Edinburgh audiences are to be immersed in an atmospheric Indian soundscape as sarod star Soumik Datta and City of London Sinfonia perform a double bill of music for Indian film.
Marking the 50th anniversary of the release of Oscar-winning director Satyajit Ray’s 1969 cult film Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne, will be projected on a large screen in the Scottish capital’s iconic Usher Hall with a reimagined live cinematic score, entitled ‘King of Ghosts’. The new score features the haunting sounds of Soumik Datta‘s sarod, a 19 stringed fretless lute, along with the Irish folk rhythms of Cormac Byrne and the orchestral grandeur of the City of London Sinfonia.
Karl Chapman, Cultural Venues Director, Usher Hall said:
We are so excited to take our audiences on an extraordinary journey through rural India, both in the classic magical family film Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne and through the fascinating archival footage of Around India with a Movie Camera.
The film follows the magical journey of two unlikely heroes, Goopy and Bagha, who become friends after being exiled from their communities for their poor singing and drumming abilities. They practise their craft together in the forest, where their music attracts the fascination of group of ghosts. The benevolent yet terrifying King of Ghosts gives the duo three boons – some magic slippers that can take them anywhere, food and clothes whenever they need them and the ability to enrapture whoever hears their music.
A magical adventure ensues, as the pair get themselves in and out of sticky situations and musical japes. Visually, it’s a spellbinding cinematic journey across rural India – a vintage superhero film at its best.
Soumik Datta said:
I have always loved the relationship between cinema and music. It transcends borders. It connects us to deep, universal emotions. This is why I chose to score these films and celebrate this contemporary Indian double-bill across the UK.
In the first half of this double bill, Around India with a Movie Camera presents some of the earliest surviving film footage from India, as well as enchanting travelogues, intimate home movies and newsreels from British, French and Indian filmmakers, drawn exclusively from the BFI National Archive’s early film collection. Commissioned by BFI, Soumik Datta provides his original music as a live soundtrack with percussionist Cormac Byrne and Al McSween on piano.
Taking in maharajas and viceroys, fakirs and farmhands, as well as personalities such as Sabu and Gandhi, this film by award-winning filmmaker Sandhya Suri explores not only the people and places of over 70 years ago but asks us to engage with broader themes of a shared history, shifting perspectives in the lead up to Indian independence and the ghosts of the past.