| Chiriakhana (The Zoo), 1967 |
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| The detective in glasses trying to feel and also to probe the grief of Mrs. Sen, just widowed after her husband’s sudden murder. |
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Production: Star Productions for Harendranath Bhattacharya |
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Screenplay, Music and Direction: Satyajit Ray |
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Based on a novel by Sharadindu Banerjee |
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Photography: Soumendu Roy |
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Art Director: Bansi Chandragupta |
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Editing: Dulal Dutta |
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Sound: Nripen Paul, Atul Chatterjee, Sujit Sarkar |
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Duration: 137 mins |
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Date of release in India: 29th September, 1967. B&W |
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| Awards |
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Award for Best Direction, Government of West Bengal, 1968 |
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Best Actor,Uttam Kumar, President's Award, New Delhi, 1967 |
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Cast: Uttam Kumar (Byomkesh Bakshi), Sailen Mukherjee (Ajit), Susil Majumdar (Nishanath Sen), Kanika Majumdar (Damayanti, his wife), Subhendu Chatterjee (Bijoy), Shyamal Ghosal (Dr. Bhujanga Das), Prasad Mukherjee (Nepal Gupta), Subira Roy (Mukul, his daughter), Nripati Chatterjee (Mushkil Mia), Subrata Chatterjee (Nazar Bibi, his wife), Gitali Roy (Banalakshmi), Kalipada Chakravarti (Rasiklal), Chinmoy Roy (Panugopal), Jahar Ganguli (Ramen Mullick), Bankim Ghosh (Brajadas), Nilotpal Dey (Inspector). |
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| The Story |
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| Dr. Das, the accused, facing the final interrogation wearing a cynical smile. |
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Ray made this film, like Abhijan ( The Expedition ) before this, to his assistants who conceived of the initial idea. He had almost no input in the choice of the story and casting. However, he agreed to direct the film when the producers insisted on inclusion of Ray himself. The director of a retirement home calls in a private detective, Byomkesh, to investigate one of his residents, a former film star. While delivering some new information on the phone, the director is assassinated. A deaf-mute is a witness. He is killed in turn when he writes down what he has seen. Ray, though pleased with the final result, was aware that "the vital clue is a matter of semantics which is untranslatable." |
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In addition he thought it might be too subtle and introspective for the wider audiences. "Certainly not for Bond-addicts!" he said. Therefore it is not surprising that few have seen this film outside Bengal. |
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| Contributed by DKB and AKD |
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