Rabindranath Tagore (1961)

Ray’s semi-documentary on his mentor commissioned for the centenary of Tagore’s birth. The extraordinarily diverse literary and visual output of Tagore, the Shantiniketan experiment and the Tagore family’s contributions to India’s freedom struggle are condensed into one hour, relying on a voice- over commentary that eschews historical analysis in favour of a fairly reverential approach. Ray includes some re-enactements of episodes in Tagore’s life together with images of paintings, photographs, documents, etc. The best moments are the reconstructed Balmiki Pratibha, and the song Tobu mone rekho (‘Yet remember me’) in Tagore’s own voice.