Kolkata: A video clip featuring an interview of Martin Scorsese on Jean Renoir’s film ‘The River’ has gone viral among film enthusiasts in the city. In the clip, Scorsese discusses the profound impact the film set in Kolkata had on him, describing it as a “formative movie experience”. Jean Renoir’s film, shot along the banks of the Hooghly in Dakshineswar, featured Bengali actor Suprova Mukherjee. Online discussions have been sparked by Scorsese mentioning how the film got him interested in understanding “what it is to be Hindu”.Scorsese was only nine and coming out of third grade when his father took him to see the film based on the 1946 autobiographical novel by British author Rumer Godden. Acknowledging that it depicts Indian culture through Western or potentially colonial eyes, Scorsese argued the film transcends its exotic aesthetic to reveal fundamental truths about the human condition, specific cultural beliefs, and the way people live.“At first, if the gold, the glitter and the colour get you, the real power is the humanity in the film and in the culture, and what it is to be a Hindu. I don’t know if the film shows that but at least it makes you interested in that. At least it made me interested,” Scorsese says in the clip.Till Thursday afternoon, the clip had been reposted 895 times from the ifp.world Instagram handle.Renoir’s film had Ramananda Sengupta as the camera operator, Bansi Chandra Gupta as the art director, and Hari S Dasgupta and Sukhomoy Sen as assistant directors. Film scholar Sanjoy Mukhopadhyay said he heard anecdotes from Sengupta regarding Renoir’s visits to his residence to familiarise himself with Indian culture, where he was particularly struck by intricate alpana designs.“I have seen Scorsese’s original interview about ‘The River’ from where the clip has been taken. The red sari that Radha wears in the film’s wedding scene belonged to my mother. The film is replete with elements connected with Hindu rituals and festivities, including the depiction of Kali Puja. It is only natural that all these got Scorsese interested in what it is to be a Hindu,” said Sengupta’s son, Debananda.Mukhopadhyay said: “The interest Scorsese expressed in Hindu philosophy aligns with Renoir’s own belief that Hinduism centres on viewing everything as one continuous whole. Scorsese’s comment on the film’s colour made me realise that it might have influenced Satyajit Ray’s use of red and green in his 1973 film ‘Ashani Sanket’.”Renoir’s film has been widely celebrated as the first feature film shot in India using the three-strip Technicolor process. “I would say this and ‘The Red Shoes’ are the two most beautiful colour films ever made,” Scorsese said in the clip.Madhuja Mukherjee, film-maker and professor of film studies, Jadavpur University, said, “I have written about Satyajit Ray’s ‘Kanchenjungha’ and now, with respect to Scorsese’s comment, I am thinking that the film may have informed Ray’s understanding and use of colour.”
