''The Inner Eye'' is a 1972 short

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

made by Satyajit Ray on

Benode Behari Mukherjee Benode Behari Mukherjee (7 February 1904 – 11 November 1980) was an Indian artist from West Bengal state. Mukherjee was one of the pioneers of Indian modern art and a key figure of Contextual Modernism. He was one of the earliest artists in mod ...

, a blind artist and a teacher from

Visva-Bharati University Visva-Bharati () is a public central university and an Institution of National Importance located in Shantiniketan, West Bengal, India. It was founded by Rabindranath Tagore who called it ''Visva-Bharati'', which means the communion of the ...

, a university founded by

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...

Santiniketan Santiniketan is a neighbourhood of Bolpur town in the Bolpur subdivision of Birbhum district in West Bengal, India, approximately 152 km north of Kolkata. It was established by Maharshi Devendranath Tagore, and later expanded by his son ...

. The twenty minutes documentary features the life and works of Mukherjee in the form of paintings and photographs, starring himself. The documentary covers his journey from childhood till his blindness along with much of his works and features his words, "Blindness is a new feeling, a new experience, a new state of being". The documentary was awarded as Best Information Film (Documentary) at 20th National Film Awards in 1972. Mukherjee is known as the most informed Indian artist of his generation and a legend of modern Asian Art. Born with severe eye problem, being

myopic Near-sightedness, also known as myopia and short-sightedness, is an eye disease where light focuses in front of, instead of on, the retina. As a result, distant objects appear blurry while close objects appear normal. Other symptoms may include ...

on one eye and blind in the other, Mukherjee lost his sight completely after an unsuccessful cataract operation. However, he continued his work as an artist. The

Academy Film Archive The Academy Film Archive is part of the Academy Foundation, established in 1944 with the purpose of organizing and overseeing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ educational and cultural activities, including the preservation of m ...

, part of the Academy Foundation, took an initiative to restore Satyajit Ray's films and could successfully restore 19 Ray films. ''The Inner Eye'' is yet to be restored but found to be in good condition for the restoration. The film's original script was included in a book named ''Original English Film Scripts Satyajit Ray'', put together by Ray's son

Sandip Ray Sandip Ray (born 8 September 1953) is an Indian film director and music director who mainly works in Bengali cinema. He is the only child of the famous Bengali director Satyajit Ray and Bijoya Ray. Life and education Sandip Ray was born in C ...

Background

Benode Behari Mukherjee was an Indian artist, born on 7 February 1904, into a well-educated family in

Behala Behala is a locality of South West Kolkata, in the Indian state of West Bengal. Behala is a part of Kolkata Municipal Corporation area. It is broadly spread across Ward Nos. 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130 ...

, in the state of

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...

. He could not pursue normal schooling due to his poor eyesight. However, his family recognized his interest for art and literature and sent him to

for further studies in an art faculty,

Kala Bhavan Kala Bhavana (Institute of Fine Arts) is the fine arts faculty of Visva-Bharati University, in Shantiniketan, India. It is an institution of education and research in visual arts, founded in 1919, it was established by Nobel laureate Rabindran ...

. He eventually became a teaching staff member at Santiniketan in 1925. Later he joined as a curator at the Nepal Government Museum in

Kathmandu , pushpin_map = Nepal Bagmati Province#Nepal#Asia , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 = Bagmati Prov ...

and taught at the Banasthali Vidyapith,

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern s ...

, during 1951–52. He returned to Kala Bhavan in 1958 and then became the principal of art theory. He lost his eyesight completely in an unsuccessful

cataract A cataract is a cloudy area in the lens of the eye that leads to a decrease in vision. Cataracts often develop slowly and can affect one or both eyes. Symptoms may include faded colors, blurry or double vision, halos around light, trouble ...

operation. As an artist, Mukherjee worked with different media like murals, watercolor, and oils. In his work, he used a complex fusion of idioms absorbed from Western modern art and the spirituality of oriental traditions. In 1974, he was awarded with

Padma Vibhushan The Padma Vibhushan ("Lotus Decoration") is the second-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "exceptional and distinguished service". All persons without ...

, the second-highest

civilian award This list of civil awards and decorations is a partial index to articles about notable civil awards and decorations. It excludes Law enforcement awards and honors and ecclesiastical decorations, which are covered by separate lists. See :Civil aw ...

in the Republic of India. Mukherjee died on 19 November 1980, at the age of 76.

Synopsis

The documentary begins by showcasing a process by which a wall, high by wide, of a newly developed building in

would be decorated by 20

mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...

s designed by Benode Behari Mukherjee. While the narrator ( Satyajit Ray) describes Mukherjee's family, Mukherjee himself explains the process of mural making and how he spends most of his time alone in Santiniketan with his favourite drink,

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of ''Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and north ...

