Film Festival to commemorate Tagore’s first visit to Japan

A Japanese film festival organised by the Consulate General of Japan in association with the department of Japanese studies (Nippon Bhavan), Bhasa Bhavan Viswa Bharati on Saturday will commemorate the centenary of Rabindranath’s first visit to Japan in 1916. Tagore who got a Nobel prize in 1913 was welcomed warmly by the Japanese people. He met the family of Rashbehari Basu. Basu fled the country and settled in Japan after marrying a Japanese woman. After Tagore set up the Viswa Bharati University, scholars from Japan came to India and Nippon Bhavan was constructed.  There are many Japanese scholars now who are working on the life and works of Tagore.

The films will be shown at Lipika auditorium. Three classic Japanese movies will be screened including one by Akira Kurosawa. He directed the film Doomed in 1952. The central figure of the film is Kanaji Watanabe. Watanabe is the chief of citizens’ service section of a municipal office and has never been absent from work for the past 30 years. He took a day off for a medical check up and found that he was suffering from cancer. After the disease was detected he found that his son and daughter in law were planning to move in to a separate house to stay away from him. Infuriated over this, he started visiting the night clubs and spent half of his savings. But monotony soon took over and he began to work on setting up a children’s park on a reclaimed land. Always-Sunset of Third Street (2005) is based on a film on post war Japan. In 1958, the war depression was over and Japan was growing as a major economic power. Tokyo Tower has been built which was a symbol of recovered Japan.