Aranyer Din Ratri Returns to Cannes
A restored 4K version of Satyajit Ray’s 1970 classic Aranyer Din Ratri will be screened at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, featuring performances by Soumitra Chatterjee and Sharmila Tagore. A tribute to Ray’s timeless storytelling and Bengali cinema’s enduring legacy.
In a world increasingly obsessed with the new and now, it is nothing short of poetic that a fifty-five-year-old Bengali classic—Aranyer Din Ratri—is all set to dazzle the global stage once again, this time in pristine 4K at the 78th Cannes Film Festival. It’s not every day that the past knocks on the door of the present with such quiet authority. And when it does, one cannot help but stop, look back, and listen.
Restored to its former glory by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project at L’Immagine Ritrovata, in collaboration with the Film Heritage Foundation, Janus Films, and The Criterion Collection, the 1970 cinematic gem by Oscar-winning auteur Satyajit Ray is poised for a grand return. The Film Heritage Foundation announced the news on Wednesday, setting cinephile hearts aflutter.
It’s a film that deserves no mere footnote in the annals of cinema, but a spotlight all its own. Based on Sunil Gangopadhyay’s novel of the same name, Aranyer Din Ratri (or Days and Nights in the Forest) follows four urban chaps from Calcutta—portrayed by the inimitable Soumitra Chatterjee, Subhendu Chatterjee, Samit Bhanja, and Rabi Ghosh—who, in search of escape from their city lives, embark on a weekend sojourn into the heart of the forest. There, they come face to face not just with nature, but with the quiet yet unsettling truths buried within themselves.
With Sharmila Tagore playing the elegant Aparna, the film glides effortlessly between charm and introspection, humour and heartbreak. Ray, ever the master of restraint, crafts a mood so immersive that it lingers long after the final frame. As critics would say, it’s not so much a film as a meditation—slow-burning and soul-searching, like tea left to steep under the noonday sun.
To see it restored in 4K—each leaf, glance, and sigh rendered with a clarity the celluloid never knew—is a bit like watching a childhood memory come to life in full colour. It’s a resurrection, not just of the film, but of the very texture of a bygone Bengal.
Adding a splash of glitter to this momentous occasion, none other than Sharmila Tagore herself will be present at Cannes for the screening, joined by American filmmaker Wes Anderson, whose own cinematic style has often been likened to Ray’s—delicate, precise, and deeply human. Also in attendance will be Purnima Dutta, the head of Piyali Films and the original producer of the film, along with Margaret Bodde from The Film Foundation, and Shivendra Singh Dungarpur of the Film Heritage Foundation.
Their presence signifies not just a celebration, but a homecoming. And how fitting that Ray’s son, Sandip Ray—himself a filmmaker—has been especially thanked by the festival organisers. It’s a nod to legacy, to the slow fire of genius that refuses to dim.
Purnima Dutta, speaking earlier this month, captured the collective sentiment: “A month ago, we got the news that the film would be screened at the Cannes Film Festival. However, we were waiting for the official announcement… This time it is special. Because this time, Aranyer Din Ratri is going to be screened in 4K resolution.”
Special? That hardly scratches the surface. For Indian cinema, for Bengali culture, and for admirers of Ray across the globe, this is nothing less than a moment of quiet triumph. The kind that doesn’t scream headlines, but hums softly, insistently—like a Rabindra Sangeet heard on a rainy afternoon.
First nominated for Best Film at the 20th Berlin International Film Festival in 1970, Aranyer Din Ratri has never really faded from memory. Its 2003 sequel, Abar Aranye, directed by Goutam Ghose, brought the friends back to the forest—but it is the original that still casts the longer shadow.
The forest they once escaped to was not just a setting—it was a mirror. And now, in 2025, the mirror is polished anew. One suspects Ray would have quietly nodded in approval. No fuss, no fanfare—just the film, speaking for itself.
As the French Riviera prepares to roll out its red carpet between May 13 and 24, a whisper from Bengal will float through Cannes. And those who listen closely will hear not just the rustle of leaves, but the echo of timeless storytelling.
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