“Stories by Rabindranath Tagore” - Anurag Basu (2015)

Stories by Rabindranath Tagore (2015) is an Indian television series and covers novels and stories by the great Indian writer and Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941).  Although Tagore wrote his works in his native Bengali language, the series presentation language is Hindi.  (For more commentary on Tagore, see my review of Satyajit Ray's documentary Rabindranath Tagore (1961) [1]).

The series was created and directed by well-known film director Anurag Basu, who adapted Tagore’s stories in accordance with his own aesthetic schemes and rhythms.  The series features a number of songs written by Tagore, and the overall series music was composed by Anurag Saikia.  

Because of the hour-long format of the series, some of Tagore’s stories are spread over more than one episode.  The series when presented was well received by the Indian press and the public [2].

The Tagore stories depicted in this series are usually linked, so that at the conclusion of one story, background characters of the story just concluded are seen to be significant characters of a story about to be told.  Thus at the end of each story, there is often a direct lead-in to the next story.  Sometimes, however, these end-of-episode lead-ins to the next story can be distractingly too lengthy and contain some significant narrative information that is not repeated when the succeeding episode is presented.  In addition, these episode linkages suggest that those that are linked this way all take place in this series during the same period – apparently some time in the early 1930s – even though the original Tagore stories were published over many years, ranging from 1891 to 1941.
★★★★

Episodes from Stories by Rabindranath Tagore:

• “Chokher Bali”, Stories by Rabindranath Tagore, Episodes 1, 2, & 3 – Anurag Basu (2015)
• "Atithi", Stories by Rabindranath Tagore, Episode 4 – Anurag Basu (2015)
• "Maanbhanjan", Stories by Rabindranath Tagore, Episode 5 – Anurag Basu (2015)
• "Detective", Stories by Rabindranath Tagore, Episode 6 – Debatma Mandal (2015)
• "Kabuliwala", Stories by Rabindranath Tagore, Episode 7 – Tani Basu (2015)
• "Punishment", Stories by Rabindranath Tagore, Episode 8 – Debatma Mandal (2015)
• "The Broken Nest", Stories by Rabindranath Tagore, Episodes 9 & 10 – Tani Basu (2015)
• "Wafadaar", Stories by Rabindranath Tagore, Episode 11 – Sachin Deo (2015)
• "Samapti", Stories by Rabindranath Tagore, Episodes 12 & 13 – Tani Basu (2015)
• "Chhooti",  Stories by Rabindranath Tagore, Episode 14 – Debatma Mandal (2015)
• "Tyaag", Stories by Rabindranath Tagore, Episode 15 – Debatma Mandal (2015)
• "Waaris", Stories by Rabindranath Tagore, Episode 16 – Debatma Mandal (2015)
• "Two Sisters", Stories by Rabindranath Tagore, Episodes 17 & 18 – Sachin Deo (2015)
• “Mrinal ki Chitthi”, Stories by Rabindranath Tagore, Episode 19 – Tani Basu (2015)
• “Aparichita”, Stories by Rabindranath Tagore, Episode 20 – Debatma Mandal (2015)
• "Kankaal", Stories by Rabindranath Tagore, Episode 21 – Sunil Subramani (2015)
• "The Story of a Muslim Girl", Stories by Rabindranath Tagore, Episode 22 – Tani Basu (2015)
• “Dhaai Aakhar Prem Ka”, Stories by Rabindranath Tagore, Episodes 23 & 24 – Debatma Mandal (2015)
• "Monihara", Stories by Rabindranath Tagore, Episode 25 – Debatma Mandal (2015)
• "Daliya", Stories by Rabindranath Tagore, Episode 26 – Tani Basu (2015)

Notes:

1. The Film Sufi, "'Rabindranath Tagore' - Satyajit Ray (1961)", The Film Sufi, (15 November 2017).
2. Sankhayan Ghosh, “Tagore’s stories have a strange sense of gender equality: Anurag Basu”, The Indian Express, (3 July 2015).