On birth centenary year Ray’s notes on film available at click of mouse

     Kolkata, July 24 (PTI) Jottings by Satyajit Ray about the scenes, sequences, and details of special effects of his evergreen musical fantasy-cum-adventure  film ‘Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne’ (The Adventures of Goopy and Bagha)  have been uploaded on a website, exploreray.org, for millions of his fans on his birth centenary year.<br><br>        Launched at the initiative of The Centre for New Media, Kunal Sen, son of filmmaker Mrinal Sen, and with support of Ray's director son Sandip and the film’s producer Piyali Films, the website has uploaded two notebooks, which the maestro called his ‘Kheror Khatas’, of the 1969 classic.<br><br>         Sen, who helms a software firm in Illinois, said, "After a year of innumerable video meetings and email exchanges, the website finally came to life now."<br><br>         ‘Kheror Khata’, is a traditional red cloth-bound notebook, which Ray maintained for his film and served as his filmbook.  <br>         In ‘Kheror Khata’, the maestro kept meticulous and exhaustive notes in the form of words, phrases, sentences, sketches, musical notes and storyboards as an important guide throughout the making of the film, as well as the post-production phases of editing, background music, sound effects and special effects. <br>        Sen  said the project is unique in its scope as it tries to breathe life into Satyajit Ray's detailed notes that he maintained when preparing for a film. Our first project was 'Goopi Gyne Bagha Byne', which is probably the richest in terms of the variety of elements it covered.<br><br>        "Apart from the technical joy, it was also personal to me in more than one way. Even though Sandip Ray and I were schoolmates, we have never worked together on anything. I also distinctly remember the excitement around the release of the film exactly 50 years ago, when the film industry in Calcutta was going through its biggest political rift. <br><br>        "The whole industry got split into two groups - Left and right, and our house became the daily meeting place for the Left-wing. There was tension building up whether GGBB will even be allowed to be released in May of 1969," he recalled in a Facebook post.<br><br>        Sen referred to the generosity of Purnima Dutta and Sandip Ray in providing all the raw materials.<br><br>        A spokesperson of The Centre for New Media (CENEMA), a part of the TCG Centres for Research and Education in Science and Technology (TCGCREST), said "we are presenting Satyajit Ray’s Kheror Khata (Film Books) of the film ‘Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne’ (GGBB)—originally released in 1969—through a bilingual responsive website exploreray.org. <br><br>        "The project is our tribute to Ray on his Birth Centenary by exploring his work through modern digital technology in order to bring more incisive insight into Ray’s creative genius.” <br>       <br>        The site also presents for the first time the sketchbook of the film, production stills, the publicity material of the film and other aspects, all produced by Ray.<br><br>        While Sandip Ray is the collaborator of the project, Kunal Sen is the technical advisor, the spokesperson said. PTI SUS <br><br><br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br><br><br><br>MM   MM

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