User:Presearch/FaRK

=Films about Ramakrishna=
 * (The above is a preliminary title for the page, for after it is moved to article space)

Ramakrishna (1836 – 1886), born Gadadhar Chattopadhyay and often referred to as Sri Ramakrishna, was a famous mystic of 19th-century India. Since the middle 1900s, Ramakrishna has been a primary or secondary focus of a number of films, mostly made in Bengali cinema, but also in Hindi, Tamil, and English.

Many of these films have been both devotional and biographical, portraying major events of Ramakrishna's influential life. Ramakrishna grew up in a small village in rural West Bengal. Most of his adult life was spent at a temple at Dakshineswar in the outskirts of Calcutta (now commonly called Kolkata). Within a few years of his death, Ramakrishna's religious school of thought led to the formation of the Ramakrishna Mission by his chief disciple Swami Vivekananda Many movies about Ramakrishna depict events from these parts of his life and legacy.

Actors portraying Ramakrishna
Many different actors have played Ramakrishna. Kanu Banerjee, famous for appearing in Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali in 1955, starred later that same year as Ramakrishna in Bhagaban Shree Shree Ramakrishna. Film historian Rabi Basu considered that Kanu Banerjee's acting in these two films as "on a par," and "complained that the film society movement... did not give [Bhagavan Shree Shree Ramakrishna] its due." However, four decades later, Mithun Chakraborty won a National Film Award for playing Ramakrishna in G. V. Iyer's Swami Vivekananda (1998).

From the 1950s through the 1970s, Gurudas Banerjee portrayed Ramakrishna in numerous films. He also commonly appeared as Ramakrishna in the Bengali Theatre &mdash; one might almost say that beginning in the late 1940s, "he almost monopolized this role [as Ramakrishna] as a specialist, both on the stage and on the screen," and was still portraying Ramakrishna in the late-1970s. Sushil Mukherjee explained that the drama Jugadevata, which debuted on the Calcutta stage on 19 November 1948, "was a devotional drama... on the life of the Saint of Dakshineswar [that] became immensely popular and established two artistes who became wholly identified with the two characters they represented. These were Gurudas Banerjee who was seen as Sri Ramkrishna and Molina Debi who appeared as Rani Rasmoni, the founder of the famous Bhabatarini (Kali) temple at Dakshineswar. Since their appearance in Jugadevata at Kalika in 1948 Gurudas and Molina have appeared in the characters of these two persons in a number of other plays, both on the stage and on the screen, and have carried the audience with them in every performance."

Other actors that have played Ramakrishna include Shashikumar (2012).

List of films about Ramakrishna
Some films have a primary focus on Ramakrishna (designated by asterisk (*)). Other films depict a contemporary of Ramakrishna, and he appears as a character, sometimes major and sometimes minor. These include films about Ramakrishna's patroness Rani Rashmoni, his contemporary Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, and his disciples Binodini Dasi, a Bengali stage actress, Girish Chandra Ghosh, a prominent Bengali playwright, and Swami Vivekananda, founder of the Ramakrishna Mission and Ramakrishna Math.

Other films {can these be classified and either eliminated or added to the grid below?}

 * Kothamrito/Ramakrishna Paramhamsa, directed by Radha Saha {is this the same as the film(s) in the grid with "Kathamrita" in name - both a YouTube version and an IMDB version? {Bengali speaker might be able to verify this}

Film table with references
Further details on selected films appear in the table below. Films known to be dubbed versions of other films have not been listed. Any films known to be multilinguals (separately filmed in multiple languages) are explicitly noted as multilinguals.

* = Primarily about Sri Ramakrishna

Spelling variations in names
The English titles of these films refer to Ramakrishna in a variety of ways, depending upon the film's original non-English title, and the method of transliteration into English. Several different methods are commonly used for transliterating Bengali into English. Bengali often uses Bs where other Indian languages use Vs (e.g., "Bhagaban" versus "Bhagavan"). Thus, titles of films about Ramakrishna refer to both "Ramkrishna" (with only 2 "a"s) as well as "Ramakrishna," and may describe his mystical status in numerous ways ranging from Paramahamsa ("enlightened teacher") to Bhagaban ("divine and splendrous") to Thakur ("lord") to Jugadebata ("divine incarnation of the present age"{TITO OR OTHER BENGALI SPEAKER, IS THIS CORRECT FOR jugadebata?-Presearch}). Similar variety exists in the transliterations of the names of many Bengali actors that appeared in these films &mdash; for example, alternate spellings of the last name of actor Gurudas Bannerjee are "Banerjee" (one "n") well as "Bandyopadhyay."

