Story
The story revolves around Gopinath Gyne alias Goopy (Tapen Chatterjee), the son of a poor grocer Kanu Kyne from a village called Amloki. Goopy wants to become a singer, but he sings terribly without melody, rhythm or tune. The village elders wanting to have fun, persuade him to sing for the king in the early morning hours right under His Majesty's bedroom window. Goopy does so and is driven out of Amloki on a donkey for waking up the king with his terrible singing. Exiled to a forest, he meets Bagha Bayen (Rabi Ghosh), another exile from nearby village Hortuki. Bagha has been exiled for playing the drum badly. They soon make the team after encountering a tiger and start singing and drumming, initially to scare off the tiger, but in the process attract a group of Ghosts in Bengali culture, ghosts who are fascinated by their music. Happy with their performance, the king of the ghosts (Bhooter Raja) grants them three boons, all of which are only available to both as a pair (they cannot use them individually). * They can get food and clothes whenever needed by clapping one hand with each other. * They are given a pair of magic slippers with which they can travel anywhere (again, they need to clap one hand with each other while wearing the shoes and say the name of the place they want to go to). * They become flawless musicians and gain the ability to hold people in awe (literally, their music renders people motionless) with their music. The pair travel to Shundi, where a benevolent king appoints them court musicians. However, the king of Halla (the long lost twin brother of the king of Shundi, both played by (Santosh Dutta), is planning to attack Shundi, after being poisoned by his chief minister (Jahor Roy) with the help of a magic potion that makes him evil. He is aided by a senile sorcerer (Harindranath Chattopadhyay), who has created the evil potion. Goopy and Bagha travel to Halla in an attempt to prevent the attack, but are captured instead. They also lose the power of their slippers when captured and hence cannot escape the jail by magic, but manage to do so by luring the famished gatekeeper (Nripati Chatterjee) with delicious foods. They arrive singing and drumming when the soldiers are about to launch their attack, rendering the army motionless. Next, they wish for unlimited food and sweets, which rain from the sky on the starving soldiers who forget the battle and settle for filling their bellies. Not only this, their singing takes off the evil effects of the potion given to the King of Halla, who drops the idea of capturing Shundi, and reunites happily with his brother. For averting the war, the two kings of Shundi and Halla respectively marry their daughters to Goopy and Bagha.Cast
* Tapen Chatterjee - Goopy Gyne * Rabi Ghosh - Bagha Byne * Santosh Dutta - King of Shundi and King of Halla * Harindranath Chattopadhyay - Borfi (The Magician) * Ajoy Banerjee - Visitor to Halla * Ratan Banerjee - Court singer at Shundi * Durgadas Bannerjee - King of Amloki * Binoy Bose - Village elder / visitor to Halla * Govinda Chakravarti - Goopy's father * Abani Chatterjee - Village elder * Kartik Chatterjee - Court singer at Shundi / visitor to Halla * Santi Chatterjee - Commander of Halla army * Gopal Dey - Executioner * Shailen Ganguli - Visitor to Halla * Jahor Roy - Prime Minister of Halla * Tarun Mitra - Court singer at Shundi * Haridhan Mukherjee - Village elder * Prasad Mukherjee - King of ghosts / village elder (bhoot er raja) * Khagen Pathak - Village elder * Chinmoy Roy - Spy of Halla * Joykrishna Sanyal - Court singer at Shundi * Mani Srimani - Visitor to HallaProduction
Origins
Around 1967, Ray started toying with the idea of creating a film based on extra terrestrial creatures on Earth, and wrote a screenplay to that effect. Marlon Brando and Peter Sellers were supposed to star in lead roles in the film. However, things did not turn out well between him and Columbia Pictures, and the project was shelved. Unable to make a fantasy movie in Cinema of the United States, Hollywood, Ray decided to make one in India instead. He intended to reach a wider audience with this film, prompted in part by the lukewarm box office performance of his previous movies ''Kapurush'', ''Mahapurush'' and ''Nayak (1966 film), Nayak''. R.D Bansal, who had produced those movies, became even less enthusiastic when he learnt of the film's estimated budget, and, as Ray told Marie Seton in December 1967, he spent the remainder of that year scouting for finance, and almost reduced to the same situation as he had been during shooting Pather Panchali. Finally, towards the end of 1967, Nepal Dutta and Asim Dutta of ''Purnima Pictures'' agreed to lend some financial help. But since it was not substantial enough to shoot the entire movie in color, Ray decided to do it in black and white and show only the final scene in color.Development and filming
