Well, if the names sound alien despite being a movie buff, jog your memory and take a trip down the Satyajit Ray Classics Lane. We are talking about the characters of Ray's 1969 tribute to youth, Aranyer Din Ratri (Days and Nights in the Forest). But then Asim, Hari, Sanjoy and Aparna are not ageless comic book characters.

Circa 2002. Like Sekhar (ace Bengali comedian Robi Ghosh), the maestro himself passed away in 1992. But the characters living are returning to the forest on the celluloid canvas of Gautam Ghose, one of the torch bearers of Ray legacy and maker of the documentary on the maestro, Ray. Their journey would also offer a different experience for cine goers as Gautam Ghose is a different filmmaker, though with the courage to take off where his muse Ray had left 33 years back.

Soumitra Chatterjee (Ashim), Sharmila Tagore (Aparna), Subhendu Chatterjee (Sanjoy) and Samit Bhanja (Hari) of Aranyer Din Ratri (Days and Nights in the Forest) is seen 33 years after in Gautam's new film Abar Aranye (Again in the forest), with a whole group of post-Ray artistes representing the new relations in their lives. So now there is Bollywood star Tabu cast as the distraught daughter of Soumitra and Sharmila, nursing a bitter break-up, and Rupa Ganguly playing ailing Hari's wife. The next generation also comprises Sashwata Chatterjee (real and reel life son of Subhendu), his wife (Bidita), and Tollywood's current heart throb Jishu Sengupta as friend of Subhendu's son.

Ray's film was about four young city slickers making a holiday excursion to a forest in Bihar's Palamu district. There Hari seduces a local tribal beauty (Simi Garewal), while the others court two sisters (Sharmila Tagore and Kaberi Basu) vacationing with their family in a nearby cottage. A subtle psychological drama laced with sexual undertones unfolds as the characters came out against the backdrop of primal forests.

"As the days and nights pass - filled with the idle pleasures of a native dance, a silly word game, a village fair - the film becomes a meditation on tradition versus modernity, on desire and reticence, and it becomes increasingly complex in its moral and psychological implications. The delicate effect of balance and counterpoint can be seen again and again in this film, where Ray's affinity with Mozart is even more apparent than in Charulata," wrote The Sunday Observer in a recent reappraisal of the Ray classic.
Comparisons are inevitable. So Ghose runs the risk of coming under the scanner of uncharitable critics. He is well aware of that. But that does not deter Ghose, known for adapting complex novels into films, from making the movie. The idea actually came to him while researching for his documentary on Ray some year back. "I am not comfortable with the word sequel. This is actually a take off from where Manikda (Ray) had left," says the maker of such acclaimed films as Paar (The Crossing) , Antarjali Jatra (The Voyage Beyond) and Padma Nadir Majhi (Boatman of the River Padma).

"For long I wanted to make a film on journey. A journey which is very unpredictable in nature, of unforeseen incidents. So during the making of this Ray documentary and in course of dealing with Manikda's works I discovered that time can be a metaphor of impermanence of worldly phenomenon. I asked myself what about a journey with these people. Two Bengali artistes Kaberi Basu (playing sister of Aparna) and Robi Ghose (Sekhar) have died. But what about those living? What about two generations making the journey this time? What about finding out whether the sense of romanticism has changed for the new generation in the present day," reflects Ghose whose first cinematic experience (and a tearful one) of life at the tender age of seven was through Ray's Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road).

"When I told this to the Ray family they were excited. So were Soumitra, Sharmila, Samit and Subhendu for whom the film's experience is pure nostalgia," says Ghose.
"Nostalgia swept through my mind when Gautam approached me. I was overwhelmed. I was looking forward to adda (chat session) with Soumitra and Subhendu. That was my incentive for doing this movie. And that is what we did whenever we found time," says Sharmila.

"But this is a different film," notes Ghose. "It is not a sequel as such and so I begin the film with 'in memory of Sunil Gangopadhayay's novel and Satyajit Ray's film Aranyer Din Ratri'. I have conceptualised a make believe world where it can be assumed that Soumitra and Sharmila have got married later. Subhendu has become an established writer. He has a wife, son and daughter-in-law. Robi Ghose is dead and so we are showing that Sekhar is no more. Samit is shown not physically well though he was a good sportsman once. He is married to a younger Rupa Ganguly but they are childless."

"The location is different, in north Bengal. Since I have shown Soumitra as a tea company top boss which has gardens in north Bengal the connection can be established for narrowing down on the forests of north Bengal as their destination. Also in the film though Sharmila initiates the trip for the next generation to know the forest and their parents' youth, she does not want to go back to Palamu as the house she was staying has been sold," reasons Ghose who has used clippings from the original film selectively. "There are images of the Ray film and Robi Ghose would be seen only through those images. The friends would remember him after coming to the forest as under work pressure they often forget him."

So is the take off going to be something like Aparna Sen's Picnic where there is a tension brewing between the characters?
The reverse in fact. "Here the journey of unpredictable nature is the running tension. I think the audience goes to see a film for new experiences and there lies the success of a film. So I have a larger canvas with more characters who come out against the nature. Also it is important to know that our educated class has deviated from mainstream people in India in the past decades. They have a sense of alienation despite their regard for their culture. I have tried to portray those cross currents. The new generation has only romantic ideas about a forest which is often not true as they discover in the film. They wonder how much they know the forest, its orchids, its tribal people and so on. There is a question through their journey: has the forest remained the same like 33 years back?" says Ghose.

The casting of Tabu in a Bengali film has fuelled greater interest in the film. Is there a hero in Jishu Sengupta for Tabu? Another possibility of a Soumitra-Sharmila equation?
"Well, in this film Tabu has been shown as a lady in deep trauma after a bitter relationship abroad while Jishu is a part Bengali part Italian guy with his Indian father separated from Italian mother and married again. Traumatised Tabu comes from the US and slowly the journey opens up a new world for her. She discovers herself and comes out of that trauma. The hint of a future relationship between Tabu and Jishu is only through a friendship developing between the two characters and not any overt courtship," reveals Ghose.
So how was it working with a Bollywood star like Tabu? "She is a fine actress. Tabu did her homework very well and tried to understand the nuances. Also it is a new experience for her as in the shooting unit everyone is part of a family. Shabana had the same experience with us during the shooting of Paar," says Ghose.

"Dooars in north Bengal is a fascinating place. It appeals to me from childhood. So many tribes, the backdrop of the Himalayas, the rivers. You can call it a cauldron of the entire Indian sub-continent owing to the tea connection and the British employers of pre-Independence era. The British had employed the Punjabis, the Bengalis the tribal people in different trade," says the maker of such acclaimed documentaries as Beyond the Himalayas and Kalahandi and recipient of the prestigious De Sica Award in league with Visconti, Fellini, Kurasawa and Bergman.

"The sounds are also very important now. When we write the scripts we think of the soundtracks. In the north Bengal forest there is a particular kind of cricket the chorus of which can be best recreated in Dolby. You will experience all that in the film. It is a wrong notion that Dolby is meant for ear-splitting sound, it actually best recreates the atmosphere of silence. So there are many reasons for selection of Dooars as the locale," says Ghose whose last film Dekha (Glance) was shot in north Bengal in parts and who recently was the cinematographer of friend Aparna Sen for her last film Mr and Mrs Iyer shot in north Bengal.