Earlier this year, lovers of cinema and Satyajit Ray aficionados had the opportunity to watch his 1966 classic Nayak, starring Uttam Kumar and Sharmila Tagore, in the theatres in a brilliantly restored print. The film went on to score bigtime at the box office, beating many new releases.
Soon, viewers will be in for another treat — Aranyer Din Ratri, another landmark Ray film, starring Sharmila Tagore, this time with Soumitra Chatterjee. A mammoth restoration project undertaken by Shivendra Dungarpur’s Film Heritage Foundation, the film premieres at the Cannes Classic section 2025 in the presence of Sharmila Tagore, Simi Garewal and filmmaker Wes Andersen, who has been part of the restoration project.
The impetus for the restoration of Aranyer Din Ratri arose in 2019, championed by The Film Foundation (TFF) at the suggestion of its board member, Wes Anderson. A collaborative dialogue was initiated with Shivendra Singh Dungarpur of Film Heritage Foundation (FHF), leading to formal discussions with copyright-holder Purnima Dutta of Piyali Films.
“Working on the restoration of Aranyer Din Ratri has been an incredibly moving experience. Seeing the film’s beauty and artistry revitalised after 56 years — from its haunting score and the captivating chemistry of its cast, to the unforgettable grace of Sharmila Tagore and Ray’s sensitive portrayal of the Santhal tribals — has been a true privilege,” says Shivendra.
Wes Andersen adds, “Anything signed by Satyajit Ray must be cherished and preserved; but the nearly forgotten Days and Nights in the Forest is a special gem… Made in 1970. Modern and novelistic. Ray worked in terrain perhaps more familiar to Cassavetes. A clash between castes and sexes. Urbans and rurals. Selfish men and their hopes and cruelties and spectacular lack of wisdom. Women who see through them. The great Soumitra Chatterjee: lost but searching. The great Sharmila Tagore: mysterious, cerebral, mesmerizing. From the master, another masterpiece.”
Satyajit Ray’s original poster for ‘Aranyer Din Ratri’ Society for the Preservation of Satyajit Ray Archives
Aranyer Din Ratri marks a significant passage in Ray’s middle period. After the exploration of Tagore and Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay in classic period pieces like The Apu Trilogy, Devi and Charulata in the first 10 years of his career, in the mid-1960s Ray turned his attention to contemporary stories, trying to make sense of the world around him, leading to Aranyer Din Ratri and the films that comprise his Calcutta trilogy: Pratidwandi, Seemabaddha and Jana Aranya.
While the performances of Soumitra Chatterjee and Sharmila Tagore have been discussed in many forums over the years — these actors along with Rabi Ghosh were more or less regulars with Ray — what also sets Aranyer Din Ratri apart is the casting of Simi Garewal in the pivotal role of a tribal girl, Duli, with whom one of the four friends on vacation in Chhipadohar has a relationship. By all reckoning it is a startling casting decision — the westernised and anglicised Simi Garewal as a dark-skinned tribal girl. Ray had earlier worked with another Hindi film star, Waheeda Rehman, in Abhijaan, but the star had by then proven her credentials with films like Pyaasa, Kaagaz Ke Phool, Kala Bazar and Chaudhvin Ka Chand. Simi Garewal as Duli was a leap of faith, given the nature of her filmography (Aadmi, Saathi, Teen Deviyan) at the time — with Mera Naam Joker, the film that brought her to the limelight, a stark contrast to what she brought to Aranyer Din Ratri.
Simi Garewal becomes Duli under Ray’s watchful eyes
I reached out to the actor to ask her if she was surprised at Ray’s decision to cast her in the role. Simi Garewal says, “I was floored that he chose me to play a tribal girl — especially after seeing me in Mera Naam Joker — where I am a westernised Anglo-Indian teacher. Two ends of the spectrum. But that’s what sets a great director apart. As Soumitra Chatterjee would tell me later, ‘Manikda is always spot-on about his casting. He has a very shrewd ability to imagine and transform a person, unlike anyone else.’”
