Download
1 / 1
20 likes | 396 Views
https://www.cinemaazi.com/search-feature - Unlike the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, who was dismissive of cinema, Rabindranath Tagore followed the medium closely and even engaged with its development in its early stage. On his anniversary, Shantanu Ray Chaudhuri provides a snapshot of how the poet and write has been a muse for film-makers for over ninety-years.
E N D
Tagore and Indian Cinema - Legacy and History Unlike the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, who was dismissive of cinema, Rabindranath Tagore followed the medium closely and even engaged with its development in its early stage. On his anniversary, Shantanu Ray Chaudhuri provides a snapshot of how the poet and write has been a muse for film-makers for over ninety-years. For more information, visit: https://www.cinemaazi.com/ 'As in politics, so in art the aim is independence.. that cinema has so long been subservient to literature is due to the fact that no artiste has been able to redeem it from this slavery by dint of his genius. The principal element of the motion picture is the flux of image. The beauty and grandeur of this form in motion has to be developed in such a way that it becomes self-sufficient without the use of words. If some other language is needed to explain its own, it amounts to incompetence.' - Rabindranath Tagore It is Rabindranath Tagore's understanding of the medium of cinema that even close to a century after he made the observation, it remains the touchstone for anyone aspiring to make a film. Unlike the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, who dismissed cinema as a corrupting influence, Tagore followed the medium closely and even engaged with its development in its early stage. On the eve of India's first talkie in 1931, Tagore visited the Soviet Union in 1930, where he watched Eisenstein's Battlesship Potemkin and in interactions with film-makers discussed making a film on the history of mankind. According to Edward Thomson, his biogrpher , there were negotiations with Hollywood honcho Alexander Korda on a project to make films based on Tagore's works which unfortunately never materialized. He also wrote a script called Child, based on a play on Christ that he had watched on a visit to Germany. The film was never made, though Ritwik Ghatak would use the first two lines from it for his film, Subarnarekha, albeit in an entirely different context. Tagore had a profound influence on Satajit Ray who had studied at Santiniketan. When Ray was a mere boy of six, Tagore even composed a poem for him.