Major focus on Ramakrishna (feature films)
Six feature films have had a major focus on Ramakrishna.

Jugadebata (1950)
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Bhagaban Shree Shree Ramakrishna (1955)
The film begins after the death of Ramakrishna's patroness Rani Rashmoni (1861), as Ramakrishna is serving as priest in the Dakshineswar Kali Temple. The film shows many incidents in Ramakrishna's life, including his interactions with the Rani's son-in-law Mathur, Ramakrishna's meeting with Keshub Chunder Sen and Ramakrishna's interactions with his wife Sarada Devi and with his disciples Girish Chandra Ghosh and Narendra Nath Datta (who took the name Swami Vivekananda). Others: Chhabi Biswas (Mathur), Jahar Gangopadhyay, Dilip Ray, Nitish Mukhopadhyay, Satya Bandyopadhyay, Padma Devi, Sobha Sen (Sarada Devi), Ajit Bandyopadhyay (Sr.), Chandrabati Debi, Suprabha Mukhopadhyay, Bireshwar Sen, Ashis Kumar, Shyam Das
 * Director: Prafulla Chakraborty
 * Music: Prabir Majumdar
 * Ramakrishna (actor): Kanu Banerjee

Film historian Rabi Basu considered that Kanu Banerjee's acting in Bhagaban Sri Sri Ramkrishna was "on a par" with his acting in Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali, which was released four months earlier. Basu "complained that the film society movement inspired Bengali intellectual spectators did not give this film its due," and the film did not attract wide notice.Tamal Dasgupta (2012, August 9). "Towards a Historiography of Bengali Cinema, or, Everything You Enquired about Herbert Sarkar, but Were Dismissed by the Coffee House Intellectual." Journal of Bengali Studies, 1 (2), 8–50 (ISSN 2277-9426) Dasgupta states on page 40: "Kanu Bandyopadhyay (Who Played Harihar in Pather Panchali) went completely unnoticed and unappreciated in the role of Ramakrishna in the film Bhagaban Sri Sri Ramkrishna that released four months after Pather Panchali and the film went into oblivion ever since, a fact lamented by noted film historian Rabi Basu who considered the acting of Kanu Bandyopadhyay in the role of Ramakrishna at par with Pather Panchali; Basu complained that the film society movement inspired Bengali intellectual spectators did not give this film its due" (p. 40). Basu's statements are cited to volume 2, page 75 of Ravi Basu (1998). Sātaraṅa: smr̥tira saraṇite Bāṃlā calaccitrera ardhaśatābdī. Kolkata: De'ja Pābaliśiṃ. ISBN 9788176122405,

The film is now viewable in its entirety on YouTube,"The film - Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna - revised file" (on YouTube); English subtitles give credits for Kanu Banerji (Sri Ramakrishna, 0:08), Bibhuti Chakravarty (photography, 0:11), Baidyanath Chaterji (producer, 0:30), Pulin Ghosh (stage setting, 0:44), New Theatre Studio (production location, 0:53), Officials of Dakshineshwar Kali Temple (thanks, 1:05), Chabi Bishwas (Mathur, 1:23), Shobha Sen (Sri Ma Saradadevi, 1:23), Kalyani Films (production, 1:38), Prafulla Chakravarty (script writer and director, 1:43) (accessed 14 Jan 2013) and was mentioned in the The Telegraph in 2012.Soumitra Das and Dalia Mukherje (2012, Aug. 5). "The matter-of-fact actor of many parts" Kolkata, India: The Telegraph. (accessed 14 Jan 2013)

Jata Mat Tata Path (1979)
The title may be translated as "As Many Views, As Many Ways" {TITO, IS THIS CORRECT?}

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Shri Shri Ramakrishna Kathamrita (1982)
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Jini Ram Tini Krishno Ek-i Dehe Ramkrishna (1983)
Jini Ram Tini Krishno Ek-i Dehe Ramkrishna (1983, Bengali), directed by Niranjan Dey. The title of this film refers to a statement of Ramakrishna's that he repeated often to his monastic disciples, ISBN 0916356817 most famously to Naren, as Ramakrishna lay dying: "He who was Rama and Krishna is now, in this body, Ramakrishna."Swami Nikhilananda (1942). Introduction (pp. 3-73). In:

