Rabindranath Tagore’s Works in Cinema: A Review of Selected Critical Works

Abstract

Locating the platitude of perspectives and arguments in the existing critical works on Bengali film adaptations, this critical review article examines some of the significant academic writings on Rabindranath Tagore’s works on screen. Since the vast filmography based on Tagore’s works, commonly known as ‘Tagore films’, has not received adequate critical and theoretical attention in South Asian academia, let alone in the adaptation studies in global academia, the number of critical works on them is relatively small. The main significance of this essay lies in focusing on the commonality of assessment of Bengali film adaptations (based on Tagore’s works) from a moralistic position of fidelity criticism – not from the theoretical lens of diverse adaptation theories – and on addressing the difficulty in fitting the existing assessments in the critical spectrum of adaptation scholarship. It has become an academic dismay for aspiring researchers to find materials on the annals of the filmography, given that there are so few scholarly publications spread across the internet's vast ocean and the interstices of libraries. Considering this context and realising the dire necessity for review articles on Tagore films, this article bears immense academic and theoretical value. By examining selected critical works analytically from the premise of the auteur theory that underpins creative adaptations, this study has the potential to ease the extraordinary burden of academic enquiries in the growing body of writings on film adaptations. More importantly, the paper will unveil, in the existing critical works, some glaring lacunas that may be addressed by future critical endeavours.