Latest news with #AranyerDinRatri
Mint
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Mint
Satyajit Ray's 'blackface' moment at Cannes 2025
At the screening of Satyajit Ray's 1970 classic, Aranyer Din Ratri, at the Cannes film festival earlier this month, the audience gave a standing ovation to the celebrities on stage—Wes Anderson along with Sharmila Tagore and Simi Garewal, the only surviving members of the cast. Restored by the Film Heritage Foundation, the movie was presented by Anderson, an ardent fan of Ray. Also read: Cannes 2025: 'Nouvelle Vague' is a winsome homage to Godard Tagore played the urbane and sophisticated Aparna, beguiling four young men who arrive in Palamau (now in Jharkhand) for a break from their busy and troubled lives in Kolkata. Critic Pauline Kael once described her presence as 'incomparably graceful", a sharp contrast to Garewal's Duli, a Santhal woman, who plays a pivotal role in the denouement. For the first few days of the shoot, Ray had Garewal observe tribal women at a local watering hole. Once she had absorbed the nuances of their demeanour, she had her body blackened. On her website, the actor says it took four hours for her to become Duli, and three hours to remove the paint afterwards. In the 1960s, when Ray shot Aranyer Din Ratri, featuring a 'blackface" (an actor whose face and/or body are darkened to represent someone unlike them) on screen was par for the course. Through the 1960s, Hindi movies embraced the blackface trope with impunity. From Ashok Kumar in Meri Surat Teri Aankhen (1963), where he played the dark-complexioned Pyare with fanged dentures and a wild wig to boot, to Meena Kumari playing Rajni in Main Bhi Ladki Hoon (1964), examples of such misuses abound. Sadly, the tradition remains unbroken to this day, albeit with a shift more towards 'brownface"—Alia Bhatt in Udta Punjab (2016), Hrithik Roshan in Super 30 (2019), and Bhumi Pednekar in Bala (2019), the examples are plenty. It's disappointing, though not entirely surprising, that mainstream cinema is yet to rid itself of such regressive traits. After all, misogyny, homophobia and Islamophobia, in various degrees, not only continue to be part of India's commercial cinema, but have led to blockbusters like Kabir Singh (2019) and Animal (2023). The baffling part is that a director like Ray, widely lauded for his humanism and aestheticism, should have fallen for the same problematic trope. When questioned about her choice to play a Santhal, Garewal spoke of the exigency behind the decision: 'You needed a professional to play the role." One wonders if Ray would have taken the same line to defend himself. The irony is heightened, considering that the film (inspired by a novel by Sunil Gangopadhyay of the same name) lays bare the hypocrisy of upper-caste elites towards those they regard as less 'civilised" than them. The word sabhya (civilised) appears several times in the original Bengali novel, especially in the context of the young men who want to momentarily relinquish all decorum of modern life to immerse themselves in the 'wild" freedom of the forests. Their distance from civic rules gives them an unfettered licence to behave like overlords in the land of the oppressed. They demand to be served, sexually and otherwise, and remain largely oblivious to the inconveniences they cause to the dwellers of the forest. A couple of these men do feel periodic stabs of conscience, triggered by the fragile political ecosystem of the 1960s, when the novel was written. Sanjay, who is in charge of labour relations in a factory, is particularly pricked by the disgraceful behaviour of his friends. Back home in Kolkata, as the ultra-left Naxal movement upturns systems of governance, in the so-called idyll of the forests, Sanjay and his well-educated friends hanker for a taste of the lives of the nobles savages—by partaking of their food, liquor and women, while refusing to give up their daily necessities, like having boiled eggs for breakfast. Did Ray internalise this mindset while casting Garewal as Duli? Or was he, in fact, mocking himself as a member of the same elite as the protagonists, by putting her in the role? From the distance of 55 years, we can only speculate on these questions, while reckoning with our discomfort, either way. Also read: Lounge Loves: Sri Lankan director Sumitra Peries' 'Gehenu Lamai'
Time of India
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Simi Garewal: I had given up that dream of Cannes long ago
