Pather Panchali (1955) And Apur Sansar (1959) of the Apu trilogy Sonar Kella is by far the most memorable film of the series, shot in the beautiful locales of Rajasthan.Īlso read: This Powerful Short Film By Satyajit Ray Shows An India Fractured By Class And Caste 3. It’s difficult to forget Soumitra Chatterjee’s fantastic portrayal of Feluda, and the equally lovable characters Topshe and Lalmohan Babu. Two of Feluda’s stories were made into films by Ray. Remember Feluda’s address, 21 Rajani Sen road, Ballygunge, Kolkata? India had its very own Sherlock, and he’s from West Bengal! It initially started as a series of novels written by Satyajit Ray. The first two movies in the series were made by Satyajit Ray, and the first one became the longest running movie in the history of Bengal, running for 51 straight weeks! Who can forget the classic song from the second movie, Hirak Rajar Deshe, “aha ki Ananda akashe batashe” and Rabi Ghosh enthusiastically playing the dhol? 2. The leader of the ghosts grants them three boons, which are central to all their adventures in the three films. They start singing and playing the drum to scare off a tiger in a forest, but their music intrigues ghosts. Exiled into the forest, he meets Bagha Byne, who too has been made to leave his kingdom because he plays drums badly.

Persuaded by his fellow villagers to sing for the king, he is thrown out of the kingdom. The story revolves around the life of Goopy Gyne, who wants to be a singer, but can’t sing. Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne Series (1969)Įvery Bengali’s childhood favourite definitely makes it to the top of this list. This list may not be exhaustive, but I have tried to compile a list of Bengali movies you should definitely watch. These films cannot be forgotten and they constantly remind me, and I am sure, many others, of the beauty of story-telling.

Some movies, over time, have etched themselves in the memories of many people as classics. Bengali films are known for their hard-hitting storylines, characters and dialogues. Over the years, cinema in Bengal has transitioned in many ways. Before Satyajit Ray, directors like Ritwik Ghatak began a new trend of realistic cinema, charting a new form of film-making known as parallel cinema. The first Bengali feature film was in fact produced as early as 1918. The history of cinema in Bengal dates back to the 1890’s when the first ‘bioscopes’ were shown in theatres in Calcutta.

Like its movies.īengali movies have an extremely rich history. A lot of people I have come across tend to think that Bengali culture mostly consists of fish, Rabindrasangeet and a couple of Satyajit Ray films, as they seem to be the only things that have managed to permeate popular culture outside West Bengal, letting many other beautiful things disappear into oblivion. Most of us are very much aware of Bengali culture, but the culture also falls prey to many stereotypes.

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