News

The short story is a specific genre of prose literature that developed and became popularised in Europe in the nineteenth century and later influenced other literary and cultural traditions across the globe. The development of print culture, mass production, and propagation of newspapers and magazines, and the emergence of the ‘middle-class’ as a new socio-economic stratum all became contributing factors to the burgeoning of the genre.

From the very early days of its development, cinema has been a medium of amalgamation of different art forms and expressions. Different filmmakers across languages have successfully integrated elements from varied literary traditions in their films, creating a plethora of cinematic adaptations of literary works. Indian cinema has also had a rich legacy of film adaptations of seminal literary pieces.

We have innumerable examples of films adapted from noteworthy plays and novels, but what makes the short story distinct as a literary genre and...

Tarun Majumdar: Friend of the Marginal Human Being! Tarun Majumdar, one of the most commercially successful filmmakers of mainstream “family” films, passed away in 2022 at the ripe old age of 91. With him, an entire era of films that consistently reasserted the Bengali, middle-class identity faded away completely. Of course, he had stopped making films due to age-related complications, but that does not detract from Bengali cinema, the numerous beautiful, mass-appeal films that had their hearts in the right place.

From the stories he drew from Bengali literature, through the wonderful music and songs that are hummable to this day, his films are a milestone carved in the history of Bengali cinema. Here I try to recollect seven of his outstanding films that have survived the ravages of time. Most of his leading heroes did not fit into the check box of the mainstream hero, though his films were entirely mainstream.

Television director Daniel Minahan’s On Swift Horses left me with extremely mixed films. By no means is it an irrevocably dishevelled work. On the other hand, some of its plotting is so pedestrian it felt like a betrayal.

The very fact that the film has the power to evoke a sentiment as strong as betrayal proves the director and his writer Bryce Cass are on to something special. Sadly the film loses it way in trying to find a path through what was known in the 1950s as “forbidden love.”

In ploughing gently through the fertile farm of fragile feelings, the narration encounters unforeseen hurdles, much of it of the most vapid variety.

When we first meet the film’s very lovely heroine Muriel (Daisy Edgar-Jones) she reminded me Madhabi Mukherjee as Charulata in Satyajit Ray’s film. The same smouldering yearning, a longing for something that her arid marriage cannot provide.

When Satyajit Ray’s 1970 film Aranyer Din Ratri (Days and Nights in the Forest) returned to Cannes this May, it was far from a faded relic. Restored by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur and the Film Heritage Foundation, the film, in ravishingly revived form, was selected for the prestigious Cannes Classics section as a testament to Ray’s enduring influence on world cinema through classics like 1955’s Panther Panchali, which is the first film in the director’s celebrated Apu Trilogy.

To mark the occasion, The Hollywood Reporter India spoke with three individuals deeply touched by the film and its creator: legendary Indian actress Sharmila Tagore, a frequent Ray collaborator; Wes Anderson, whose work bears Ray’s influence; and Dungarpur, whose archival work revived the film.

“I watched [Ray’s 1961 title] Teen Kanya first, just because it happened to be available in a video store in Texas,” Anderson recalls. “That’s how I became interested in his films.

A six-year restoration journey spearheaded by filmmaker Wes Anderson has culminated in Satyajit Ray’s 1970 masterpiece “Aranyer Din Ratri” (“Days and Nights in the Forest”) securing a slot at Cannes Classics.

The restoration project began in 2019 when Anderson, through his position on the board of Martin Scorsese’s The Film Foundation, initiated discussions about preserving the film. “The Grand Budapest Hotel” director’s passion for Ray’s work drove the collaborative effort between The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, Film Heritage Foundation, Janus Films and The Criterion Collection, with funding provided by the Golden Globe Foundation.

“Anything signed by Satyajit Ray must be cherished and preserved; but the nearly-forgotten ‘Days and Nights in the Forest’ is a special/particular gem,” Anderson said. “Made in 1970. Modern and novelistic. Ray worked in terrain perhaps more familiar to Cassavetes. A clash/negotiation between castes and sexes. Urbans and rurals. Selfish men and...

It all began with the first film, 1955’s Pather Panchali; considered a masterpiece still to this day. In this fascinating feature, Subhash K Jha turns the focus on Satyajit Ray, The Father of Indian films. The writer, director, and composer went on to create 36 brilliant films, and his legacy as a master storyteller and filmmaker lives on.

What was the world doing when you first saw Pather Panchali for the first time? I must have been 18 or 19 when I met Apu and Durga for the first time. They were so close I could touch their heartbeat. I don’t know what happened to Subir Banerjee and Runki Banerjee, who played Apu and Durga. But the two siblings in Pather Panchali have remained a part of our lives since 1955.

A year later, Apu was a gawky youngster in Aparajito in pursuit of his dreams while his mother languished in the village.

2020 was especially cruel to our entertainment industry. One by one, we lost Irrfan Khan, Rishi Kapoor, (music composer) Wajid Khan, Basu Chatterjee, Sushant Singh Rajput, Saroj Khan, Jagdeep, S. P Balasubramaniam, Soumitra Chatterjee, and Nishikant Kamat.

Nishikant Kamat’s going; I took it personally. Though I had never met him, we shared a certain bonding. Whenever he called, he would speak in that soft, respectful voice and tell me that I should not mind if he doesn’t respond to my messages immediately as he travelled a lot.

