The famous Bengali film director Anik Dutta knows very well that anything which is related to Satyajit Ray will be heavily scrutinized by the Bengali movie buffs. His upcoming movie Aparajito is a tribute to the legendary movie director, Ray’s journey of making a cult classic named Pather Panchali(1955).
The teaser of the movie has just been released a week ago and it has already surpassed more than 340k views on YouTube. It clearly depicts how the director has exlored the legendary filmmaker’s vision along with recreating some of the iconic scenes from the classic.
We see the Bengali TV actor, Jeetu Kamal enacting the role of Aparajito Ray in the movie. His character is vividly inspired by Satyajit Ray. Saayoni Ghosh, also another Bengali TV and movie actress is seen playing the character of Bimola, inspired by Ray’s wife Bijoya. In the movie, Aparajito is on a mission to complete his debut film Pather Padabali against every odd in the world and the ending part of the trailer indicates how this movie brings a historical change in Bengali as well as Indian cinema.
Fans are already very excited to see Jeetu Kamal in a new avatar as it has a remarkable and quite surprising similarity with Ray. Eyes are on Anik Dutta too to examine how well he has explored Ray’s journey of making his first ever film. All the accomplishments and setbacks regarding the making of Pather Panchali are witnessed in there. The teaser shows us how the movie received much accolades from both cine buffs and critics worldwide. The clip ends with a scene where Aparajito is being praised for his spirit which helped him in finally achieving his goal.
For now, Jeetu Kamal’s overall look as Ray is pretty convincing. But the main point lies in the question that whether Anik Dutta will be able to meet the expectations of the lot and if he has recreated the frames of Ray commendably in this tribute movie. There will be a huge amount of criticism and backlash from movie lovers if anything goes south. The movie is expected to release in theatres this year in May. The director has not yet confirmed the date.
• Nostalgic endeavour:
According to Anik, he has not merely tried to give an account of how Pather Panchali was made by surpassing hurdles on the road. The message he wants to convey is if one is confident about their ability to achieve their dreams, they can actually make them come true for real. It surely is intended to be an inspirational film. The trailer surely evokes nostalgia among the fans and takes them down their memory lanes to the day when they watched Pather Panchali for the first time in their life. On the other hand, social media went into a tizzy with Jeetu Kamal’s stunning similarity with Ray, all thanks to the makeup artiste Somnath Kundu whose prosthesis did an amazing job.
We can’t really wait to experience the magic of the classic movie scenes once again in the hall. The epic scene of the two siblings, Apu and Durga running through the Kaash fields in hope of catching a glimpse of the train already brought back nostalgia and we hope to see more of our favourite scenes included in the upcoming movie.