Satyajit Ray’s Aranyer Din Ratri returns in restored 4k glory after 55 years - GetBengal story

Aranyer Din Ratri is the well-known polyphonic narrative of Sunil Gangopadhyay, a narrative published in 1968. In 1970, it was adapted into the medium of cinema by Satyajit Ray. But Ray moved through the narrative's surface purposefully changing characters and their relationship, their ends, and sometimes even their names. The shims Ray has put in place diverging each narrative point indicates his thinking behind making Aranyer Din Ratri. Aranyer Din Ratri becomes no longer purely Sunil's book. It is now Ray's discourse. Fifty-five years after its release, Ray's film4 is set to be re-released across India.

Earlier this year, a restored version of the film, presented in 4K, was featured in a special section at the Cannes Film Festival, with a panel of actors including Sharmila Tagore and Simi Garewal. Also present was eminent Hollywood director Wes Anderson, who has been influenced by Ray's cinema. Rounding out the panel was Purnima Dutta, from the film's production company. Following Cannes, the film was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, where North America audiences embraced this Ray classic. The new version of Aranyer Din Ratri will have a theatrical release across India, including Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Pune, and other locations starting 7 November. According to experts in film archives, the restored 4K version shows "every frame lit up with a different vibrancy." The depth of the black-and-white quality, the play of light and dark, and the stillness of the forest all seemed to spring to life for a new generation.

It is important to remember that the film was made in 1970, a politically turbulent time in Bengal and in India. It was the era of the Naxal movement, a period when many educated adolescents and youths saw their lives crumble. The new generation was electrified by the urge to break free from bourgeois hypocrisy and driven by a desire for liberation from exploitation. Yet, there were also young men who were themselves bourgeois hypocrites. Sunil’s novel held certain possibilities that Ray consciously expanded in his film — turning the story around almost ninety degrees. Here, everyone is Western-oriented, everyone belongs to a capitalist civilisation. The humour found in some characters is sophisticated and intentional. In Sunil’s narrative, the four young men set out on an adventure into the jungle—a group of wild, carefree friends. In Ray’s interpretation, they are four young men on a holiday inspired by books they have read—arrogant, reckless in a way that echoes the hippie culture of first-world capitalist America. Their impulses arise less from spontaneity and more from an urge to imitate certain beliefs and cultures. In several later films too, Ray portrayed the youth as lacking backbone—was there no political or historical truth behind this? Perhaps that was indeed the truest image of Indian reality.

As of November 7, people living in Kolkata may go to Priya Cinema in South Kolkata to see the film. Notably, this film was nominated for a Golden Bear award at the 20th Berlin International Film Festival held in 1970. After years, the director Goutam Ghosh released its sequel Abar Aranye (2003) - which told a new story lived by the four friends, which was now told through a colourful lens. The restored version of Aranyer Din Ratri will also be part of the Restored Classics section at the 31st Kolkata International Film Festival.

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Translated by Krishnendu Mitra

To read the original Bengali article, click here.