I first reached out to Nishikant after I saw his directorial debut, that exceptional Marathi film Dombivali West in 2005, which was quickly remade into Tamil as Evano Oruvan with Madhavan in the lead. Nishikant quickly became a successful director in Bollywood. But he hardly had any friends in the Mumbai film industry except John Abraham, with whom he did the successful Force and Rocky Handsome.

Shabana Azmi had the rare privilege of playing both wife and daughter to Soumitra Chatterjee. “But then he had the rarest privilege of doing fourteen films with Satyajit Ray. I was in a film group that was honoured at the prestigious George Pompidou Centre in Paris sometime in the 1980s and it was so incredible to watch the adulation showered on him by French fans. In Paris, they called out to him as Apu (from Satyajit Ray’s Apur Sansar) and Amal (from Ray’s Charulata) and rushed to get photographed with him. Soumitrada seemed to to take it all in his stride and said modestly, ‘It’s because Ray made these characters so memorable that I’m reaping the benefits.’ I was amazed at how lightly he wore his fame.”

Recalling her own experiences of collaborating with Soumitrada as a co-actor Shabana says, “I had the honour of working...

Veteran actor Mithun Chakraborty has been named the recipient of the Dadasaheb Phalke award, India’s highest honor in cinema.

The announcement was made by Ashwini Vaishnaw, India’s Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Railways and Electronics and Information Technology.

The award is given for lifetime contribution to Indian cinema and is named after Phalke, director of “Raja Harischandra” (1913), India’s first full-length feature, who is considered the father of Indian cinema.

Chakraborty, 74, has appeared in over 350 films across multiple Indian languages during his nearly five-decade career. He rose to prominence with his debut in “Mrigayaa” (1976), which earned him his first Indian National Film Award for Best Actor. The actor gained widespread recognition for his role in “Disco Dancer” (1982), a film that also found success beyond Indian shores across Asia, the erstwhile Soviet Union, eastern Europe, the Middle East, Turkey and Africa.

Throughout his career, Chakraborty has collected three acting...

Indian actor Prosenjit Chatterjee is a veteran of more than 250 films, but his most recent endeavor “Shesh Pata” is one of the special ones.

Chatterjee is a superstar in the eastern Indian Bengali-language film industry and a sought-after actor in the Hindi-language Bollywood industry as well. He scored global hits in 2023 with his pivotal roles in Prime Video series “Jubilee” and Netflix series “Scoop.” The same year, he starred in Bengali blockbuster “Dasham Avatar.”

For “Shesh Pata,” Chatterjee reunited with director Atanu Ghosh, with whom he’d done successful films “Mayurakshi” (2017) and “Robibaar” (2019). In “Shesh Pata,” Chatterjee plays Balmiki, an arrogant non-conformist fiction writer whose best days are behind him. A publisher commissions him to write a book about his murdered actress wife, but Balmiki, who is sunk in a morass of tobacco and alcohol, does not deliver. The publisher engages a debt recovery agent to get the writing out of Balmiki.

India's “renaissance woman” Aparna Sen – actress, director, producer, fighter for women's right, diversity and ethnic & religious minorities – whose career in the film business spans over six decades, was presented with the Red Lotus Lifetime Achievement Award 2024 in Vienna. The filmmaker was unfortunately not able to fly over to recieve it, and the award was presented to the winner through the German film critic and editor of the film magazine Shomingeki, Rüdiger Tomczak.

Parama: A Journey With Aparna Sen screened at Red Lotus Asian Film Festival Vienna

Only a few months ago, Sumah Ghosh's documentary “Parama: A Journey With Aparna Sen” about the Indian helmer celebrated its world premiere in the Cinema Regained strand of IFFR, and it was only logical to include it in the repertoire of Red Lotus Asian Film Festival. It is a film that gives a deep insight into the life and work of one of the...

Revered Indian actor and filmmaker Aparna Sen is the subject of Suman Ghosh’s documentary “Parama: A Journey with Aparna Sen,” which has its world premiere at International Film Festival Rotterdam‘s Cinema Regained strand.

Sen came to notice as an actor with the “Samapti” segment in Oscar winner Satyajit Ray’s “Three Daughters” (1961). She acted in several more films by Ray and also worked with Indian cinema greats Mrinal Sen, Tapan Sinha and Rituparno Ghosh. Her acting credits also include Merchant-Ivory films “The Guru” (1969) and “Bombay Talkie” (1970).

“36 Chowringhee Lane” (1981), Sen’s directorial debut, won her best director at India’s National Film Awards. She has directed several acclaimed films since, including “Paroma” (1984), “Sati” (1989), “Paromitar Ek Din” (2000), “Mr. and Mrs. Iyer” (2002), “Goynar Baksho” (2013) and “The Rapist,” which won the Kim Jiseok prize at Busan in 2021.

Sen starred in Ghosh’s “The Bose Family” (2019). Ghosh is a prolific filmmaker who is...

