Pune’s NFAI to restore Satyajit Ray’s Pratidwandi
The Hindu
The film, released in 1970, formed the first in the legendary director’s Calcutta Trilogy
For most cinema aficionados, instant identification with legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray’s cinema comes with either the celebrated Apu Trilogy (1955-59) or other classics such as Charulata, Mahanagar (The Big City) or Ashani Sanket (Distant Thunder).
While these films have been digitally restored and are available in high-quality prints, pristine prints are lacking for Calcutta Trilogy, Ray’s other three-part series made in the Seventies. Pratidwandi (The Adversary) based on Sunil Gandopadhyay’s novel was the first in this trilogy and filmed in 1970.
On the occasion of the great auteur’s birth centenary year, Pune-based National Film Archive of India (NFAI) has started the process of restoring Ray’s films as part of National Film Heritage Mission (NFHM). Pratidwandi is the first to be taken.