Rabindranath Tagore 1961|| A film by Satyajit Ray || Clapboard tales Collections

Rabindranath Tagore is a 1961 black-and-white short film directed by an Indian director Satyajit Ray on the life and works of noted Bengali author Rabindranath Tagore. Ray started working on the documentary in the beginning of 1958 and it was released during the birth centenary year of Rabindranath Tagore, who was born on 7 May 1861. Ray avoided the controversial aspects of Tagore’s life in order to make it as an official portrait of the poet. Though Tagore was known as a poet, Ray did not use any of Tagore’s poetry as he was not happy with the English translation and believed that “it would not make the right impression if recited“ and people would not consider Tagore “a very great poet“, based on those translations. Academy Film Archive, part of the Academy Foundation, took an initiative to restore Satyajit Ray’s films and could successfully restore 19 Ray films but Rabindranath Tagore is yet to be restored as its original print was found to be badly damaged. Directed by Satyajit Ray Produced by Films Division of India Written by Satyajit Ray Screenplay by Satyajit Ray Based on Life and works of Rabindranath Tagore Starring Raya Chatterjee, Sovanlal Ganguli, Smaran Ghosal, Purnendu Mukherjee, Kallol Bose, Subir Bose, Phani Nan, Norman Ellis Narrated by Satyajit Ray Music by Jyotirindra Moitra Cinematography Soumendu Roy Edited by Dulal Dutta Distributed by Films Division of India Release date 1961