3D Natir Puja to be screened in Bangladesh

A 3D colour recreation of the only film of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore ever made, "Natir Puja" (1932), is expected to be screened in Bangladesh.

The film, unveiled in this year's Cannes Film Market, has been revived by Professor Karl Bardosh, Hungarian-born American academic and filmmaker, after it was destroyed in a 1933 fire in the warehouse of New Theatres studio in Kolkata, reports our New Delhi correspondent.

Bardosh said that he filmed it on the very soundstage in New Theatres where Tagore shot “Natir Puja" based on Tagore’s dance-drama.

Bardosh, who has taught in New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Kanbar Institute of Film and Television, for two decades, said, "As a researcher, my interest in Tagore goes back a long, long way. I have always wanted to make a film inspired by his work."

Filmed in 3D by Dutch cinematographer Leonard Retel Helmrich, who devised the innovative "single shot cinema" technique, "Natir Puja features Sujata Awon Pradhan's Kolkata-based dance group Nrityalok.

Noted Rabindrasangeet exponent Jayati Chakraborty gave her voice on the film’s soundtrack.

"Natir Puja had its world premiere last week at the New York Indian Film Festival before making the trip to Cannes.

Bardosh said, "I will travel to Bangladesh next. It will be screened for the country's Prime Minister. I am now looking for distributor in India and am in talks with a couple of leading exhibitors."

He said the idea of recreating “Natir Puja” came with the intention of marking the centenary of both Indian cinema and the conferment of the Nobel Prize on Tagore.

"I see myself as only a medium. It is Tagore's hand that has driven me to realise this dream," says Bardosh.