Kolkata, June 13: One of the classics of Rabindranath Tagore ‘Char Adhyay’, set against the backdrop of the freedom movement of the 1930s, will be turned into a feature film on the 150th birth anniversary of the poet.
Award-winning filmmaker Bappaditya Bandyopadhyay, who will direct the film, said the subject has relevance for today’s generation which is witness to the Naxalite unrest in Jangalmahal.
Bandyopadhyay told PTI, “I have been dreaming of commiting ‘Char Adhyay’ (Four Chapters) to celluloid since 2006.”
Eminent director Kumar Shahani had earlier directed ‘Char Adhyay’ in Hindi starring Nandini Goshal (Ela) and Sumant Chattopadhyay (Atin), but Bandyopadhyay said he would interpret it in a different way.
“My interpretation will be different. The tale had intrigued me both as a reader and a filmmaker for long,” Bandyopadhyay said.
With the title of the film ‘Char Adhyay’ already bought by a Bengali director sometime back, Bandyopadhyay’s working title will be ‘Four Chapters’.
He, however, said he was sure it would not be much of a problem with the relaxation of copyright rules on Tagore’s works about a decade back.
The novel, which depicted weaknesses of armed rebellion against the British raj, showed Tagore’s emphasis on the humane side of the revolutionary movement, though the dramatist never hesitated to raise his unqualified protest against British colonialism.
—PTI