Gipsy Guild to celebrate the completion of 51 years of Aranya
In 1971- a year before the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 was enacted by the Government of India
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MANGALDAI: In 1971- a year before the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 was enacted by the Government of India, a group of young artists with creative thoughts and ideas of Mangaldai, initiated their adventurous journey to make a movie on the conservation of wildlife and nature. But the youths in their very first step faced financial crunch as they were not from the well-to-do families of the small town of Mangaldai. However, the financial problem bowed its head before this group of youths as they decided to make their club 'United Club, Mangaldai' the producer of this film. And they created a history in the Indian film industry to earn the rare distinction of being the first film ever produced by a club.
Aranya- the black and white film in Assamese directed by Samarendra Narayan Dev with music direction of Sudhin Dasgupta- finally got released on November 12, 1971. Eminent composer Keshab Mahanta composed all four evergreen songs with Manna Dey, Dwipen Barua and Arati Mukherjee as the playback singers. Biju Phukan and Bidya Rao played the lead roles along with Tasdduk Yusuf, Punya Das, Bina Baruwati, Abala Ranjan Roy, Akhil Deka, Deuti Barua, Bishnu Khargharia and other co-artistes. This film was awarded the prestigious 'Rajat Kamal' award in the regional language category of the 19th National Film Festival in Kolkata.
'Gipsy Guild'- a pioneer organization for spearheading the drama movement in Mangaldai for the last several decades, with the objective to celebrate the completion of glorious 51 years of Aranya, has chalked out a two-day programme which will be held at the District Library Auditorium at Mangaldai on November 17 and November 18.
The programme will begin with an homage-paying function in memory of Altaf Mazid and a two night-short film show in memory of Altaf Mazid, followed by felicitation to the unsung heroes associated with the making of the film Aranya. The director of the film, Samarendra Narayan Dev will recall his nostalgic memory of Aranya while Farhana Ahmed and Nayan Prasad will talk on the topic. In the function, industrialist of repute Mukul Deka will inaugurate the documentary on the making of Aranya. Significantly, the full-length film Aranya will also be screened in the auditorium. The second day's programme will mark the screening of selected short films to be inaugurated by Utpal Borpujari.
President Hiren Kumar Das and secretary Jayanta Kumar Deka of 'Gipsy Guild' have requested all the cine lovers to be present on both the evenings and to be part of recalling the nostalgia of making of the first film from Mangaldai.
Also read: Let us Preserve Wildlife and Give Animals their Natural Habitats Back
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