Sudhir Mukherjee

The National Film Archive of India (NFAI) has begun the restoration work of Satyajit Ray’s documentary on Sukumar Ray, ‘Sonar Kella’ and ‘Hirak Rajar Deshe’ after getting the original negatives from the state government.

They could be unlettered with no knowledge about energy dynamics, but they know that life is possible in the lap of nature. Their love for jal, jungle, zamin (water, forest and land) is so deep that thousands of villagers in Tubait village of Latehar district rejected all lucrative offers of Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) and stuck to the idea of tilling the land to produce two square meals for themselves.

Reviewing the original negatives of a Bengali film at the state government’s film vault that resulted in inspiring Kishore Kumar-Mehmood's rip-roaring comedy ‘Padosan’ has led to an interesting find by the head of the National Film Archive of India (NFAI).

Two of Bengal's yesteryear screen goddesses - Sabitri Chatterjee and Supriya Devi - will be conferred Padma Shri this year.

This is a tribute to singer-composer Hemanta Mukhopadhyay on the music maestro’s death anniversary. We select 10 of his ageless Bengali film songs. It’s a well-merited spotlight on the vintage voice.

We have heard of the Partition, she lived it. Born in Comilla in British India (now Bangladesh), Sabitri Chatterjee was all of 10 when an array of boundaries separated India from erstwhile East Pakistan. Ahead of the release of Srijit Mukherji's Partition drama Rajkahini, that is what the Padma Shri awardee told us one evening at a city studio.

Despite all our love and respect for Bengali classics, either the prints of these movies are lost or their original negatives have got so severely damaged that they are beyond restoration.