness as a filmmaker.
As it turned out, the first viewing of a Ray film happened with one of personal favourite films; Aranyer Diner Ratri (Days and Nights in the Forest).
In a motif of the times we live in, a student downloaded the movie onto his phone, and then we saw it on a laptop.
A film made in 1968, in Black and White and Bengali. For its times, it was a multi-starrer, but to modern day kids, Soumitra Chatterjee or Simi Grewal or Sharmila Tagore mean very little. So for me, the movie started with the fear, how are these kids going to react to it?
I need not have worried at all, as the movie was a hit with the audience. The kids loved it.
Of course I knew it was a superb piece of cinema, each nuance beautifully worked out by a master filmmaker. But to see it look fresh and wonderful after all these years, ahhh, that's a wonderful moment. I can only compare it to my emotions when my son watched 81/2 and loved Marcello Mastronioni. You feel you have passed on a part of your heritage to another generation.
The real magic came in re-discovering Ray for myself, how wonderfully a great filmmaker works. The simplicity, the sheer elegance of the narrative moments, in the business of living one forgets what a great filmmaker does to his audience.
If this is classical filmmaking, why on earth does one need to go against these classical rules?
I guess at a certain level you feel relief that the classics are still valid, have a value.
As it turned out, the next day we saw Satyajit Ray's Charulata, to me one of the greatest pieces of cinema ever made.
What a pleasure to see the students loving it, and saying how does Ray make the movies so close to our lives. This in 2016 is a testimony to Ray's greatness as a filmmaker.
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