GOOPY-BAGHA
SEQUELS WILL MARK RAY'S ANNIVERSARY
By Sujoy Dhar, Indo-Asian News Service (1 May 2007)
Kolkata,
India: As the 86th birth anniversary of Satyajit Ray is celebrated
Wednesday, perhaps the most befitting tribute will come from his
son who is planning sequels of two of the master filmmaker's best-known
works. A stronger cyber world presence of the works of Ray, who
was not only a filmmaker but also a writer of repute, is on the
cards as well. But what will perhaps most delight his fans is
the return of the detective character Feluda and the musician
duo Goopy-Bagha on screen.
Ray's
son Sandip had made "Goopy Bagha Phirey Elo" (The Return
of Goopy and Bagha) in 1991 as the third in the series of films
by his father on the do-gooder musical duo with magical powers.
Now he will start the fourth sequel, tentatively early next year.
But
first the cameras will roll this month in the studios of Kolkata
and in the outdoors of Elora in Maharashtra to capture detective
Feluda in "Kailashe Kelenkari" (Muddle in Kailash),
one of the whodunit series penned by Ray.
"We
are starting the shooting of 'Kailashe Kelenkari', a Feluda series
book, from May 11 and will tentatively release the film in December,"
Lolita Ray, wife of Sandip Ray, told IANS Tuesday.
"The
Goopy Bagha shooting will start only after this Feluda film is
complete. It will be produced by distributor Arijit Dutta, whose
grandfather Nepal Dutta had produced my father-in-law's 'Goopy
Gyne Bagha Byne' (GGBB), the first in the series in 1968."
"Hirak
Rajar Deshey", again directed by Satyajit Ray, was the second
in the series in 1980.
"But
casting is a problem for the new film and we are looking for actors
to play Goopy and Bagha, especially Goopy," said Lolita Ray,
who takes an active interest in her father-in-law's works and
had assisted him in designing costumes for the films he made in
his final years.
Sandip
Ray had said: "I have been looking for faces that will fit
the characters immortalised by the late comedian Robi Ghosh (Bagha)
and Tapan Chatterjee (Goopy)."
And
there's more happening in Ray's 86th year of birth.
Www.worldofray.com,
one the largest of the portals on Satyajit Ray, has been updated
and given a new name - www.satyajitrayworld.com - to mark the
birth anniversary.
The
website was launched by the Kolkata-based Society for the Preservation
of Satyajit Ray Films, better known as the Satyajit Ray Society,
on Aug 26, 2006. The date was chosen to celebrate the 51st year
of the release in Kolkata of "Pather Panchali", Ray's
debut film that marked the emergence of an all-time great of world
cinema.
"I
think the reason for the site's popularity was it was the first
time a comprehensive attempt was made to present Ray not only
as a filmmaker but as the many-splendoured genius that he was,"
said Sandip Ray, member-secretary of the Society.
"Another
reason was that we took particular care to see the website did
not become grey and dull. So we used attractive designs with a
lot of colour, which probably attracted the old and the young
alike."
D.N.
Ghosh, president of the Society, said: "The launch of the
website was a step on our part to reach out to a global audience."
Kathleen
O'Connell, who translated some of Ray's stories published under
the title "Bravo! Professor Shonku" writes on the site
about the Ray course she gives at the University of Toronto, Canada.
The section has direct links to the university website.
The
Satyajit Ray Society, in association with the Oscar Academy in
Los Angeles, has also been engaged for over a decade in restoring
the Ray films.
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