12 Somnath slowly transitions from dealing in stationery and industrial chemicals to seedier merchandise. DIRECTED/WRITTEN BY: Satyajit Ray. WITH: Pradip Mukherjee, Satya Banerjee, Dipankar Dey, Lily Chakravarti. 1975. 131 min. India. B&W. Bengali. 35mm. Restored by the Satyajit Ray Preservation Project in 1996 through a collaboration of the Academy Film Archive, the Merchant-Ivory Foundation, and The Film Foundation. Print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive.
these characters to young audiences when he was the editor of the children’s magazine Sandesh , which his grandfather founded in the 1910s. In The Golden Fortress , the duo faces off against kidnappers, scorpions, magicians, and knife throwers. DIRECTED/WRITTEN BY: Satyajit Ray. WITH: Soumitra Chatterjee, Santosh Dutta, Siddartha Chatterjee, Kusal Chakravarty. 1974. 136 min. India. Color. Bengali. 4K DCP. New 4K restoration DCP, courtesy of National Film Archive of India.
The Chess Players (Shatranj Ke Khilari)
The Elephant God (Joi Baba Felunath)
The Chess Players (Shatranj Ke Khilari) Thu, Mar 30 | 7:30pm | TMT One of Ray’s most beloved films, The Chess Players is an elegant dissection of colonialism. Ray interweaves two parallel stories: the British-owned East India Company’s maneuverings to remove the king of Oudh, and the chess games of two Lucknow noblemen, oblivious to both domestic and national cataclysms around them. Set on the cusp of the 1857 rebellion by the Indian people against their British colonizers, The Chess Players is one of Ray’s most visually dazzling portraits of the fateful games people play. The film also stars Richard Attenborough, with narration by Amitabh Bachchan. DIRECTED/WRITTEN BY: Satyajit Ray. WITH: Sanjeev Kumar, Shabana Azmi, Saeed Jaffrey, Richard Attenborough. 1977. 113 min. India. Color. Urdu, Hindi, English. 35mm. Restored by the Satyajit Ray Preservation Project at the Academy Film Archive with funding from The Film Foundation. Print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive.
The Elephant God (Joi Baba Felunath) Sun, Apr 2 | 2pm | TMT
Ray returns to the delightful adventures of detective Feluda (Soumitra Chatterjee) and his teen sidekick Tapesh in this lively follow-up to The Golden Fortress. While holidaying in the scenic holy city of Benares (now Varanasi), our stealthy sleuth is approached by a wealthy family to retrieve an invaluable family heirloom, a golden Ganesh statue (the Elephant God of the film’s title). As Feluda and Tapesh become embroiled with art smugglers, bodybuilders, and knife throwers through the ancient city’s labyrinth-like streets, Ray offers a warm meditation on religion. DIRECTED/WRITTEN BY: Satyajit Ray. WITH: Soumitra Chatterjee, Santosh Dutta, Siddhartha Chatterjee, Utpal Dutt. 1978. 112 min. India. Bengali. 35mm. Restored by the Satyajit Ray Preservation Project at the Academy Film Archive. Print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive.
Kingdom of Diamonds (Hirak Rajar Deshe) Thu, Apr 6 | 7:30pm | TMT
Ray revisits the singing nomads Goopy and Bagha, this time in vibrant color. After a decade of life in royal repose, the duo embarks on a journey to the kingdom of Hirak at the invitation of its ruler. During their tuneful cross-country journey—Ray reveling in the grandeur and diversity of India’s landscapes— the pair discover that Hirak is a tyranny out to brainwash its citizens thanks to a secret invention. Ray’s expressionistic sets and use of rhyming dialogue make for a singular fantasy and, by the director’s own account, one of his most elaborate films. DIRECTED/WRITTEN BY: Satyajit Ray. WITH: Soumitra Chatterjee, Utpal Dutt, Tapen Chatterjee, Rabi Ghosh. 1980. 118 min. Color. Bengali. 4K DCP. New 4K restoration DCP, courtesy of National Film Archive of India. The Home and the World (Ghare Baire) Fri, Apr 7 | 7:30pm | TMT Set against the chaotic aftermath of the 1905 British partition of Bengal into Muslim and Hindu states, a love triangle forms between a Hindu landlord (Victor Banerjee), his wife
The Golden Fortress (Sonar Kella)
The Golden Fortress (Sonar Kella) Fri, Mar 31 | 7:30pm | TMT A rarely screened gem in Ray’s abundant catalogue and a film beloved to generations of Indian audiences, The Golden Fortress is set in scenic Rajasthan. Ray introduces viewers to charming private investigator Feluda (Soumitra Chatterjee) and his teenaged cousin sidekick Tapesh (Siddartha Chatterjee). Ray originally presented
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