Wes Anderson’s reverence for Satyajit Ray has long been evident, from The Darjeeling Limited to the musical cues drawn from Ray’s film scores.
Now, that admiration has taken tangible form: a six-year restoration of Ray’s Aranyer Din Ratri (1970), culminating in its screening at Cannes Classics 2025.
Wes Anderson, speaking before the screening, said: “Anything signed by Satyajit Ray must be cherished and preserved."
“The nearly-forgotten Days and Nights in the Forest is a special gem... The great Soumitra Chatterjee: lost but searching. The great Sharmila Tagore: mysterious, cerebral, mesmerizing. From the master, another masterpiece.”
The movie, featuring Soumitra Chatterjee, Sharmila Tagore, Rabi Ghosh, Pahari Sanyal, and Simi Garewal, became the only Indian film to be screened at the Cannes Classics section at the ongoing 78th edition of the Cannes Film Festival.
Based on Sunil Gangopadhyay’s novel of the same name, the masterpiece is Ray's eleventh film.
The project began in 2019 when Anderson, a board member of Martin Scorsese’s The Film Foundation, initiated discussions to preserve the Bengali classic.
Collaborating with the Film Heritage Foundation, Janus Films, and The Criterion Collection, with funding from the Golden Globe Foundation, the restoration overcame pandemic hurdles and logistical challenges.
Shivendra Singh Dungarpur led the effort, traveling during the 2020 lockdown to retrieve original negatives stored at producer Purnima Dutta’s home in Kolkata. The materials were later restored at L’Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna.
Anderson noted Ray’s ability to tell novelistic stories about flawed men and insightful women. “Modern and cerebral,” he said of the film, praising its cast including Soumitra Chatterjee and Sharmila Tagore and Ray’s nuanced exploration of post-colonial India.
Tagore and co-star Simi Garewal attended the Cannes premiere, both reminiscing about the film’s enduring brilliance.
As Garewal said, “Working with Ray was like stepping into the mind of a quiet genius.”
Dungarpur worked closely with Ray’s son, Sandip Ray, to maintain visual fidelity to the original. Even the subtitles were reworked by Indrani Mazumdar, Ray’s trusted translator.