Satyajit Ray, India, 1968, 132 mins, Cert U
Screening at: Strontian, Mon 3rd August 10am | Nairn, Sat 8th August 11am
If youre Bengali, youll know the songs in this movie as well as Were off to see the Wizard in The Wizard of Oz, and youll have grown up with lovable dafties Goopy and Bagha. For the rest of us, discovering them is a delight.
Goopy and Bagha are scared wee boys in mens bodies, like Laurel and Hardy. They think they are great musicians, but theyre rubbish. One day, a forest Wizard (wait til you hear the way he sings!) casts a spell, making them talented players and giving them the power to travel in space and time. They go to a land where no-one can speak, where a war is brewing, where music has been banished.
Their adventures involve beards that curl before our eyes and cakes that fall from the sky. Sometimes Goopy and Baghas songs are melancholic, and the pacifist theme is strong. Master Indian director Satyajit Ray is known for his poetic realism but here hes channelling the Arabian Nights and Busby Berkeley. The movie is a revelation, and theres a surprise at the end!
This story is full of things to delight children but it is subtitled and 2 hours ten minutes long: Adults - feel free to whisper the English to the wee ones!
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