Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne
Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne (Bengali: গুপী গাইন বাঘা বাইন Gupi Gain Bagha Bain) 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 film, with the music and lyrics 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. 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'. 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. 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. 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. 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. Critical reception was highly positive. Raja Sen called it to be the most innovative film to have ever come out of India. 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". Story
The story revolves around Gopinath Gyne alias Goopy (Tapen Chatterjee), the son of a poor grocer Kanu Kyne from a village called Amloki. Goopy wants to become a singer, but he sings terribly without melody, rhythm or tune. The village elders wanting to have fun, persuade him to sing for the king in the early morning hours right under His Majesty's bedroom window. Goopy does so and is driven out of Amloki on a donkey for waking up the king with his terrible singing. Exiled to a forest, he meets Bagha Bayen (Rabi Ghosh), another exile from nearby village Hortuki. Bagha has been exiled for playing the drum badly. They soon make the team after encountering a tiger and start singing and drumming, initially to scare off the tiger, but in the process attract a group of ghosts who are fascinated by their music. Happy with their performance, the king of the ghosts (Bhooter Raja) grants them three boons, all of which are only available to both as a pair (they cannot use them individually). They can get food and clothes whenever needed by clapping one hand with each other. They are given a pair of magic slippers with which they can travel anywhere (again, they need to clap one hand with each other while wearing the shoes and say the name of the place they want to go to). They become flawless musicians and gain the ability to hold people in awe (literally, their music renders people motionless) with their music. The pair travel to Shundi, where a benevolent king appoints them court musicians. However, the king of Halla (the long lost twin brother of the king of Shundi, both played by (Santosh Dutta), is planning to attack Shundi, after being poisoned by his chief minister (Jahor Roy) with the help of a magic potion that makes him evil. He is aided by a senile sorcerer (Harindranath Chattopadhyay), who has created the evil potion. Goopy and Bagha travel to Halla in an attempt to prevent the attack, but are captured instead. They also lose the power of their slippers when captured and hence cannot escape the jail by magic, but manage to do so by luring the famished gatekeeper (Nripati Chatterjee) with delicious foods. They arrive singing and drumming when the soldiers are about to launch their attack, rendering the army motionless. Next, they wish for unlimited food and sweets, which rain from the sky on the starving soldiers who forget the battle and settle for filling their bellies. Not only this, their singing takes off the evil effects of the potion given to the King of Halla, who drops the idea of capturing Shundi, and reunites happily with his brother. For averting the war, the two kings of Shundi and Halla respectively marry their daughters to Goopy and Bagha. 