Simi Garewal Simi Garewal recently made her Cannes red carpet debut, more than five decades after shooting Aranyer Din Ratri . The Satyajit Ray classic was restored in 4K and screened at the Cannes Classics section. 'It's something I never dared to hope for! I gave up that dream long ago and for this to suddenly happen now it's more than a dream – it's a gift from the universe,' she says. In a conversation, the veteran actress talks about the film, the roles for women in cinema and more. 'FROM A MODERN, WESTERNISED GIRL, I TRANSFORMED INTO A RUSTIC, UNINHIBITED ADIVASI' Simi played Duli, a tribal woman in the Aranyer Din Ratri (1970) – a role that was far from her real-life image. But Satyajit Ray saw something in her. 'Manik da , so gentle yet intense, led me to portray a character so different to who I am. I mean here was I, a modern, westernised girl transformed into a rustic, uninhibited adivasi ! It doesn't get more challenging than that,' she says. She remembers watching the film again, decades later, and being shocked by how fully she had disappeared into Duli. 'For an actor, it's creative fulfillment to 'become' another person. When I watched the film I couldn't see even a jhalak of Simi anywhere. It was Duli.' She adds, 'I loved the film, the comedy, the slice of life. It looked so natural, so organic. But that's Ray's forte, capturing reality on celluloid.' 'IT SEEMS CINEMA CATERS PRIMARILY TO MALE AUDIENCES' Simi says she has not watched too many recent films. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Protegé a toda tu familia con Verisure Alarmas. ¡30% OFF y Zerovision 100% GRATIS! Alarmas Verisure Ver oferta Undo 'But I will ask – where are the roles for women in cinema?' she questions, adding, 'It's all male-oriented. The female is simply decorative, and always the hero's sidekick. And that's not representative of today's India, where women are strong, independent and achievers in their own right. So, it seems cinema caters primarily to male audiences. The only roles for women are on OTT, and TV, with its serials, caters to women. A gender divide.' 'AT THE MOMENT, I'M WRITING MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY' Simi says that she's currently working on her autobiography. 'At the moment, I'm writing my autobiography. I am writing every single word myself. Nobody else has read it, nor looked over my shoulder while I write. It's between my keyboard and me. It's very personal. I haven't held back. I'm on the last few chapters now, presently on Rendezvous with Simi Garewal . You will read everything about my life in my autobiography – from my childhood in London to my joining films (against great family opposition) Every detail about working with Raj Kapoor, Manik da , my films, my private life, my loves, my marriage – my whole life is written in these pages. ' 'WHITE IS A HAPPY COLOUR FOR ME' Simi chose to wear her signature white at Cannes too. Talking about its significance in her life, the actress says, 'Why white? I feel good when I'm wearing it. Sometimes I put on another colour, yellow or blue, and I immediately take it off because it disturbs my sensibility. White is a happy colour for me,' says Simi. Her thoughts on walking the red carpet? 'I wish Manik da was here to see this...' Check out our list of the latest Hindi , English , Tamil , Telugu , Malayalam , and Kannada movies . Don't miss our picks for the best Hindi movies , best Tamil movies, and best Telugu films .
New Indian Express
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- New Indian Express
Sharmila Tagore Interview: Satyajit Ray's films deal with the follies of humans
Tagore points to a 'complex' aspect in Aranyer Din Ratri, the way it deals with the issue of corruption—the fact that the guys offer bribes to the caretaker to get a place to stay in the forest rest house but are blind to the fact that it's to do as much with his lack of scruples as their own encouragement and facilitation of corruption. 'Ray deals with such fundamental quirks and follies of human beings,' says Tagore, adding, 'The hero in Nayak is treated like God, is mobbed and is under pressure. But there's a human being beneath it all. In Devi, the father-in-law deifies his unlettered daughter-in-law. A victim of his dreams, she loses her mind, feels alienated.' Aranyer Din Ratri was shot in Chhipadohar village in Palamu district in Jharkhand (then Bihar) in April and May. 'It was very hot. Trees were all leafless and had a skeletal look in the film. We would shoot for three hours from 5.30 am to about 9 am and then 3 pm to 6 pm, till the light would be good,' recalls Tagore. 'Rest of the time we chatted, bonded and sang and danced with the Santhals, especially on full moon nights. The boys tried the local drink mohua once and swore never to have it again. It left them with such a bad hangover,' she says. The boys stayed in a tin shed and it was so hot that Rabi Ghosh would call himself Robi Pora or Burnt Robi. She remembers her co-actor Simi Garewal and her sister staying in a bungalow in the next village while she had a tiny 10x8 room of the caretaker to live in. There was an air cooler for her which served well in the dry heat. Aranyer Din Ratri is Ray's eighth film to have been presented at Cannes. Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road), the first of his Apu trilogy, has played at Cannes thrice. It marked his debut in Cannes, was in the In Competition section and won the Best Human Document Award at the 1956 edition of Cannes. It was part of its Special Screenings programme in 1992 and a restored print featured in the Cannes Classics segment in 2005. Just three years back, in 2022, Pratidwandi (The Adversary) was shown in the same Cannes Classics segment, as was Charulata in 2013.