The film's pivotal sequence was a six and a half-minute dance, divided into four numbers, performed by the ghosts of the forest in front of Goopy and Bagha. The numbers were intertwined into a phantasmagoria of contrasting styles and moods. Ray settled on four classes of ghosts keeping in line with the four common classes in the social hierarchy in Hinduism, "since we have so many class divisions, the ghosts should have the same". Thus came to be included the king and warriors, ''sahibs'', fat people and the common people. Ray decided that the music ought to have "some order, form and precision", instead of being just being "a wooly, formless kind of thing". He remembered a South Indian classical form he had once heard in the Delhi Film Festival, which used 12 musical instruments, of which he selected four. He deliberately avoided melody, because "melody suggests a kind of sophistication". Each class, except the ''sahibs'', was played by actors appropriately dressed and made-up, the ''sahibs'' were shadow-puppets expertly under-cranked to create the illusion. The dance culminates with the four classes positioned vertically, with the priests at the bottom and the common people at the top, in contrast with the traditional class hierarchy. Ray imagined the caste system upside down in reaction to the evolving nature of power.Soundtrack and other songs
Critical reception
Critical response was generally positive, with the length and special effects being the main points of criticism. Dennis Schwartz wrote that "its only fault is that I thought it was too lengthy to hold the attention of children. But the appealing film dazzles with Ray's lively score that's carried out very well by the film's stars". Lindsay Anderson said that it had got lovely things in it, but it went on for too long. A critic, writing for The Guardian, said that this was "Satyajit Ray at his least convincing". The Observer wrote that "perhaps it would appeal to singularly unfidgety children". The Times observed, "Ray is a true poet of the cinema, but he finds his poetry in everyday reality; in all-out fantasy, he seems somewhat prosaic". It was, however, a smash hit at home. Ray later wrote to Marie Seton that "it is extraordinary how quickly it has become part of popular culture. Really there isn't a single child who doesn't know and sing the songs".Awards and honors
At the 16th National Film Awards, the movie won two major awards: * National Film Award for Best Feature Film, Best Feature Film * National Film Award for Best Direction, Best Direction It won 4 international awards: * The Silver Cross at Adelaide * Best director at Auckland Festival, Auckland Film Festival * Best film at Melbourne International Film Festival * Merit Award in Tokyo It was also nominated for the Golden Bear at the 19th Berlin International Film Festival, Berlin Film Festival.Preservation
The Academy Film Archive preserved ''Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne'' in 2003.Remake
''Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne'' was remade into a Hindi language animated film named ''Goopi Gawaiya Bagha Bajaiya'', directed by Shilpa Ranade. It was nominated for and won for several international awards.Sequels
''Hirak Rajar Deshe''
Satyajit Ray made a sequel named ''Hirak Rajar Deshe'', which released eleven years after the release of ''Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne''.''Goopy Bagha Phire Elo''
Sandip Ray, son of director Satyajit Ray directed another sequel named ''Goopy Bagha Phire Elo''. The film released twelve years after the release of ''Hirak Rajar Deshe''.Future
Sandip Ray wants to make another sequel to this series. He had received many requests to make the fourth ''Goopy - Bagha'' movie. Ray said to ''The Times of India'' about the plot of the fourth film: "Making a Goopy Bagha movie without Tapen and Rabi is unthinkable. The only way I can do a fourth is by taking the story forward and introducing Goopy and Bagha's sons". The idea to weave a story around the next generation came from a line from the introductory song 'Mora Dujonai Rajar Jamai' in 'Hirak Rajar Deshe'—"aar ache polapan, ek khan ek khan... (we have one child each)".See also
* Gayen * ''Pather Panchali''Notes
References
* * *External links