December 27, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): The fans of Bengali poet and playwright Rabindranath Tagore had a great treat in Mangalore last weekend. The 'Sahamatha Film Society' of the city organized a two day Tagore Film Festival to mark the upcoming 150th birth anniversary of the great poet.

Many filmmakers made several movies on the works of Tagore and the festival screened some of these renowned movies for the cine buffs. The film festival was held at Srinivas Institute of Management Studies auditorium on December 25.

Inaugurating the event, litterateur Dr. Sara Abubacker said that the short stories of Tagore usually focus on women and advocate humanitarian values. So his works and films are still relevant in todays life.

Renowned theaters personality C Basavalingaiah said that cultural values in India are degrading steadily, so people have forgotten to remember the great poet like Rabindranath Tagore.

The film festival screened some noted films like Ghare Baire, Charulatha, Kabuliwala and Teen Kanya. Convenor Govind Belgaumkar said that the coastal city had hosted such an event for the first time after Tripura and Kolkata.

Renowed Bengali filmmaker Satyajit Ray directed Charulatha, which was released in 1964 and was based on Tagores Nastaneer. The story of the film is set in 1879.

A Bimal Roy film Kabuliwala in Hindi, was directed by Hemen Gupta in 1961, which has a story of an Afghani Pathan Abdul Rehman Khan. It tells his attempts to meet his daughter Amina and his chance meeting another little girl Mini, who reminds him of his daughter.

--Sampurn Wire