Shastry Viruddh Shastry (streaming on Netflix)

Starring Paresh Rawal, Neena Kulkarni, Shiv Pundit, Mimi Chakraborty

Directed by Shiboprosad Mukherjee, Nandita Roy

Viacom 18 is fast acquiring the reputation of being producers who kill their own films, for reasons that are more fiscal than creative. They did it to the wonderful Dhak Dhak and now to Shastry Viruddh Shastry, a thoughtful if somewhat sluggish remake of a very successful Bengali film Posto.

The story of an unusual custody battle, Shatry Viruddh Shastry sees a 7-year old boy’s grandparents, played by Paresh Rawal and Neena Kulkarni who are no match to Soumitra Chatterjee and Lily Chakraborty in the original, fighting to keep their grandson with them.

Paresh plays a classical musician Manohar who along with his wife Urmila (Neena Kulkarni) looks after their grandchild Momoji (Kabir Pahwa) in Panchgani (the original film was set in Shantiniketan). When the child’s parents...

Revered Indian actor Waheeda Rehman has been accorded the Dadasaheb Phalke award, India’s highest film honor.

The award is given for lifetime contribution to Indian cinema and is named after Phalke, director of “Raja Harischandra” (1913), India’s first full-length feature, who is considered the father of Indian cinema.

Rehman, the 85-year-old grande dame of Indian cinema has worked with most of the legendary filmmakers of her country during her career and the roles she chose were in films that are considered classics in the annals of Indian cinema. She worked with Guru Dutt in “Pyaasa” (1957) and “Kaagaz Ke Phool” (1959), Satyajit Ray in “Abhijaan” (1962), Basu Bhattacharya in “Teesri Kasam” (1966) and Yash Chopra in “Kabhie Kabhie” (1976), among many other memorable roles.

But it is her role as Rosie in Vijay Anand’s “Guide” (1965) that Rehman remembers with the greatest fondness. “When I signed ‘Guide’ more than 50 years ago, my friends told...

Parambrata Chattopadhyay is the latest actor to play Oscar-winning Indian master Satyajit Ray’s detective Prodosh Chandra Mitter Aka Feluda in streamer ZEE5 Global’s series “Shabash Feluda.”

Feluda first appeared in the Ray family’s Bengali-language magazine Sandesh in 1965. Ray directed two Feluda films, “The Golden Fortress” (1974) and “The Elephant God” (1978), where the Bengali detective was played by his frequent collaborator Soumitra Chatterjee. Feluda has subsequently been played by a range of Indian actors, including Shashi Kapoor, Abir Chatterjee, Tota Roy Chowdhury, Indraneil Sengupta and Bangladesh’s Ahmed Rubel.

The detective is part of the fabric of growing up in West Bengal and Bangladesh, akin to what Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple used to be for several generations in the west.

Chattopadhyay first interpreted the detective in 2017 for series “Feluda” for Bangladesh’s Bioscopelive which he directed and also played Feluda. “It was a very radical interpretation...

My parents were born and raised in Kolkata, India, and experienced the golden age of Bengali cinema. They could see themselves in characters onscreen solving mysteries like Soumitra Chatterjee in “Feluda,” courting like legendary stars Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen, and living everyday village life as seen through the poignant lens of Satyajit Ray.

As a first generation Bengali-American girl, I grew up with two different cultures in a suburban, Irish-Catholic neighborhood. I went to Catholic school for six years, but I also went to Hindu temple camp and spent most of my summer vacations in Kolkata. I speak fluent Bengali and slayed my AP English exam. I danced Bharatnatyam for over 10 years while taking ballet and hip-hop.

I watched a handful of Bollywood films growing up, but I didn’t speak or understand Hindi and couldn’t really connect to the stories. Something clicked when I saw “Bend It Like Beckham,...

The late Govindan Aravindan’s 1978 masterpiece “Thamp̄” (“The Circus Tent”) is one of two Indian films at this year’s Cannes Classics selection, alongside Satyajit Ray’s “Pratidwandi” (“The Adversary”) from 1970.

“Thamp̄” was painstakingly restored by India’s Film Heritage Foundation (Fhf), an organization founded by filmmaker Shivendra Singh Dungarpur in 2014. Dungarpur facilitated the restoration of Uday Shankar’s landmark film “Kalpana” (1948) by Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Foundation, the restored version of which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012. He also collaborated with the World Cinema Foundation again for the restoration of the 1972 Sinhalese film “Nidhanaya” directed by eminent Sri Lankan filmmaker Lester James Peries. The restoration premiered at Venice in 2013.

The restoration of “Thamp̄” was a process that took eight months to achieve. Fhf, as a member of the International Federation of Film Archives, also put out a call to all the 171 member institutions around the world...

Amazon Prime Video has unveiled its line-up for the prestigious 52nd International Film Festival of India, to be held in Goa from 20th November 2021. This includes the world premiere of Amazon Original Movie – Chhorii, multiple masterclasses and interactive panels with the country’s creative stalwarts.

The collaboration is a testament to Iffi and Prime Video’s common goal of promoting excellence in cinematic art and appreciation of the role diverse cultures play in creating path-breaking entertainment content.Recognized as one of Asia’s oldest and India’s biggest international film festivals, Iffi, for the very first time in its five-decade-plus journey, is inviting video streaming services to the festival.This inclusion is reflective of the remarkable growth of the video streaming segment, its increasing role in fulfilling consumers’ entertainment needs and fuelling the overall growth of the creative economy. Amazon Prime Video’s association with Iffi will extend to the...

