Rabindranath Tagore was a universal soul with universal consciousness, writes Sumit Paul
I m able to love my god because he gives me freedom to deny him.
-Rabindranath Tagore
-Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds
May 7 is Rabindranath Tagoreâs 160th birthday. A mystic poet and Indiaâs first Nobel laureate in Literature way back in 1913, Tagoreâs poetry and his literary works are still as relevant as they were, a hundred years ago. In fact, his relevance has increased manifold in these times of belligerent nationalism and extreme religiosity. Tagore would have been appalled to see the misinterpretation of nationalism and degeneration of religion. To him, country and religion were accidents of birth.
UPDATED: May 6, 2021 07:42 IST
Portrait by Raghu Rai
Ray, for me, is a mythical being and that mythical quality reflects in his films. I discovered him quite late in life and am still understanding him. It was his Pather Panchali (1955) which changed my life and made me fall in love with cinema. The first time I tried watching it, I was in Class 5. My father had taken me to a theatre in Ichapur in 24 Parganas. I slept through it. During my second attempt, in Delhi, I, like my classmates, left the screening midway. Back then my passion lay more in sports. It was, finally, at my third attempt that I watched the film. That was at Siri Fort. I was howling by the end, especially when Durga died. I went home dazed, wondering how a film could be so simple yet magical.
Irrespective of the election results, Bengal, which once prided itself in intellectual heritage and broadmindedness, has got mired in a vortex of narrow identity politics.
: Wednesday, April 28, 2021, 2:30 AM IST
Satyajit Ray s 100th birth anniversary falls on May 2. Sumit Paul dwells on the auteur s cinematic relevance in this age of the pandemic, blind faith & elevation of religion over reason
Li Wenliang was the Chinese doctor who first attempted to warn the Peopleâs Government about the perils of the coronavirus which was first observed in Wuhan, China. Wenliang, who was officially âreprimandedâ by the Chinese government, is the 21st-century version of Henrik Ibsen and Satyajit Rayâs âbrave protagonistsâ. Ganashatru
The great auteur Satyajit Ray, whose 100th birth anniversary falls on May 2, will always be remembered for his cinematic genius, directorial excellence and futuristic vision conveyed through his films. A filmmaker of Rayâs calibre cannot be confined to a specific time period. He transcends that. In other words, his works arenât periodically slotted. Just like the plays and sonnets of Willi
What have been other influences on your work?
Ray: Bibhuti Bhushan [the author of The Apu Trilogy] influenced me very much. In fact, I knew about village life by reading Pather Panchali. I felt a rapport with him, with the village and his attitude towards it, which is one of the reasons why I wanted to make Pather Panchali in the first place. I was deeply moved by the book.
Satyajit Ray became the first Indian to receive an Honorary Academy Award in 1992.
I have also been moved by Tagore s work, which is not necessarily rural. Of course, our cultural background, our cultural makeup, is a fusion of East and West. This applies to anybody who has been educated in the city in India and who has been exposed to the classics of English literature. After all, our knowledge of the West is deeper than the Westerner s knowledge of our country. We have imbibed Western education. Western music, Western art, Western literature have all been very influential in India.