A Magical Manik

'The director is the only person who knows what the film is about.' 

Well known for his humanistic approach to Cinema, Satyajit Ray was born on 2nd May 1921 in  Calcutta. Belonging to a family of artists, writers and visionaries Ray was the son of the Indian Edward Lear, Sukumar Ray and Suprobha Devi and grandson of renowned Children's author, illustrator, philosopher and a leader of the Brahmo Samaj, Upendrakishore Roychowdhury. Ray completed his school at Ballygunge Government High School and pursued his degree in Economics from Presidency University. Later on his mother's insistence he tried at Vishwa Bharati University at Shantiniketan in spite of his reluctance and incomparable love for Calcutta. He learned Oriental Art under the tutelage of Nandalal Bose and Benode Behari Mukherjee and the excursions to Ellora, Ajanta and Elephanta stimulated this interest. In 1943, Ray started work at D.J. Keymer, a British-run advertising agency, as a "junior visualiser," earning eighty rupees a month. Later he took up a job at the Signet Press wherein he  designed covers for books like Chaander Pahaar( Bibutibhusan Bandopadhyay), Banalata Sen and Rupashi Bangla written by Jibanananda Das, Discovery of India by Jawaharlal Nehru. In 1947, Chidananda Dasgupta and he founded the Calcutta Film Society which screened many a foreign films that Ray had studied in his later life. 

A Style with no parallel, Satyajit Ray remains an icon and connoisseur of Bengali culture till today.

In 1952, Ray started with his greatest work of all times, Pather Panchali. The cast consisted of an inexperienced crew and amateur actors. The shooting of the film was often suspended owing to low funds. It completed in 1955 finally with the assistance of the West Bengal Government and later went on to win 11 international prizes. The huge success of this particular film led to the shooting of the sequel which was named Aparajito that won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Ray never thought to make a trilogy and thus went on to make the humorous Parash Pathar and Jalshaghar. However, when he was asked about that idea in Venice it appealed to him and he went on to make Apur Sansar that introduced two jewels of Bangla Cinema- Soumitra Chattopadhyay and Sharmila Tagore. 

Ray and Mrinal Sen were harshest critics and great admirers of each other's works. Their rivalry became public in the 1960s when a series of letters between them were published when Ray strongly criticized Sen's Akash Kusum wherein he stated that Sen was busy attacking easy targets such as the Bengali Middle-classes.

After Apur Sansar, Ray made Devi a film starring Sharmila Tagore that explored the superstitions of the Hindu Society. On the request of Jawaharlal Nehru he undertook to make a documentary on Rabindranath Tagore on the occasion of his birth centenary in 1961. This was followed by Kanchenjunga, Mahanagar, Teen Kanya, Abhijaan and Charulata in 1964 that became a critical success and Madhabi Mukherjee was particularly praises for her work. In the post-Charulata period, Ray took on projects of increasing variety, ranging from fantasy to science fiction to detective films to historical drama. In 1969 following Nayak (starring Uttam Kumar and Sharmila Tagore) emerged what was one of his best critical commercial success based in his Grandfather's work, Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne  that was followed by the Cinematic Representation of Sunil Gangopadhyay's novel Aranyer Dinraatri. Thereafter he completed what became known as the Calcutta trilogy: Pratidwandi (1970), Seemabaddha (1971), and Jana Aranya (1975). Satyajit Ray considered script-writing to be an integral part of direction. Initially he refused to make a film in any language other than Bengali. In his two non-Bengali feature films, he wrote the script in English; translators interpreted it in Hindi or Urdu under Ray's supervision. In 1977 Ray made his only Hindi film on Munshi Premchand's renowned short Story- Shatranj Ke Khiladi starting Sanjeev Kumar, Amjad Khan, Shabana Azmi, Richard Attenborough and Saeed Jaffrey. In 1980 he made a sequel to Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne known as Hirak Rajar Deshe that was a satirical drama based on Indira Gandhi's Emergency. Whilst making Ghore Baire he suffered a heart attack that severely limited his productivity in the remaining 9 years of his life. His last three films consisted of much dialogues and critics consider them to be inferior to be the previous ones. These include Ganashatru, Sakha-Prosakha and Agantuk. 

Ray along with Tapen Chatterjee and Rabi Ghosh at the 1969 Berlin Film Festival.