The esteemed London Indian Film Festival is ready to entertain, inspire and make people think with their special line-up of films, and guests this June. Titled To India With Love, this year the festival will be presented in a special hybrid format!

In a challenging year for India and South Asia, the Bagri Foundation London Indian Film Festival and its sister festivals in Birmingham and Manchester will be a love letter to the homelands, continuing to premiere the very best of new indie films from the Indian subcontinent and diaspora, from 17th June to 4th July 2021. As always it goes Beyond Bollywood!

Festival Director Cary Rajinder Sawhney MBE says: “Last year we grew our audiences quite substantially by going online and UK-wide. With the UK scene improving, we are delighted to not only offer a strong high definition online experience on LoveLIFFatHome.com, but to also welcome our audiences back...

100 Years of Satyajit Ray: a tribute to The Apu Trilogy

May 2, 2021, saw the start of celebrations of the 100th birthday of the great Bengali filmmaker, Satyajit Ray. Ray’s films were probably amongst the earliest Indian films I’d seen, long before Bollywood would grab my attention. I love many of Ray’s films: Devi from 1960 (starring the sublime Sharmila Tagore) is a particular favourite, and is a commentary on religious devotion and fundamentalism, and, particular, on a system that both places women on pedestals as goddesses even as it removes their agency and represses them. Charulata (apparently the film Ray himself cited as his own favourite of all his films) is an exercise in subtle storytelling and gave us the irrepressible Amal, played by Soumitra Chatterjee, who literally stole my heart in so many films. But no Ray film touches my heart so completely as do the three films...

India is celebrating the birth centenary of one of her greatest sons, Satyajit Ray, in a variety of ways.

Sunday, marks the centenary of Ray, the Indian master who won an honorary Oscar in 1992, shortly before his death, and remains the country’s best known filmmaker internationally.

Ray debuted with “Pather Panchali” (1955) the first part of the magisterial Apu Trilogy, which won best human document at Cannes. The Trilogy includes “Aparajito” (1956) and “Apur Sansar” (1959). Berlin was a particularly happy venue for him and he won top awards at the festival numerous times, for “Pather Panchali,” “Aparajito,” “Mahanagar” (1963), “Charulata” (1964), “Nayak” (1966) and “Ashani Sanket” (1973).

At Venice he won for “Aparajito” and “Seemabaddha” (1971), culminating in a career Golden Lion in 1982. He also won a British Institute Fellowship in 1983 to go with the London Film Festival’s Sutherland Trophy for “Apur Sansar.” In 1987, the government of France made Ray a Commander of the Legion of Honor.

Indian cinema superstar Rajinikanth, 70, will be the 2021 recipient of the Dadasaheb Phalke award, India’s highest film honor.

The award is given for lifetime contribution to Indian cinema and is named after Phalke, director of “Raja Harischandra” (1913), India’s first full-length feature, who is considered the father of Indian cinema. It carries a cash prize of Inr 1 million.

Announcing the award on Thursday, Prakash Javadekar, India’s information and broadcasting minister tweeted: “Happy to announce #Dadasaheb Phalke award for 2019 to one of the greatest actors in history of Indian cinema Rajnikant ji. His contribution as actor, producer and screenwriter has been iconic.”

The award jury consisted of filmmaker Subhash Ghai, musicians Asha Bhonsle and Shankar Mahadevan, and actors Mohanlal and Biswajit Chatterjee.

Happy to announce #Dadasaheb Phalke award for 2019 to one of the greatest actors in history of Indian cinema Rajnikant ji

His contribution as actor, producer and screenwriter has...

Jasmila Zbanic’s “Quo Vadis, Aida?,” the Bosnia and Herzegovina entry in the Academy Awards’ international feature category, will open the 25th edition of the International Film Festival of Kerala (Iffk).

Mira Nair will deliver the annual G. Aravindan memorial lecture, an event named for the pioneering filmmaker from the south Indian state of Kerala who died in 1991. Auteur Jean-Luc Godard will receive the lifetime achievement award, and participate in an online Q&a.

Along with the Mumbai Film Festival, the International Film Festival of India, Goa, the Dharamshala International Film Festival and the Kolkata International Film Festival, Iffk is one of the most respected film festivals in India. It is organized by the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy on behalf of the cultural department of the government of Kerala.

The festival was forced to move from its usual early December slot because of the coronavirus pandemic. It will now take place in Thiruvananthapuram,...

Anders Refn’s WWII saga “Into the Darkness” (Denmark) and Ko Chen-Nien’s abuse drama “The Silent Forest” (Taiwan) won the major prizes at the 51st International Film Festival of India in Goa.

“Into The Darkness” won the Golden Peacock for best film. The award carries a cash prize of Inr 4 million. The Silver Peacock for best director went to Ko, for “The Silent Forest.” The award comes with a cash prize of Inr 1.5 million.

Liu Tzu-Chuan won best actor, male, for “The Silent Forest,” while Zofia Stafiej won best actor, female, for her role in Piotr Domalewski’s comedy-drama “I Never Cry” (Poland).

Kamin Kalev won the special jury award for drama “February” (Bulgaria/France). Cassio Pereira dos Santos won best debut for trans coming-of-age film “Valentina” (Brazil). Indian director Kripal Kalita was given a special mention for for Assamese-language film “Bridge.”

