Picture copyright: Films Division of India / Taken from: Youtube.com
Venue: India Habitat Centre
Date: Thursday, July 9th, 2015
Benode Behari Mukherjee, a direct disciple of the art guru Nandalal Bose was one of the pioneers of Bengal School. His repertoire ranges from sketches to paintings to murals and sculptures.
Benode Behari was blind in one eye and had severe myopia in the other since birth. However, post an unsuccessful cataract operation, he lost his vision completely in his midlife. Undaunted he continued his artistic journey at various places including Shantiniketan.
The Inner Eye is documentary made by Satyajit Ray on this artist. The documentary covers the artist’s journey from childhood till blindness. The script and narration (in English) are by Ray. This is interspersed with interviews with Benode Behari. We also see various shots of sketches and murals made by the artist. Ray effortlessly captures the versatility of this artist’s work in a span of about 20 minutes.
The documentary ends with the artist’s words, “Blindness is a new feeling, a new experience, a new state of being”. With his ocular senses taken away Benode Behari drew on his inner vision to express himself in a totally visual medium. Ray, an artist himself, managed to capture this inner eye of an artist in the documentary.
This documentary was screened by FD Zone, Delhi at Gulmohur Hall, Habitat.
I am yet to get the chance to watch this. The review has offered me a decent glimpse by its terse selection of words and a very pleasant description as may be expected from an artiste within. I must look forward to watch this.
Hi Saurav. Here’s a link just in case you want to watch the movie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjaSB7JkFqU
DO let us know your views on the film.