. Mukherjee, the youngest child of his family among six children, is shown spending his initial days as a student in Santiniketan with his drawings and paintings. He was a student of Nandalal Bose, another acclaimed painter from Santiniketan. The film mentions Bose's influence of Mukherjee's initial work with his own "striking" originality. The film then features Mukherjee's journey to Japan where he learned from noted Japanese artists, including

Tawaraya Sōtatsu was a Japanese furniture designer and painter of the Rinpa school. Sōtatsu is best known for his decorations of calligraphic works by his partner Hon'ami Kōetsu (1558–1637), and his spectacular and highly influential ''byōbu'' folding s ...

and Toba Sōjō. It shows Mukherjee's first fresco on the ceiling of the new dormitory of

, executed using earth colours to display a pond surrounded by rural life around Santiniketan. The documentary also shows another fresco drawn at China Bhavana which displays life at the Santiniketan campus. Mukherjee himself then explains another fresco done at the Hindu Bhavana in Santiniketan covering three walls of the central hall, which displays religious themes of

Medieval India Medieval India refers to a long period of Post-classical history of the Indian subcontinent between the "ancient period" and "modern period". It is usually regarded as running approximately from the breakup of the Gupta Empire in the 6th cen ...

and its uniqueness of not having any preliminary tracing. Covering Mukherjee's tenure at the National Museum of Kathmandu and his Nepalese frescoes at Banasthali Vidyapith,

, the film also highlights his own school at Dehradun. It describes Mukherjee's failed cataract operation which led him to lose his eyesight completely. It finally shows the now-blind Mukherjee painting some of his works. The film ends with Mukherjee's own words, "Blindness is a new feeling, a new experience, a new state of being". A

sitar The sitar ( or ; ) is a plucked stringed instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used in Hindustani classical music. The instrument was invented in medieval India, flourished in the 18th century, and arrived at its present form ...

composition by

Nikhil Banerjee Pandit Nikhil Ranjan Banerjee (14 October 1931 – 27 January 1986) was an Indian classical sitarist of the Maihar Gharana. Along with Pandit Ravi Shankar and Ustad Vilayat Khan, he emerged as one of the leading exponents of the sitar. He ...

plays in the background, composed in the

Hindustani classical Hindustani classical music is the classical music of northern regions of the Indian subcontinent. It may also be called North Indian classical music or, in Hindustani, ''shastriya sangeet'' (). It is played in instruments like the violin, sita ...

morning raga

Asavari Raga Asavari () is a Hindustani classical raga. It belongs to the Asavari thaat and is performed in the morning hours. In pre- Bhatkhande days this Asavari used the Komal Rishab instead of Shuddh Rishab. When Bhatkhandeji created the thaat pr ...

, indicating optimism.

Credits

Cast

as himself

Crew

* Narration: Satyajit Ray * Cinematography: Soumendu Roy * Sound recording: J. D. Irani and Durgadas Mitra * Editor:

Dulal Dutta Dulal Dutta (c. 1925Sources disagree on Datta's date of birth and age at the time of his death which is claimed to be either 84 (IMDb), 85 (''Indian Express''), 86 (''Telegraph'') or 87 (''Deccan Herald''). The ''Indian Express'' further claims th ...

* Laboratory Processing: Gemini Color Lab, Madras and

Eastmancolor Eastmancolor is a trade name used by Eastman Kodak for a number of related film and processing technologies associated with color motion picture production and referring to George Eastman, founder of Kodak. Eastmancolor, introduced in 1950, was on ...

Music

* Music: Satyajit Ray * Sitar composition:

Restoration

After the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motio ...

awarded Satyajit Ray an honorary Academy Award in 1992 for his lifetime achievements, the

, part of the Academy Foundation, which mainly works with objectives as "preservation, restoration, documentation, exhibition and study of motion pictures" took an initiative to restore and preserve Ray's films. Josef Lindner was appointed as a preservation officer and the Academy could successfully restore 19 Ray titles. ''The Inner Eye'', shot with 35mm

interpositive An interpositive, intermediate positive, IP or master positive is an orange-based motion picture film with a positive image made from the edited camera negative. The orange base provides special color characteristics that allow more accurate color ...

, was found to be in good condition. The film was then partially repaired with

mylar BoPET (biaxially-oriented polyethylene terephthalate) is a polyester film made from stretched polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and is used for its high tensile strength, chemical and dimensional stability, transparency, reflectivity, gas and a ...

and its Eastmancolor negative had tears at notches.

In media

At "Ray Festival 2009", Satyajit Ray Society screened ''The Inner Eye'' along with other three Ray documentaries, namely ''

Two 2 (two) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 1 and preceding 3. It is the smallest and only even prime number. Because it forms the basis of a duality, it has religious and spiritual significance in many cultur ...

'', ''

'' and ''

Sukumar Ray Sukumar Ray (; 30 October 1887 – 10 September 1923) was a Bengali writer and poet from the Indian subcontinent. He is remembered mainly for his writings for children. He was the son of children's story writer Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury and ...

'' on 7 May 2009. The film's original script was included in a book named ''Original English Film Scripts Satyajit Ray'', put together by Ray's son

along with an ex-CEO of Ray Society, Aditinath Sarkar. The book also includes original scripts of Ray's other films.

Awards

; National Film Awards (

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

) * 20th National Film Awards (1972): Best Information Film (Documentary)