The International Council for Film, Television and Audiovisual Communication Unesco Gandhi Award,...

As we finally turn the calendar on the Cruelest Year, let’s take a moment to reflect on some of the memorable people we lost from the world of entertainment. Click through the photo gallery above.

Among those who passed during 2020 were big-screen Hollywood legends from Kirk Douglas and Olivia de Havilland to Sean Connery and Chadwick Boseman, sitcom favorites Jerry Stiller and Dawn Wells and two of the all-time showbiz multihyphenates in Carl Reiner and Buck Henry. Other actors who left us include Diana Rigg, Max Von Sydow, Brian Dennehy, Kelly Preston, Fred Willard, Naya Rivera, Nick Cordero, Monty Python’s Terry Jones and Indian stars Irrfan Khan and Soumitra Chatterjee.

The movie world also mourns filmmakers Alan Parker, Joel Schumacher and Kim Ki-duk, along with a man who would be on a Mount Rushmore for film composers: Ennio Morrocone.

Also gone this past year were such admired TV personalities as Regis Philbin,...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSThe cover for the new issue of Cahiers du Cinema is a patchwork tribute to the erratic year of 2020. Frederick Wiseman's City Hall also tops the Cahiers list of this year's top ten films. Actress and screenwriter Daria Nicolodi, best known for co-writing Dario Argento's Suspiria and appearing in a number of Argento's Giallo classics like Deep Red and Inferno, has died. Recommended VIEWINGAnthology Film Archives is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a showcase of video tributes from a wide range of artists, filmmakers, and scholars, including Bette Gordon, Abel Ferrara, Nathaniel Dorsky, and Michael Snow. They've also made available a free recreation of their inaugural program from November 30, 1970, featuring films by Georges Méliès, Joseph Cornell, Jerome Hill and Harry Smith. The curators of the Museum of Modern Art and the Berlinale...

Chhalaang (Amazon Prime)

Starring Rajkummar Rao, Nushrratt Bharuccha, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Saurabh Shukla, Ila Arun, and Satish Kaushik

Directed by Hansal Mehta

The most complicated part of this languid film is the spelling of the heroine’s name. Otherwise it’s all very simple,really. If a sports teacher in a backwater town of Haryana is indolent and insolent, bring on a feisty girl from the outside who when asked for a date retorts, ‘Daru pilayega?’

This is the writers Luv Ranjan, Aseem Arrora and Zeishan Quadri’s idea of progressive womanhood. It gets even more weird as the progressive elements ‘progress’ to a deadend that comes a good two hours after the opening gag where the word randwaa for widower is supposed to simulate humour.

At one point the above-mentioned daru-swigging damsel shares a drink with her future father-in-law. Wah, Haryana is the place to be on holiday from ‘dry’ Bihar.

The mighty Satyajit Ray directed Soumitra Chatterjee in 14 films. Ray’s son Sandip grew up watching this great twosome at work, one of world cinema’s most accomplished collaborations…. “Comparable with Fellini and Marcello Mastroianni and with Kurosawa and Mifune,” says the affable Sandip Ray, himself a filmmaker of considerable repute. “Soumitra Babu’s collaboration with my father started from before I was born. He had gone to my father to be cast in Pather Panchali in 1959.My father found him too old to play Apu. Later he cast Soumitra Babu as Apu in Apur Sansar, that’s how their collaboration started.”

Sandip cannot stop marveling at the variety of films Satyajit Ray and Soumitra Chatterjee did together. “No two roles in the films they did together are comparable. Soumitra played the most varied characters in my father’s films…I can’t pick favourites..But Apur (in Apur Sansar...

Mumbai, Nov 16 (Ians) Superstar Aamir Khan on Monday mourned the death of legendary Bengali actor Soumitra Chattopadhyay, who passed away the day before at the age of 85.

In an Instagram post, Aamir shared that the late actor's work will continue to bring joy to all cinephiles.

"Indian Cinema has lost one of its leading lights. My heartfelt condolences to Soumitraji's family, and to all his fans. His work will continue to bring joy to all of us. Rip Shri Soumitra Chatterjee," Aamir wrote.

The Dadasaheb Phalke recipient thespian's death was confirmed on Sunday morning by a bulletin from Kolkata's Belle Vue Hospital, where he had received Covid treatment.

"We declare with heavy heart that Shri Soumitra Chattopadhyay breathed his last at 12.15 pm at Belle Vue Clinic today (15 November 2020). We pay our homage to his soul," said the hospital statement.

Soumitra made his debut with "Apur Sansar" (1959) and, over the next three decades,...

Indian actor Soumitra Chatterjee, whose career spanned six decades and more than 300 films, died Sunday in Kolkata from health complications related to Covid-19. He was 85.

A protégé of Oscar-winning director Satyajit Ray, Chatterjee died at Belle Vue Clinic after being there since October 6. He initially tested positive for coronavirus, and complications contributed to his death.

