3 must-see restored Ray films

SATYAJIT RAY is big in Bengal and Bengalis everywhere take great pride in his Lifetime Achievement Oscar, his Legion d'Honneur, and the many awards he got at festivals the world over. But, were he to make films today, how would be fare at the BO? Would he be able to hold his own against the King Kongs and the Big Bs?

Arijit Dutta will soon know. His film production and distribution company, Priya Entertainments, has digitally restored the prints of three of Ray's films "" Goopi Gyne Bagha Byne (1968), Aranyer Din Ratri (1969) and Pratidwandi (1970) "" and released them commercially in four Kolkata theatres on January 13. Now Kolkatans, and not just the festival-going ones, can watch Ray on the big screen "" the way they were meant to be seen.

Of the three, Goopi Gyne... and Aranyer... are probably Ray's most popular films. The former is a children's classic, a musical about the adventures of two village bumpkins, Goopy and Bagha, in the kingdom of Shundi, powered by three boons the "king of ghosts" (voice-over by Ray himself) grants them "" they can make music and bewitch listeners, go anywhere wearing a pair of magic slippers and eat anything by simply clapping their hands together.

Aranyer..., in contrast, is for adults only. It's famous (or infamous) for a cameo by Simi as a Santhal lass "" even though Bengali film buffs remember it best for bringing together four powerhouse male leads "" Soumitro Chatterjee, Shubhendu Chatterjee, Samit Bhanja and Rabi Ghosh "" as the friends who get an unexpected insight into love and life in the jungles of Palamou.

For now, each film will run at a theatre for a week, after which they will travel to the other four. Beyond that, "It will depend on the people of Calcutta." In 1968, Goopy Gayne... had a 51-week run at the theatres, quite exceptional for Bengali films.

Advance bookings of Rs 7,000-8,000 at one of the halls, Priya, have been encouraging, says Dutta. But Dutta does not expect to recover what he spent to restore the prints "" $160,000 in two labs in the US and Germany, plus Rs 2 lakh for the b&w raw stock. So he has tied up with TIPS to market DVDs and VCDs made of these restored prints.

"Salaam Satyajit", as Dutta has dubbed his venture, is not only a treat for all those who love Ray's cinema, but it also marks a milestone in the efforts to preserve and restore his oeuvre. Besides the deterioration wrought by time and poor storage methods, a fire at a London film laboratory in 1993 destroyed the negatives of six Ray classics including Pather Panchali, Jalsaghar and Devi.

While private producers (R D Bansal who produced six of Ray's films, and now Dutta) have taken steps in this regard, the state government which is the producer of a number of Ray's films, including Pather Panchali, has not.

Abroad, the Ray Collection at the University of California's Santa Cruz campus has successfully restored 15 of Ray's films. Dutta's plan, depending on the success of this venture, is to bring the Ray Collection prints to Calcutta at the end of this year. For Ray's fans the action, it seems, has just begun.