Ray and his works were heavily influenced by Jean Renoir and Vittorio De Sica. According to him, they taught him the value of infusing a large number of cinematic features only in one shot utilising the talents of novice actors and actresses. He had credited the Old Hollywood directors such as John Ford, Billy Wilder and Ernest Lubitsch in moulding his art and described his contemporaries Akira Kurosawa, Stanley Kubrick and Ingmar Bergman describing them as 'Giants' in the world of cinema. From Teen Kanya, Ray began to compose his own scores rather than relying on other music composers. Ray was heavily influenced by Beethoven and began to include elements of sonata, fugue and rondo. Through his works, Ray obtained many distinguished admirers. VS Naipaul, the Nobel Laureate whilst comparing a scene in Shatranj Ke Khiladi to a Shakespearean drama. Directors such as Francis Ford Coppola, Christopher Nolan and Martin Scorsese have often expressed their admiration in Ray's humanistic approach to cinema. However many of his own countrymen were not so kind in their feedbacks. The Indian actress and MP, Nargis Dutt stated that Ray was simply exporting India's poverty instead of making a film that could reflect the modern India. On the other hand advocates of Socialism were harshly critical of him alleging that Ray's films overlooked the downtrodden since he was unable to relinquish his bourgeosie upbringing and failed to offer any forms of solutions. 

An example of Ray's artistic abilities. He used to personally design the costumes of the actors as well as the sets. In this picture, is the court of Heerak Raja from the 1979 film Heerak Rajar Deshe- a political satire based on the Emergency years (1975-77).

Ray was a phenomenal author. In the most easily readeable language he created two characters that became integral part of Bangla Literature namely- the detective Feluda and the scientist Professor Shonku and are enjoyed by Bangalis of all ages. In 1961, together with Subhas Mukhopadhyay, Leela Mazumder  and others, Ray was able to revive Sandesh, the children's magazine which his grandfather once published. Ray had been saving money for some years to make this possible. His short stories were published as collections of 12 stories, in which the overall title played with the word twelve. He also penned down various parts of his life like his Childhood in Jokhon Choto Chilam, shooting the Apu Trilogy in My Years with Apu and Bishoy Chalachitra and Ekei Bole Shooting. He made films of two of his most popular stories- Joy Baba Felunath and Sonar Kella starting Soumitra Chattopadhyay as Feluda and Santosh Dutta as Jatayu. He designed four typefaces for roman script named Ray Roman, Ray Bizarre, Daphnis, and Holiday script, apart from numerous Bengali ones for the Sandesh magazine. 

Ray along with then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi along with two other giants in the field of arts, Amrita Pritam and MS Subbulaxmi.

Writing for the Anandamela, his son Sandip recounts how Ray's fingers used to develop cramps before the Pujas when he had to complete two novels- one Feluda and one Professor Shonku. His first draft was always a scribbled one which could hardly be understood by anyone other than himself. As she was far-read in the genre of detective novels, his wife Bijoya happened to be the first reader of his novels when she was asked to put forward her recommendations most of which were scrupulously adhered to by Ray. Thereafter, a final draft was prepared which was sent to the printers for publication. Sandip reminisces that whilst drawing, especially when water colours were involved  he used to open the windows of his rooms in turns in order to see whether the colours were appropriate to the settings her had in mind and if they were vibrant enough. 

Ray married his first cousin and sweetheart, Bijoya in 1949. They had one son, Sandip who followed his father's footsteps and became a film director as well.

He was awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1985, nearly 32 National  Awards and the Legion of Honor by the President of France in 1987. The Government of India awarded him the Padma Bhushan in 1965 and the highest civilian honour, Bharat Ratna, shortly before his death. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Ray an Honorary Oscar in 1992 for Lifetime Achievement. In his gravely ill condition, Ray accepted the award rating it to be the Best Award of his Filmmaking Career.

 

Ray and one of his closest peers, Akira Kurosawa.

Ray breathed his last on 23 April 1992. Although many opine that his achievements had increased manifold due the luck factor which other of his contemporaries like Mrinal Sen and Ritwik Ghatak did not have the benefit of, the legacy he left is certainly undeniable. Today when one visits his flat on Bishop Lefroy Road in Calcutta that is thrown open to the public annually on his birth anniversary, one can appreciate a tinge of his aesthetic abilities through many of his sketches and film posters that are hung on the walls which perhaps have witnessed innumerable historic events in Indian filmography. Like his nickname he is remembered to be the 'Manik' of India in general and Bengal in particular for raising the standard of Indian Cinema in front of the international world. Instead of contemplating to institute honours and awards in his name, his legacy would be far bettered honoured if the state helped financially all those who are willing to pursue film-making but are hesitant owing to the risks involved in that world.