Chatterjee was also an accomplished poet, playwright and theater actor, according to the Indian Express. He played key roles in 14 of Ray’s films between 1959 and 1990, including the third installment of the acclaimed Apu Trilogy. He won India’s highest cinema honor, the Dada Saheb Phalke, in 2011. CNN reported that the actor’s daughter, Poulami Bose, said her family was “devastated” and asked her followers on Facebook to “say a prayer for his soul.” Members of the film community and politicians issued statements on Chatterjee’s passing. “Shri Soumitra Chatterjee’s death is a colossal...

Soumitra Chatterjee, the legendary Indian actor with more than 200 movies to his name and famed for his work with Oscar-winning director Satyajit Ray, died Sunday of complications from the coronavirus. He was 85.

Chatterjee’s daughter, Poulami Bose, said her father died at a hospital in the city of Kolkata in West Bengal state where he had been staying since testing positive for the virus in early October. He is also survived by his wife and a son.

Chatterjee had a career in Bengali-language films that spanned six decades and was best known for his work with Ray, one of ...

Soumitra Chatterjee, the legendary Indian actor with more than 200 movies to his name and famed for his work with Oscar-winning director Satyajit Ray, died Sunday of complications from the coronavirus. He was 85.

Chatterjee’s daughter, Poulami Bose, said her father died at a hospital in the city of Kolkata in West Bengal state where he had been staying since testing positive for the virus in early October. He is also survived by his wife and a son.

Chatterjee had a career in Bengali-language films that spanned six decades and was best known for his work with Ray, one of ...

Kolkata, Nov 15 (Ians) Veteran Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee's daughter Poulami Basu appealed to people not to come over to their place right now due to the pandemic situation.

"My mother's and my son's health is fragile at best. I humbly and earnestly request you please do not put them at risk," Basu wrote on her Facebook page.

The octogenarian actor passed away at Kolkata's Belle Vue Hospital on Sunday.

"With deep grief I must inform you that my beloved father, my Bapi left us this morning. As a family, we are devastated. Please say a prayer for his soul. I humbly and earnestly request you all please do not come over to our place right now," Chatterjee's daughter said.

The bereaved daughter requested everyone not to put her ageing mother and son at risk.

"Please keep the pandemic in mind and pray from the safety of your homes. If...

Mumbai, Nov 15 (Ians) Several celebrities from the Indian film fraternity paid their emotional tributes to Bangla cinema doyen Soumitra Chattopadhyay, who passed away on Sunday at the age of 85.

The Dadasaheb Phalke recipient thespian's demise was confirmed by a bulletin from Kolkata's Belle Vue Hospital, where he had received Covid treatment.

"We declare with heavy heart that Shri Soumitra Chattopadhyay breathed his last at 12.15 pm at Belle Vue Clinic today (15 November 2020). We pay our homage to his soul," said the hospital statement.

Shortly after his death, celebrities from the world of cinema took to social media and expressed grief.

National Award-winning actor Manoj Bajyapee called Chattopadhyay's death a "tragic loss".

"Tragic loss!! Rest in peace Sir!! Your contribution to the Indian Cinema will always be remembered and inspire the generations to come!!" Bajpayee wrote on Twitter.

Actress Soha Ali Khan posted two pictures of the late veteran with her mother...

New Delhi, Nov 15 (Ians) Sourav Ganguly, former India captain and current president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (Bcci), has condoled the demise of Soumitra Chatterjee, saying the veteran actor did "so much" during his hey days that now he can rest in peace.

"You have done so much...You can rest in peace," Ganguly said in a tweet hours after the 85-year-old Bengali actor breathed his last at Kolkata's Belle Vue Hospital on Sunday afternoon.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and various other political leaders and personalities across all walks of life expressed their grief at the passing away of Chatterjee.

Chatterjee's health condition was "extremely critical" and he was "not responding at all" to treatment, critical care expert and head of the medical board Arindam Kar had said just minutes back. The octogenarian actor's health condition "extremely" deteriorated since Friday.

ObituaryChatterjee was considered one of the first proponents of the naturalistic style of acting in Bengali cinema, a trademark of Satyajit Ray's movies.PTIImage: Wikimedia Commons/Biswarup GangulyHe was the actor who epitomised the best of world cinema, transcending the boundaries of country, state and language to give expression to Satyajit Ray's cinematic vision and get framed in celluloid greatness. But the legacy of Soumitra Chatterjee, who died on Sunday at the age of 85, is not limited to the Ray firmament, just as he was never only a Bengali star of Bengali cinema. The suave actor of the world, sometimes called last of the Mohicans and familiar to students of cinema anywhere in the globe, acted in 14 Ray films and over 300 others, gracefully transitioning into commercial cinema in a variety of roles. He made his presence felt on the stage too as actor, playwright and director. One of the...

DeathChatterjee had been on life support after being admitted to hospital on October 6 after he tested positive for coronavirus.Tnm StaffBiswarup Ganguly, Cc By 3.0 , via Wikimedia CommonsMultiple award-winning legendary Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee died on Sunday after an over-a-month-long battle with multiple ailments, a statement issued by a Kolkata hospital, where he was undergoing treatment, said. He was 85. The thespian is survived by wife, son and daughter. Chatterjee was admitted to the hospital on October 6 after he tested positive for coronavirus. He recovered from the infection, but his condition did not improve as he suffered from multiple ailments, including neurological complications. "We declare with a heavy heart that Shri Soumitra Chattopadhyay breathed his last at 12.15 pm at Belle Vue Clinic today (15 November 2020). We pay our homage to his soul," the hospital said in its statement. Chatterjee's health condition was "extremely critical" and he was "not responding at all" to treatment,...

