Kolkata: The Centre for New Media (CENEMA), a part of the TCG Centres for Research and Education in Science and Technology (TCG-CREST), with...
Kolkata: The Centre for New Media (CENEMA), a part of the TCG Centres for Research and Education in Science and Technology (TCG-CREST), within the umbrella of The Chatterjee Group (TCG), is presenting Satyajit Ray’s Kheror Khata (Film Books) of the film ‘Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne’, originally released in 1969, through a bilingual responsive website exploreray.org. The project is the group’s tribute to Ray on his birth centenary by exploring his work through modern digital technology in order to bring more incisive insight into Ray’s creative genius.
The project is centred around the
Kheror Khata, a traditional red cloth-bound notebook, which Ray maintained for
his films and served as his “filmbook”. In these notebooks, he kept meticulous
and exhaustive notes in the form of words, phrases, sentences, sketches,
musical notes and storyboards as an important guide throughout the making of
the film, as well as the post-production phases of editing, background music, sound
effects and special effects.
This project extensively annotates elements of overs 900 pages,
with descriptions and deciphered texts, cross-referenced to the script,
digitised movie sequences, music snippets and other additional information,
leading to 1500+ elements, 500+ movie snippets, 100+ images and 70+ newly
recorded piano renditions of the original notations. The songs, background
music, iconic scenes from the film are also linked to the multidimensional
contexts explicitly conceived on the Kheror Khata. The site also presents for
the first time the sketchbook of the film, production stills, the publicity
material of the film and other aspects, all produced by Ray.
The project aims to enable cinema lovers, researchers of the film
medium, filmmakers themselves in general and admirers of Ray in particular, all
across the globe, to delve deeper into his unique approach to movie making,
aided by his facility with other forms of art, crafts, design and music. It is hoped
that this project will help a global audience to engage in research and more
importantly, a younger generation will find inspiration in this interplay of
the thought process of a creative mind captured in the Kheror Khata pages with
the final iconic film in celluloid and derive their own insight and
interpretation of the genius of Ray
Sandip Ray is the principal advisor and collaborator of the
project and Kunal Sen is the technical advisor. TCG CREST is very pleased that
the sons of two legendary Bengali filmmakers, Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen,
have collaborated on this project.
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