Goutam Ghose's ‘Beyond The Himalayas: Journeying Through The Silk Route’ launched in Kolkata

Actress-director Aparna Sen, author-academic Kunal Basu and former Prasar Bharti CEO Jawahar Sircar were present at the launching event.

The author has captured his epic journey through tracing the Silk Route in this film book based on his 1996 documentary Beyond the Himalayas.

The Silk Route comprised a network of trade routes that connected the East and West in the past. It was the fulcrum of cultural interaction between the regions it connected for several centuries.

The Silk Route was so named because of the lucrative trade in silk carried out along its length.

In Beyond The Himalayas: Journeying Through the Silk Route, filmmaker Goutam Ghose was part of the Central Asian expedition organized by Major H.P.S. Ahluwalia in 1994, the first of its kind. They undertook an arduous 14,000 km epic journey undertaken in a caravan of Mahindra Armada jeeps through Central Asia, China and Tibet tracing the ancient trade route.

This film book is a pictorial chronicle of Ghose’s incredible experience on the Silk Route. Much of the text is the narration of the original soundtrack of the series which has been adapted for the benefit of book readers. His lens captures breathtaking visuals of a less travelled road.

The tapestry of history, travel anecdotes, local legends and titanic characters lend a cinematic quality to the whole narrative. The fabled past and the present are intercut by cinematic jumps in this fascinating record of an enduring memory in the collective consciousness of the history of mankind.

On why he chose to write the book, Ghose said, “A few years ago I came across a cupboard full of old negatives, slides and some faded prints from the expedition and one thing led to another and made me decide to write a film book based on his incredible experience on the Silk Route.”