Indian actor Soumitra Chatterjee, best known internationally for his long association with Oscar-winning filmmaker Satyajit Ray, died on Sunday in Kolkata after contracting coronavirus. He was 85.

Chatterjee was born in Calcutta in 1935. While at university he developed an interest in theater and was subsequently mentored by Sisir Bhaduri, a doyen in the field. He pursued an acting career in cinema while working as an announcer with All India Radio.

Chatterjee’s film debut, “The World of Apu,” (1959) was the third part of Ray’s celebrated Apu Trilogy that began with Cannes-winner “Pather Panchali” in 1955 and continued with Venice-winner “Aparajito” in 1956. The film began a fruitful association with Ray over the years that included “The Goddess” (1960), “Three Daughters” (1961), “The Expedition” (1962), “Charulata” (1964), “Days and Nights in the Forest” (1970), “Distant Thunder” (1973), “The Golden Fortress” (1974), “The Elephant God” (1979), “The Home and the World” (1984) and “Branches of the Tree” (1990).

Chatterjee also worked with the other greats of Bengali-language cinema,...

Kolkata, Nov 15 (Ians) Veteran Bengali Actor Soumitra Chatterjee's health condition is "extremely critical" and he is "not responding at all" to treatment, said critical care expert and head of the medical board at Kolkata's Belle Vue Hospital Arindam Kar.

The octogenarian actor's health condition "extremely" deteriorated over the past 48-hours.

"The team of doctors including neurologist, nephrologist, cardiologist, those from critical care medicine, infection disease specialist, both from public and private sectors, every one has put their effort to get the legend back from the critical stage, but it is not working," said Kar.

He said that the doctors have tried really hard to "revive" Soumitra to a better state. "We are very sorry to say that he is not responding at all."

The 85-year-old Dadasaheb Phalke awardee has been admitted in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Kolkata's Belle Vue Hospital for almost 40 days and his consciousness level went down significantly Since Friday.

Kolkata, Nov 5 (Ians) Veteran Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee remained critical but stable on Thursday. According to hospital sources, the octagenarian continued to be on ventilator support and his haemoglobin and platelet counts remained on the lower side.

The octogenarian was not administered dialysis as his urea and creatinine levels came down. His liver and organ functions remained okay. The actor's low haemoglobin and platelet count is due to multiple transfusion and blood loss, doctors said.

Hospital sources said the nephrology review board would discuss about long term kidney support to Chatterjee while the neuro board would deliberate on long term air management on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the actor's daughter Poulami Bose criticised a section of the civil society, saying: "when my father is fighting for life in t he hospital a few people are now busy in mud-slinging. There should be limit of fake news."

Chatterjee has been admitted in the...

Kolkata, Oct 30 (Ians) Veteran Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee's health condition showed marginal improvement on Friday, but still remained critical, doctors said.

Chatterjee underwent a second dialysis on Thursday at Kolkata's premier Belle Vue Clinic. Chatterjee has been on ventilator support since Monday after the medical team at the hospital described his renal function as 'not so good'.

According to hospital sources, there has been no further gastrointestinal bleeding on Friday. However, his haemoglobin had gone down for a while and doctors had to go for two units of blood transfusion.

The 85-year-old Dadasaheb Phalke awardee has been admitted to the ICU for almost 20 days now. The key problem for Chatterjee was Covid-19 encephalopathy, hospital sources said.

His platelet counts are stable for the time being and no platelet transfusion had been done. The count is slowly increasing and there is no temperature as well. The antibiotic is also working on his body,...

From Wikipedia: Soumitra Chatterjee or Soumitra Chattopadhyay (Bengali: সৌমিত্র চট্টোপাধ্যায়) (born 19 January 1935) is an Indian film actor. He is best known for his collaborations with Oscar-winning film director Satyajit Ray, with whom he worked in fourteen films. Soumitra Chattopadhyay is also the first Indian film personality conferred with the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France’s highest award for artists. In 2012, he received the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India’s highest award in cinema given by the government of India for lifetime achievement. He has won two National Film Awards as an actor, and as an actor in Bengali theatre, he received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1998, given by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, India’s National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama

In “Aurora Borealis”, Chatterjee plays 81-years-old Ratul Chattopadhyay, a veteran actor who lives in a nursing home in South Kolkata,...

Kolkata, Oct 15 (Ians) Veteran Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee's health condition has marginally improved in the last 24-hours after the second Covid-19 test result came negative on Wednesday night, hospital sources said.

According to reports, the oxygen level in Chatterjee's body also increased to 97 per cent on Thursday and he also has no fever since Tuesday evening.

The octogenarian actor's kidney, liver function, ammonia level in the blood, the infective mucus are slowly normalising. The cardiac function, blood pressure, respiration and urine output are improving too, sources said.

Earlier, Soumitra's daughter Poulomi Bose had appealed to all netizens not to indulge in rumour-mongering about the health of her Covid-affected father.

Chatterjee was battling with Covid-19 and got admitted to Kolkata's Belle Vue Hospital last week.

Chatterje was tested positive for coronavirus on October 5.

