Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne

Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne
DVD Cover for Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne
Directed bySatyajit Ray
Written bySatyajit Ray
Based onGoopy Gyne Bagha Byne
by Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury
Produced byNepal Dutta
Asim Dutta
StarringTapen Chatterjee
Rabi Ghosh
Santosh Dutta
Harindranath Chattopadhyay
Jahor Roy
Santi Chatterjee
Chinmoy Roy
CinematographySoumendu Roy
Edited byDulal Dutta
Music bySatyajit Ray
Production
company
Purnima Pictures
Release date
  • 8 May 1969 (1969-05-08)
Running time
120 minutes
CountryIndia
LanguageBengali
Budget₹ 600,000 ($80,000)[1]

Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne (Bangla pronunciationⓘ) is a 1969 Indian fantasy adventure comedy 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.[2] 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'.[2] 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.[2][3] 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.[4]

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.[5][4] 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.[6][7] Critical reception was highly positive. Raja Sen called it to be the most innovative film to have ever come out of India.[8] 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".[9]

The king of ghosts grants Goopy and Bagha three boons
A clipping from the film Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne where the king of ghosts ("bhuter raja") grants Goopy and Bagha three boons. Significantly Satyajit Ray used his own voice for the voice of the king of ghosts ("bhuter raja"). In these scenes, the king of ghosts is speaking in rhyme. In 1980, Ray made a sequel to Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne, Hirak Rajar Deshe, in this film too, most of the dialogues exchanged by the protagonists of the film were rhyming. Satyajit Ray praised S. V. Rao for the ghost dance effect by calling it a technical feat.
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  1. ^ "exchange rate".
  2. ^ a b c Robinson 1989, p. 183.
  3. ^ Ray 2013, p. 45.
  4. ^ a b Robinson 1989, p. 184.
  5. ^ "Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne". Archived from the original on 30 April 2007. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
  6. ^ "16th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. pp. 2, 4. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 May 2015. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
  7. ^ Times of India, Entertainment. "National Awards Winners 1968: Complete list of winners of National Awards 1968". timesofindia.indiatimes.com. Archived from the original on 11 May 2021. Retrieved 11 August 2021.
  8. ^ "An ode to Bagha & Goopy". Rediff.com. 2007. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
  9. ^ "THE BOOTLEG FILES: "GOOPY GYNE BAGHA BYNE"". Rediff.com. 2007. Retrieved 11 September 2014.