Art of Rays!
“The director is the only person who knows what the film is about.” — Satyajit Ray
Born in 1921 into an artistic family in Calcutta, Satyajit Ray left no stone unturned when it came to exploring the expanse of his creativity. The art of Satyajit Ray lies in his exploration of the mundane taken to sublime heights. He was not only a film director but also an established author, essayist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligrapher, and music composer. To not have seen the cinema of Ray means existing in the world without seeing the sun or the moon!
Ray’s Reel Realism
The imaginative mind of Satyajit Ray had no bounds. Artists leave behind their work for the world to see when they pass on, but Ray left behind an open pathway into his psyche and his process, inviting future filmmakers to step inside and explore the wonders of storytelling.
Ray seamlessly infused his progressive philosophies into his narratives. Not many filmmakers of that era possessed it. His debut film, Pather Panchali, portrayed the struggles of a poor Bengali family, diverging from mainstream cinema and delving into the human struggle.
Ray broke stereotypes, giving us authentic, bold, and opinionated women on screen. Just by watching the conflicted personality of the character of Charulatha, one can discover the extent to which the artist went to understand and explore the depth of gender inequality and a woman’s position in society.
Ray voiced the unspoken tales of society that got the audience thinking. The feature film Devi portrayed unwarranted fanaticism, while Apu’s trilogy satirized the wage rate and social gaps.
His films tackled a wide range of subjects and genres. He also wrote several books, including a popular series of detective stories featuring the character Feluda. Ray beautifully brought together childish innocence and blended it with worldly wisdom in the tales that he wrote.
“Lights, Sound, Camera”
In his final moments, the grand master muttered, “Lights, sound, camera”. In 1992, when Ray passed away, few could hold back their tears. Thousands made their way to the nursing home and to Ray’s Bishop Lefroy Road residence. Calcutta ran out of flowers.
“Ray’s excellence in concluding his narration has always been dramatic. His own end was no different,” said the late Soumitra Chatterjee, Ray’s favourite actor, and leading man in 14 of his films.
Years went by, and there still isn’t a single film enthusiast who explores the art and its multitudes without studying Ray’s extensive body of work. There is a charm and enigmatic energy that is still burning bright in Ray’s work, a light that continues to guide the path for the future of Indian and global cinema.
Sharmila Tagore, the heroine of Apur Sansar, put it succinctly, “For Tagore and Ray, the people and their predicament came first.” She was, of course, referring to the most towering cultural icon of Bengal, Rabindranath Tagore, the Nobel Laureate polymath who had a deep influence on Ray.
Weaved Dreams on the Silver Screen
Between 1955 and 1991, Ray directed almost 30 features, as well as short films and documentaries. In the world of Indian cinema, Satyajit Ray’s films received the National Film Awards 36 times, and he was also accorded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award. His contributions to Indian culture and art earned him numerous awards and honours, including the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour, in 1992.
Satyajit Ray’s films clinched top honours at international festivals. In 1991, he was awarded an Oscar for Lifetime Achievement — the only such Oscar to be bestowed on an Indian director. Ray also received an honorary doctorate from the University of Oxford, becoming the second film director to be awarded this honour after his hero, Charles Chaplin.
Inheriting Genius
“Living up to the legacy of legendary movie maker and author Satyajit Ray is a tough call for anyone.” said his son, the film director Sandip Ray, best known for the series of detective movies he had made based on his father’s popular series of books on the private investigator Prodosh Mitter, alias ‘Feluda’.
He realized that he had to, like his father, pick up Indian notations. He drew entirely on his father’s Indian notational manuscripts to absorb the approach to musical compositions and their variegated nuances.
“The challenge to emerge from Satyajit Ray’s shadow is daunting. It’s daunting, but at the same time, you have to work. There are plus points and there are minus points (of being a famous director’s son),” Sandip Ray always accepted with a smile.
Capturing Essence, Ray by Ray
The younger Ray, who started out in life as an assistant to his father, made his debut with the film ‘Phatik Chand,’ at the age of 30. The younger Ray came up with many successful films, including ‘Tintorettor Jishu’ (Tintoretto’s Jesus), ‘Baksho Rohoshyo’ (Box Mystery), ‘Kailashe Kelenkari’ (Scandal at Kailash), and ‘Badhshahi Angti’ (the Emperor’s Ring).
He was completely fascinated by his father’s working method. He had inherited Satyajit Ray’s method of shooting. “After I grew up, Baba and I became friends. We shared a common passion — cinema and spent a lot of time discussing it.”, said Sandip Ray. According to him, Satyajit Ray was his censor board.
Over the years, Sandip Ray is also known for his own versatile talents, both as a film director, a scriptwriter, and an editor of the popular Bengali children’s magazine ‘Sandesh’, launched 110 years ago by his family. The great care taken with the background score, which draws on the original Satyajit Ray detective movies and yet is very different, possibly heightens the sense of suspense in Sandip Ray’s ‘Feluda’ movies, attracting his audience to an ultimate thrilling end.
Sandip Ray preserved the silver screen legacy passed on to him. Let Mitt Arv secure yours for generations to come!
