Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne (1968)

Original title

গুপী গাইন বাঘা বাইন

Directed by

Satyajit Ray

Genre

fantasy film, children's film

Country

India

Runtime

1h 58m

Rated

U

Rating

7.5 of 10 from 26 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A poor singer and a poor drummer get magical powers from a ghost king. They use their new abilities to help a kingdom in trouble.

whimsicalplayfulfantasticalmusicallightheartedcharmingcheerfuladventurous

What happens

Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne () is a 1969 Bengali satirical superhero film written and directed by Satyajit Ray and based on a story by his grandfather Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury. It is a fantasy musical, with music and lyrics composed and written by Ray himself. This is the first film of the Goopy–Bagha series, and there are two sequels – Hirak Rajar Deshe, which was released in 1980, and Goopy Bagha Phire Elo, written by Satyajit Ray but directed by his son Sandip Ray, which was released in 1992. The film was based on the characters Goopy Gyne and Bagha Byne, who made their first appearance in the Sandesh magazine in 1915, with illustrations by Ray's grandfather Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury. In 1961, after the revival of Sandesh, Ray began contemplating the idea of making a film based on that story, and he was partly compelled by his son Sandip to make a film which was less 'grim and adult'. This was matched by Ray's own desire to make a movie that, unlike his previous films, would cater to children. Plus, this would also give him an opportunity to lace the story with music and dancing, a point his movies' producers and distributors were always insisting upon. Ray managed to convince producers to finance the film, even though it was clear from the beginning that the film would cost a lot of money. The movie released to great critical and commercial reception, which held the record for longest continuous run of a Bengali-language movie in Bengal, as it ran for 51 straight weeks. It won the Best Feature Film and Best Direction awards at the 16th National Film Awards, and went on to win many other international awards as well. Critical reception was highly positive. Raja Sen called it to be the most innovative film to have ever come out of India. Phil Hall said that the film "comes as a delightful surprise – Ray, it appears, not only possessed a great sense of humor but also enjoyed a stunning talent for musical cinema". (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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