ICCR Exhibition: Tagore and Cinema

Poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, short story writer and painter, Rabindranath Tagore also had definite ideas about cinema. His stories had great cinematic potential as they were frich in visual metaphor and dramatic intensity. In 1923, Tagore’s literary work came to the cinema for the first time when Naresh Chandra Mitra cinematized Tagore’s story, Man Bhanjan, and then Grechan Green directed a documentary on Tagore. In 1929, Tagore acted in a film, Tapati, which has not been available to public but his style of acting on stage was phenomenal. He was far ahead of his contemporaries in his thought process about the cinema.

Tagore’s works are universal offering filmmakers a challenge to make the film as powerful, credible and appealing on celluloid as it is in print. His vast body of work has been made into great films by the most brilliant film-makers of the country. Around fifty films adapted from h is stories have been made in Bengali and around a dozen in Hindi and other languages. In 1961, Satyajit Ray made Teen Kanya based on Tagore’s short stories. Other films made on his stories include Charulata, Ghare Baire, Khsudita Pahsan, Atithi, Kadambini, Khokababur Pratyabartan, Nishithey, Streer patra, Rabibar, Chokher Bali and Chaturanga. Hindi cinema too has had adaptations of
Tagore’s stories, notable example are Kabuliwalla and Adhyay.
 
Open until 2 March during office hours
Date: 
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Venue: 
Nehru Centre
Further Information: 

http://www.nehrucentre.org.uk/