kolkata satyajit rays pratidwandi restored in 4k by national film archive of india nfai has been selected as part of cannes classics this year starting the sidebar of the festival along with the dhritiman chaterjistarrer rays cult film are aravindan govindans thampi jean eustaches the mother and the whore vittorio de sicas sciuscia orson welless the trial and martin scorseses the last waltz among others but chaterji or sandip ray has not yet received any invite to represent the film at cannesproducer purnima dutta received the news on monday i received this information from nfai i am awaiting a formal invitation from cannes she said the 1970 film based on a sunil gangopadhyay novel tells the story of an educated middleclass man caught in the turmoil of social unrest chaterji who plays the protagonist told toi it never ceased to delight him when young people told him how relevant they found pratidwandi made half a century ago to their personal lives and to the broader sociopolitical situation that is the true definition of a classicsomething that transcends time chatterji said its only appropriate then that it should be part of the cannes classic selection in the 75th year of the festival the film has been restored in sparkling 4k resolution it would have been wonderful to be in cannes on this memorable occasion but perhaps thats expecting too much from all reports a sizeable indian delegation headed by the honourable ib minister himself will be present at the festival to bring honour and glory to the country he added no good print of pratidwandi was available for many years former nfai director prakash magdum said we decided to restore the film we approached purnima dutta who agreed to provide the negative to nfai it is important to have the camera negative for the restoration which was carried out as part of the national film heritage mission of the ib ministrydirector sandip ray felt chaterji should have been invited what an impressive debut dhritiman made in this film he should be invited i too havent received any official information regarding this purnimadi called me to inform me that the film is going i am very happy i just hope cannes screens the restored 4k version cinematographer sudeep chatterjee isc has done a great job he saidchatterjee who received accolades for his cinematography in gangubai kathiawadi is delighted to have supervised the restoration in terms of language this film is angrier than rays other works during restoration they needed a bengali cinematographer who had knowledge about film and digital medium when approached i agreed but the negatives were damaged and we did a 70 high resolution scan from negatives and 30 from the films print ive tried to be as faithful as possible to the original and babuda sandip ray has been a fantastic supportactor tinu anand who assisted ray in this film is upset that chaterji has not been invited he is the hero of the film i too should have