'In this film I want to emphasise Tagore's outlook on education'

In 1924, poet Rabindranath Tagore was on his way from Europe to Peru when he was forced by illness to debark in Buenos Aires. This was where Tagore had met Argentine feminist writer, literary magazine editor and cultural activist Victoria Ocampo. She hosted him for two months in Buenos Aires. Tagore recovered and wrote as many as 30 poems while in San Isidro, Buenos Aires. Ketaki Kushari Dyson, among others, has shown their friendship that blossomed over the next 15 years was one of creative and spiritual exchange. Tagore, then 63, addressed Victoria Ocampo, 34, in his letters as Bijoya. Ocampo looked after the poet with the diligence of a devoted admirer. In 1930, Ocampo organised the poet's first art exhibition in Paris, where they met in person for the second and last time.Argentine director and writer Pablo Cesar's new film, Thinking of Him, is largely based on Rabindranath Tagore's life. The film also brings out Tagore's unique relationship with Ocampo. Pablo is best known for his films Banks, Hunabku, Blood, and Aphrodite the Garden of Perfumes. This film in Tagore, a tri-lingual project in English-Bengali-Spanish, will be released in 2017.You are making a feature film on Rabindranath Tagore. What prompted you to take on this project and what in Tagore appealed most to you – a poet, an administrator or land lord?Rabindranath Tagore was a master of the greatest of mankind. The first thing I knew of Tagore was that he translated Kabir's poems. Then I came across beautiful works such as Gitanjali and The Gardener. In 2008 the ambassador of India in Argentina, Mr Viswanathan, suggested that I make a film about the encounter between Tagore and the Argentine writer Victoria Ocampo in 1924 in Buenos Aires. That's how I started working on the project with screenwriter Jeronimo Toubes. After two years of research, the script was obtained to make the film. In this film I want to emphasise Tagore's outlook on education and the creation of Santiniketan. Tagore conceived another type of education in the early days of Santiniketan. I do not know if he was actually like he did, but that outlook he had was unique and I am sure that his model, if implemented, would result in a much more evolved humanity, with an open mind to understand the universe.

In 1941 when Victoria Ocampo heard of Rabindranath Tagore's death in a news on a car radio, she was on her way from Buenos Aires to Mar del Plata. She immediately sent a telegram to Tagore’s family ... In the telegram was the following words: Thinking of him.

Tell us something about the journey from Argentina to Shantiniketan.The film is divided in two stories. One takes place in the present time. It is the story of Felix, a professor of geography, a failed man who teaches at a juvenile prison. One day, when he arrives at class he finds the book, Santiniketan, and starts reading it. This book belongs to a teenager who was arrested but has escaped from the institute. Following an unexpected event, Felix makes the decision to leave everything in Argentina and start his trip to Santiniketan. There he will meet Prakash, a teacher and also Kamali, a local student. Felix's life will be transformed. As Felix reads the book while in India, the other story, that of the trip of Rabindranath Tagore to Argentina (although he travelled to Peru) in 1924, will be seen in an intercalated way.You have cast Argentine artists in your film. There is also Raima Sen and Victor Bannerji from India. How did you choose your artists? I mean, what motivated you to select these particular performers? As we know that for Rabindranath's character, you considered Amitabh Bachchan, and then Naseeruddin Shah. Later, you fixed on Victor Bannerji.In every movie there is always an investigation for different characters. I was researching who would be the ideal Indian actor to play Tagore. After some research and interviews with other great Bollywood actors, I chose Victor Banerjee. This film is a co-production between my company César Producciones (Argentina) and Johnsons-Suraj Films International (India). Mr Suraj Kumar, co-producer, suggested some artists to me and that was how the research was done. When I interviewed Víctor at his house in Mussorie, I immediately felt that he was the ideal person to play Tagore. His way of living, his dedication to reading and contemplating life amid the mountains, among other things, touched my heart deeply. Raima Sen interprets Kamali. I interviewed her in Kolkata at the suggestion of the Indian co-producer. Who can be indifferent to the beauty of Raima Sen? In front of the camera Raima unfolds like a being of light with an exceptional gift.

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A still from the movie

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You are making the film in black and white. Is this to capture the old time?The story of Felix is in colour and the story of Tagore and Victora is in black and white. The 35mm film has been used in both cases, which gives maximum visual quality and, of course, allows the work to be protected for at least 120 years, as is the characteristic of the 35mm negative. I chose the image in black and white because it just helps to give a more precise idea of a story that happened many years ago, almost 100 years. The image has had a very special treatment by the director of photography Carlos Essmann, and by the art team, especially Sebastian Sabas who did a great job of perfect historical reconstruction and also the characterizer of Victor Banerjee and Ulhas Adnekar, a man of great talent.About colour, I want to bring your attention to Birbhoom and Shantiniketan. At Birbhoom, the soil is red. Red is also the colour of various flowers at Shantiniketan. Don't you think colour could be a better option to capture the hues at Shantiniketan?Yes, of course, and we did. As I said, the story of Felix is in colour and we see beautiful images in colour in and around Santiniketan and Bolpur.Thinking of Him – why this title?In 1941 when Victoria Ocampo heard of the death of Rabindranath Tagore in a news on a car radio, she was on her way from Buenos Aires to Mar del Plata. She immediately sent a telegram to Tagore’s family. Rathindranath Tagore received the telegram at the family home in Kolkata. In the telegram was the following words: "Thinking of him. Victoria Ocampo."Why did Rabindranath the educationist got more of your attention than Rabindranath the lover or the poet?In the film you will see these three qualities of Rabindranath Tagore, and also the painter and his famous doodles as the scene of the exhibition of his paintings in the Gallery Pigalle that Victoria organised in 1930. I must add here that Eleonora Wexler's acting in the role of Victoria Ocampo is wonderful. She conveys the deep admiration that Victoria had for Tagore and the spiritual greatness with which they both communicated, from a deep encounter between souls. I am interested in bringing to the public the reflection of the urgent need to change the model of education in human beings. Many people suffer from fears created by their own minds, or by the imagination of others. We are living in a wonderful universe that speaks to us through a language that we can easily understand if we open our hearts and let ourselves be led by intuition and perception. A mind trapped in prejudice ends up seeing a reality so limited that life becomes sad. It is very likely that, as they say in the Upanishads, the world is an illusion. I prefer navigating my own illusion to the nightmares of others. And Tagore shows us this path, if one just opens his imagination and heart.

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Ruhina Ferdous is a journalist at Bonikbarta.