Hindustan Times
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Wes Anderson reveals why he ‘stole' this famous Satyajit Ray scene for Asteroid City: ‘The concept is very odd'
It's no secret that American filmmaker Wes Anderson is a huge fan of the late Satyajit Ray. Talking to THR India on the sidelines of the Cannes Film Festival, where he presented Satyajit's 1971 film Aranyer Din Ratri after spearheading its restoration, he admitted to copying a famous scene from it for his 2023 film Asteroid City. (Also Read: Sharmila Tagore, Simi Garewal attend Aranyer Din Ratri Cannes screening, hang out with Satyajit Ray fanboy Wes Anderson) When asked about the memory game scene from Asteroid City, Wes admitted it was 'copied' from Aranyer Din Ratri. 'Yes, well, stole it. The way that scene was done…it's the most beautifully…First of all, that concept of the scene is very odd because it's a game. But we learn about these characters so much while they play these games, and they're saying these things,' he explained. He also added that he loved the way the film was shot, and how it revealed so much about the characters, 'Then the way it's photographed. I mean, the cast is obviously a special cast. But the way it's photographed is very striking. And the moment when we choose to start going from face to face, there's more emotion in this scene than you would think there's any reason to be. My family and I began to play this game after I saw the movie.' In Aranyer Din Ratri, which stars Soumitra Chatterjee, Subhendu Chatterjee, Rabi Ghosh, Pahari Sanyal and Sharmila Tagore in lead roles, a famous scene shows the camera pan to different characters sitting in a circle as they play a memory game. Wes recreated the scene in his film Asteroid City, which stars Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Grace Edwards and others. Aranyer Din Ratri is considered one of the best films made in India. It received a standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival.
Mint
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Mint
Lounge Loves: A film club, ‘Toward Eternity' and more
There are two titles restored by Film Heritage Foundation in the Cannes Classics selection this year. One is Satyajit Ray's 1970 film with Soumitra Chatterjee and Sharmila Tagore, Aranyer Din Ratri. The other is a lesser-known film, though just as accomplished, only now getting the refurbishing it deserves: Sri Lankan director Sumitra Peries' Gehenu Lamai (1978). This was Peries' debut, but the direction is assured and intimate. Set in a village, this delicate black-and-white film is about the lives of two teenage sisters dealing with the complications of first love and societal pressure. Wasanthi Chathurani, also making her debut, is tremendous as Kusum. I'd seen breadfruit in carts and stalls in Goa, but hadn't tasted it till the personable bartender at Petisco in Panaji, Sherwin, recently suggested it as a pairing for his 'Imli pop', a tangy cocktail made with seasonal urrak, jaggery and a brine spiced with jalapenos and chilli. Breadfruit, like jackfruit of which it is the more elegant cousin, is the new favourite of chefs looking for inventive non-meat substitutes. Its versatile potato-like flavour and bready texture lends itself to all sorts of dishes, including the breadfruit fritters with a salad that Petisco has on its menu. But breadfruit made the shift from 'nice' to true favourite when Sherwin opened up his tiffin box and made us taste his mother's nirponos, or shallow-fried breadfruit lightly coated with rava, which she'd packed for his dinner. Old style hospitality beats fine-dining any day. Writer and translator Anton Hur's debut novel Toward Eternity has been an absolute joy to read. Curing cancer by replacing human cells with inorganic 'nanites' that not only makes the recipient cancer-free but also immortal? An AI trained on Victorian poetry that develops consciousness, and an appreciation for Christina Rossetti? A far future scenario with Biblical undertones? Inject it directly into my veins! I may sound flippant but this is a novel absolutely bursting with ideas. It feels like Hur (who I was delighted to discover was on the panel of judges that has just bestowed the International Booker Prize on Heart Lamp)—could have spun three or four books out of this cornucopia, but somehow they all fit together in one perfect novel. A friend co-runs a movie-screening initiative in Mumbai, @Secret7Cinema on Instagram, and it has become my favourite weekend activity of late. Each session begins with two iconic films pitched against each other. Everyone in the room gets 1-2 minutes to present their case—why this film, why now—and then we vote. The majority gets to decide if they want to flip a coin, otherwise, the losing team sits through the winning title. Last week, it was a fight between two Sanjay Dutt anti-hero flicks, Khalnayak and Vaastav. I voted for Vaastav, and that's what we watched, although someone else made a better case to swing votes in our favour. It's a playful but passionate exercise in debate, far from the noise of social media hellsites. No quote tweets, no hot takes, just voices in a room, arguing for the love of cinema. Paradiso.
