The late Satyajit Ray. Pic/Getty Images

Ruman Ganguly (BOMBAY TIMES; May 5, 2022)

Satyajit Ray’s Pratidwandi has been officially selected for screening at the Cannes Film Festival 2022. The National Award-winning film of1970 will be screened at the festival’s Cannes Classics section. The news could not have come at a better time, as May 2 marked Satyajit Ray’s 101st birthday. Director Sandip Ray, son of the legendary filmmaker, says, “I heard Pratidwandi was restored recently, so I just hope that the restored version is screened at the festival.”

Pratidwandi, written and directed by Satyajit Ray, is based on the novel by Sunil Gangopadhyay. The film unfolds the story of Siddharta, an educated middle-class man caught up in the turmoil of social unrest. It bagged three National Film Awards, including Best Direction, in 1971. It also won a nomination for the Gold Hugo Award at the Chicago International Film Festival 1971. Pratidwandi is the first film of Ray's Calcutta Trilogy, which continued with Seemabaddha (1971) and Jana Aranya (1976).
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NFDC screens Pather Panchali on Satyajit Ray’s 101st birth anniversary by procuring Academy-restored print after the film was lost in 1993 fire
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; May 5, 2022)

To celebrate Satyajit Ray’s 101st birth anniversary, the National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC) hosted a special screening of Pather Panchali (1955), one of the legend’s most defining works, in Mumbai on Wednesday. Ardent cinephiles will know that the renowned drama has a history of its own. In 1993, the original negatives of many of Ray’s films were shipped to Henderson’s Film Laboratories in south London, from where they were to be taken to the Academy Film Archive for preservation.

However, when a fire broke out in July 1993 at the laboratory, it destroyed more than 25 original negatives, including The Apu Trilogy. Fortunately, the films were restored as the negatives were rehydrated, repaired and scanned in 4K resolution as part of Academy Film Archive’s landmark restoration.

Ravinder Bhakar, MD, NFDC, is proud that the organisation could facilitate the restored version’s first screening in the country, along with screening of other movies made by and on Ray. “We are happy to have the Academy-restored print from USA. It’s befitting for the museum to have the best restored version of Satyajit Ray’s most iconic film,” he shares, adding that the National Film Archive of India is restoring 10 more films. “Sonar Kella, Hirak Rajar Deshe and Seemabaddha will be screened.”

For the love of Ray
A still from Pather Panchali