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Sri Ramakrishna Dharisanam (2012)
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Secondary focus on Sri Ramakrishna (feature films)
Several feature films have not had a primary focus on Sri Ramakrishna, but have cast him as a secondary character. These include: {EXPAND VIA INTRO ABOUT MAJOR THEMES}


 * Swamiji (1949, Bengali {???}), directed by Amar Mullick {Unclear if this is about Sw Vivekananda and SRK; Same director did 1955 movie on SV; Gomolo title casts doubt}


 * Vidyasagar (1950, Bengali biopic on Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar), directed by Kali Prasad Ghosh. Ramakrishna is played by Gurudas Banerjee (Bandhyopadhyay){needs confirmation}


 * Vidyasagar (1952, Hindi), a Hindi remake of Vidyasagar (1950).


 * Rani Rashmoni (1955, Bengali biopic on Rani Rashmoni), directed by Kali Prasad Ghosh. Ramakrishna is played by Gurudas Bandyopadhyay


 * Swami Vivekananda (1955, Bengali biopic on Swami Vivekananda), directed by Amar Mullick. {who is SRK?}


 * Mahakavi Girish Chandra (1956, Bengali biopic on Girish Chandra Ghosh), directed by Madhu Bose. Gurudas Bannerjee plays Ramakrishna. {Gomolo has story, slightly different title}


 * Bireswar Vivekananda (1964, Bengali), directed by Madhu Bose, with Gurudas Bandyopadhyay as Ramakrishna


 * Nati Binodini (1994, Bengali), directed by Dinen Gupta. {WHO IS SRK?}


 * Swami Vivekananda (1998, Hindi, biopic on Swami Vivekananda), directed by G. V. Iyer. Mithun Chakraborty won a National Film Award for portraying Ramakrishna in this film. The citation stated that he received the "Award for the Best Supporting Actor Award of 1995... for his brilliant and soul searching portrayal" of Ramakrishna that "succeeds in elevating the character to a spiritual level."


 * {what is main focus? SRK or SV or both?} Sri Ramkrishna Vivekananda (2007, Bengali biopic), directed by Jogesh K. Mehta


 * Life of Swami Vivekananda (year?)

Documentaries (feature length)
Three feature-length documentaries have been produced in English that focus solely or jointly on Ramakrishna:
 * Life and Message of Swami Vivekananda (1964, English), directed by Bimal Roy.
 * Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa and Swami Vivekananda ({year?}, English), produced by the Vedanta Society.
 * Dakshineshwar ({year?}, English), produced by Ramakrishna Math, Hyderabad.

Ongoing interest
Mithun Chakraborty stated that playing Ramakrishna in Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (1995) was "toughest challenge of my life." He explained that " It wasn't just the fact that I was playing a real-life character, and that too of one who is a household name in Bengal.... The toughest challenge was to get the physicality of the character right."

Themes that include a Ramakrishna character continue to be of interest in contemporary Indian cinema.

It was reported in 2012 that producer Maheshwara Reddy wanted to make a film about Ramakrishna, and cast Akkineni Nagarjuna as the lead.

Another report {from "sources" - must treat as gossip} stated that efforts were being made to enlist Rajinikanth to play Ramakrishna in a new film about Swami Vivekananda.


 * {expand} "Collection king Mohan babu as Ramakrishna Paramahamsa"
 * {expand, merge with other on same topic} "ANR as 'Ramakrishna Paramahamsa'"
 * {many more news reports online re Nagarjuna}

Indian actor Akkineni Nageswara Rao, veteran of a 78-year acting career, stated in 2012 that he regretted never having played Ramakrishna.

Additional bibliography (to integrate into article)

 * RK films mentioned in book: page 204 of the book by Sharmishtha Guptoo


 * Bhagaban Shree Shree Ramakrishna (1955) is noted in Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema (Nihalani, Rajadhyaksh et al.). The film is listed as a 1955 film, "Bhagwan Shri Shri Ramakrishna" in Kanu Benerjee's filmography on page 53 of the Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema (1994), ISBN 0851704557 (UK) or ISBN 0195635795 (India),Oxford Univesity Press, Ashish Rajadhyaksha and Paul Willemen (Eds.).