Asim Bando's KOLKATA BLOG

57th release date of Satyajit Ray's masterpiece Pather Panchali was celebrated in the city yesterday. The film was released on 26 August 1955 in various cinema halls of Kolkata and within a week, it became the talk of the town with both favourable and unfavorable comments. But the world soon realised that it was a milestone of Indian cinema and thus, appreciations came from every corner of the globe, the film attained so many prizes from all the famous film festivals. Yesterday, Ganamadhyam Kendra and Calcutta Film Society had organised a seminar on this occasion where, Uma Dasgupta, who played the role of Durga in the film, was presented alongwith veteran film director Mrinal Sen, cinematographer Soumendu Roy, critic Shamik Bandyopadhyay and other personalities were presented. But, Subir Bandyopadhyay, who played the role of Apu, was absent owing to personal reasons. -- A. B.

BD Garga's 1963-documentary on Satyajit Ray is all set for screening at Nandan, the West Bengal film centre, this evening. This was the first documentary made on Ray, barely eight years after the release of Pather Panchali. The Kolkata branch of Films Division will screen this rare documentary to celebrate 100 years of Indian cinema. Another interesting aspect of this documentary is the commentary by Ray himself. He shared in details his ideas on film making in this 35-minute documentary. Garga shot his film when Ray was busy filming his 11th film 'Mahanagar', and the documentary captures various moments of the filming of Mahanagar. The Films Division will keep screening various rare films throughout the year celebrating 100 years of Indian cinema. -- A. B.