Ray first met Simi at a dinner at Raj Kapoor’s house following a preview of Mera Naam Joker. Ray has been on record about his appreciation of the first segment of Raj Kapoor’s magnum opus that starred Simi, playing a schoolteacher, with Rishi Kapoor in a memorable debut performance as a young student infatuated with his teacher. “At the dinner that followed, I noticed him staring at me throughout the evening. Everyone else noticed it too,” says Simi. Within a month a letter arrived from Ray, offering her an “important role in the new film”, and inviting her for a screen test. As Ray wrote: ‘It’s only a screen test for make-up. Not for your acting abilities — because I have no doubt whatsoever about that.’
A page from Satyajit Ray’s script of Aranyer Din Ratri Sandip Ray
Simi remembers the time with great fondness. They travelled to the location by train and car. For a week, Ray wouldn’t let her shoot. “He would take me to the baati-khana, where the adivasis would gather at night to drink, and let me just observe. I saw women who were exactly like Duli and it made it all so easy. I relished my transformation. It took four hours to cover me with the black paint (even in my ears) — and it took three hours to remove it! And in between I became another being, rustic, uninhibited, untutored and raw.”
Apart from the opportunity of working with Ray, what was it that drew the actor to the character? How did she interpret her character in what must have been a world apart from Hindi films of the era? “The opportunity to work with Ray was the ultimate. I would have happily opened a door just to be in his film. It was so exciting to play a character that was so different to me — a modern westernised girl to a rustic tribal. My interpretation of Duli was brought about by Manikda’s explanation of her. She was very simple, unsophisticated and yet free of societal codes. And that came across in the dialogues and scenes.”
Aranyer Din Ratri to Padatik: Two masters at work
Interestingly, Simi went on to act in Mrinal Sen’s Padatik a few years later. How were the two legends different in their approach as directors? “The first main difference between working with Ray — vis-à-vis any other director as a matter of fact — was the storyboard. Manikda would show me his storyboard, frame by frame, as to how the next day’s shoot would be. He was an artist and the sketches revealed the full scene, from all angles. So I could actually see it like a film — even before it was shot. I also enjoyed working with Mrinalda and we struck a wonderful rapport. He was also very humane in his approach. There were no striking differences — both were masters, both dedicated to converting their imagination to celluloid through their actors. Mrinalda and I continued to correspond for many years too, and he would write to me regularly after watching episodes of Rendezvous with Simi Garewal!’
Simi describes the duration of the Aranyer Din Ratri shoot as “surreal, timeless”. “The month-long shoot for the film was enveloped in magic. No electricity in our cottage. No loos. No running water. Spiders and insects crawling everywhere. Potatoes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Manikda would come to our cottage after pack-up to play word games. But first he would show me the storyboard sketches of the next day’s shoot. It was then that I became fascinated with direction. It was a turning point in my life. So inspired was I by the culture of Bengal that I learned Rabindrasangeet and Bengali. It was a memorable time, cocooned in this distant forest… we were a small group and it seemed no one else existed on the planet.”
Talking about the restoration, Simi says, “It is an extraordinary gift — not just to those of us who were part of the film but to world cinema. To have it premiere at Cannes Film Festival is a beautiful tribute to Satyajit Ray’s timeless brilliance. I still remember the silence of the forests, the rhythm of the shoot… Working with Satyajit Ray was like stepping into the mind of a quiet genius — every word, every gesture mattered; and he had this rare ability to make you discover depths in yourself you didn’t know existed. I’m so pleased that this masterpiece has been so lovingly restored by Martin Scorsese’s The Film Foundation, Film Heritage Foundation and the Criterion Collection for future generations to experience.”
(Shantanu Ray Chaudhuri is a film and music buff, editor, publisher, film critic and writer)