KIFF to screen six restored cult films by masters at 30th edition
Times of India | 26 November 2024
Kolkata: The 30th Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF) will screen six restored masterpieces by Barin Saha, Shyam Benegal, Girish Kasaravalli, Aravindan Govindan, Vedantam Raghavaiah, and Aribam Syam Sharma, offering cinephiles the opportunity to revisit distinguished Indian films the digitally remastered versions of which captivated audiences at Cannes and Venice.IPL 2025 mega auctionIPL Auction 2025: Who went where and for how muchIPL 2025: Complete list of players of each franchiseThe restoration was accomplished at Martin Scorsese's The Film Foundation's World Cinema Project, Shivendra Singh Dungarpur's Film Heritage Foundation (FHF) and NFDC-National Film Archive of India under the National Film Heritage Mission.
"As part of our 30-year celebration, we are screening six cult classics by the masters," festival chairperson Goutam Ghose said. The films are Barin Saha's ‘Tero Nodir Pare', Shyam Benegal's ‘Manthan', Girish Kasaravalli's ‘Ghatashraddha', Aravindan Govindan's ‘Thampu', Vedantam Raghavaiah's ‘Devadasu' and Aribam Syam Sharma's ‘Ishanou', ‘Tero Nodir Pare' being the only Bengali classic on the list. It was digitally restored under National Film Heritage Mission. Earlier this year, both ‘Tero Nodir Pare' and ‘Ishanou' were screened at SRFTI's Arcurea.
Born in 1925, Saha lived on Garpar Road, five houses from Satyajit Ray's residence at 100, Garpar Road. His elder brother, Rajendra Nath Saha, was a distinguished still photographer. They sold their landed property to finance film-making. "My uncle travelled to France and Italy in 1951-52 to master film-making, scriptwriting, film autography, photography and camera technology. He gained practical experience while working with Jean Luc Godard, Vittorio de Sicca and other luminaries of the New Age Film Wave in France and Italy," said Saha's nephew Sudipta Saha. On his return to India in 1958, Saha was considered a knowledgeable and professionally trained film-maker. "His vessel docked in Mumbai. Raj Kapoor met my uncle aboard and invited him to be a cinematographer. But my uncle found the Bombay film sets backward," Sudipta said.
Saha returned to Kolkata and brought along an imported Arriflex Camera and a Grundig Tape Recorder, then unavailable in India. "Film-makers, including Mrinal Sen, Ritwik Ghatak and Chidananda Dasgupta, expressed interest in learning about those devices and contemporary film-making technology. My father mentioned that Ray had wanted to co-direct a film with my uncle. I recollect several French film-makers and Jean Renoir's nephew visiting my uncle at our Garpar home. French critic Georges Sadoul visited Kolkata in the '60s and voiced his disappointment over ‘Tero Nadir Pare' not securing viewers and distributors in India. I am elated that the present generation is appreciating his work and that his restored film will be screened at KIFF," Sudipta said.