He was admitted to the hospital the very next morning. He was shooting for a documentary titled 'Abhijan',...

Veteran Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee, who is battling with Covid-19 at Belle Vue Hospital in Kolkata, continues to remain "critical" on Tuesday.

Hospital sources said that the 85-year-old widely celebrated actor is not keeping well and is in a drowsy, confusional state. Earlier, Chatterjee was given convalescent plasma therapy twice. His neurological condition has not shown any change in the last two days.

"If this continues he might be put on invasive ventilation support," sources said, adding that Chatterjee has been running a high fever since Sunday afternoon. An Mri was also conducted on the actor but no structural defect was found in the report.

A team of 15 doctors is overseeing his health condition at the hospital.

Chatterjee was tested positive for coronavirus on October 5. He was admitted to the hospital the very next morning.

Earlier, the actor was shifted to intensive care unit on late Friday night a s...

Veteran Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee is now stable and his blood pressure and all other vital parameters are also normal, family sources said on Saturday.

"As per the team of 12 doctors attending to him, my father is maintaining his vital parameters and is stable on this count. His blood pressure is normal and he has no need of oxygen administration at the moment," said Poulomi Bose, daughter of the veteran actor.

Updating on the health condition of Chatterjee, she wrote on a social media post that the actor was suffering from Covid Encephalopathy as per the physicians' assessment and therefore was disoriented and restless at this time.

"All due care is being taken on this count. There has been no detoriation on account of his comorbidities, including high PSA count, pneumonia tendencies and compromised lungs, which is a good sign," said Bose, a theatre personality and freelance actor.

Thanking everyone...

Veteran Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee was shifted to Intensive Care Unit in a private hospital late Friday night after the 85-year-old's health deteriorated, hospital sources said on Saturday.

Chatterjee, who had tested coronavirus positive on October 5, was suffering from several comorbidities. He was immediately shifted to an ICU for close monitoring.

A day after his Covid-19 test on October 5 gave positive report, he was admitted to the hospital but in a stable condition.

The sources said Chatterjee was unwell for the past couple of days and reportedly suffering from fever. He was shooting for a documentary titled 'Abhijan' directed by actor Parambrata Chattopadhyay.

He had attended the shoot floor at Bharatlaxmi Studio on October 1. The next shooting schedule was on October 7.

It was learnt that the actor had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease-related problem. Last year, he had suffered a bout of pneumonia and was admitted to a hospital for a few days.

Veteran Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee has tested positive for coronavirus on Tuesday and is stable, sources said.

The veteran actor was admitted to a private nursing home in Kolkata around 11 am, a day after he took a Covid-19 test.

A private nursing home bed was booked for the actor on Monday evening, where he was shifted this morning.

The sources said Chatterjee was unwell for the past couple of days and reportedly suffering from fever. He was shooting for a documentary titled 'Abhijan' directed by actor Parambrata Chattopadhyay.

He had attended the shoot floor at Bharatlaxmi Studio on October 1. The next shooting schedule was on October 7.

It was learnt that the actor had symptchronic obstructive pulmonary disease-related problem. Last year, he had suffered a bout of pneumonia and was admitted to a hospital for a few days.

Earlier, many actors, directors and producers like Ranjit Mallick, his daughter and actress Koel Mallick,...

Satyajit Ray turned two of his Feluda stories into films that masterfully adapted his ideas in the stories on screen. Both Sonar Kella and Joi Baba Felunath starred Soumitra Chatterjee, who breathed life into the Feluda between the pages, and gave him a unique identity in the world of fictional detectives.

The post How Satyajit Ray And Soumitra Chatterjee Shaped Feluda Out Of The Best Of Sherlock Holmes And Tintin appeared first on Film Companion.

In his 1984 film “Ghare Baire”, Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray touches upon two of the most controversial topics within his home country, the division of Muslims and Hindus as well as tendencies towards liberalism versus nationalism. The original script, based on the novel of the same title by Rabindranath Tagore, had already been written in the 1940, long before Ray would direct his first feature film “Pather Panchali”. Like with so many of his feature, the narrative framework of a story, a tale of a woman captured between two men, offers a viewer a very insightful and still quite current view on the overlapping of the private person and politics as well as the dilemma this causes.

The story takes place in 1907 after the partition of the state of Bengali by Lord Curzon, effectively dividing the Muslim and Hindu parts. In order to protest this development, many nationalist movements...

by Shantanu Ray Chaudhuri

(The article was published initially in Projectorhead.in)

The Golden Era: The 1950s and 1960s

The next two decades witnessed Bengali cinema at its best, with a never before coming together of exceptional directors, actors and technicians, a willingness to experiment with forms, techniques and content, and nuanced understanding and application of film techniques. Fittingly enough, the era began with Nemai Ghosh’s Chinnamul (The Uprooted, made in 1951), which despite certain aesthetic glitches, is a telling document of partition and a landmark in the growth of socially conscious cinema in India. Hemen Gupta’s Bhuli Nai (We Shall not Forget) and ’42 (1942), both made in the late 1940s but releasing only in the 1950s, were entirely original subject matters that owed themselves to the director’s experiences as a freedom fighter and were remarkable for the director’s uncompromising sincerity. The First International Film Festival held...