"Not to have seen the cinema of Ray means existing in the world without seeing the sun or the moon."~ Akira kurosawa.
But only for cinema? We memorize Ray as a writer, illustrator, calligrapher, lyricist, music composer and as magazine editor too. Both his father (Sukumar Ray) and grandfather (Upendrakishore Ray) were pioneers and authors and they even owned a printing press named U Ray and Sons.
At the age of three Ray lost his father and suddenly their press locked out. He had to shift with his mother from North Calcutta (Garpar Rd.) to South Calcutta (Bakul bagan Road, Bhawanipur). Ray mentioned about those days in his autobiography “Jokhon chhoto chhilam”. That book is a beautiful document on contemporary Calcutta and a family who are recognized for their contribution on Bengal renaissance after the Tagors. Ray is the alumni of Ballygunge Govt. High School and completed his graduation from Presidency College in Economics. Later he joined Viswa Bharati University to learn oriental art. He was the student of famous folk artist Nandalal Basu and Binod Bihari Mukherjee, on whose biography Ray made a documentary named ‘The Inner Eye’ (1972).
Ray started his career as a junior visualizer at D J Keymer, a British run ad agency. On 1949, he married Bijaya Ray. Bijaya Ray’s autobiography ‘Amader Kotha’ is a wonderful book to collect many unknown facts about the period when Ray was about to start his career as a film director. Meeting with French director Jean Renoir, when he was in Calcutta to cast his film ‘The River’ and watching ‘The bicycle thief’ film in London catalyzed Ray for debuting as a director. In the year 1952 Ray started the shooting of Pather panchali , based on the novel written by Bibhutibhusam Bandyopadhyay. But due to financial crisis he had to stop shooting many times. Finally, with the help of West Bengal Govt. Pather panchali released. In 1956’s Cannes film festival this film won the award for best Human documentary and gave Ray a massive breakthrough as a debut director. This film became a landmark for Bengali films and Indian films too. The unbreakable enormous bonding between two siblings, beauty of rural Bengal, poverty-stricken life of people showed in the film make every Bengali emotional from then to now.
In 1956, second film of Pather Panchali series, Aparajito released. According to critics this film was more cinematic and better than the first one. Unlike his previous venture, where he stayed faithful to the novel, ray took some bold artistic decision here. It won 11 international awards, including Golden Lion and critics award at the Venice Film Festival. In 1959 the last film of ‘Apu trilogy’- ‘Apur sansar’ (the world of Apu) released. Apur sansar is a moving conclusion to this monumental trilogy. By the time Apur sansar was released Satyajit Ray had directed two masterpieces ‘Jolsaghor’, depicts the end days of a decadent zamindar in Bengal, and his efforts to uphold his family prestige even faced with economic adversity. A tragedy of epic proportions, the film is a haunting tale of moral erosion, more than anything else and the excellent comedy ‘Parash Pathar'.
Based on a short story of Prabhat Kumar Mukherjee, Ray made the film ‘Devi’ (1960), tells the story of a girl Dayamoyee (played by Sharmila Tagore), whose father-in-law has a dream envisioning her as an avatar of goddess Kali. Ray showed how religious superstitions become antagonist towards humanity. In its initial release, the film raised the ire of religious leaders across India. Despite this, it won the president’s Gold medal and also a nomination for the Palme d’or at Cannes.
From 1960 to 1992 Ray made back to back masterpieces like- ‘Abhijan’, ‘Mahanagar’, ‘Charulata’, ‘Nayak’, ‘Chiriyakhana’, ‘Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne’, ‘Aranyer din ratri’, ‘Pratidwandi’, ‘Asani Sanket’ and many more. He directed two Hindi films also, named ‘Satranj ke khilari’ and ‘Sadgati’.
As mentioned, he was also a great writer. He authored several short stories and novels, primarily for young children and teenagers. Feluda, the detective, and Professor Shonku, the scientist in his science fiction stories, Tarini Khuro, the storyteller and Lalmohan Ganguly, the novelist are popular fictional characters created by him. His writings about his experiences on shooting are ‘Ekei bole Shooting’, ‘Our films their films’.
From his debut he got many awards from worldwide, including 32 National Film awards. Ray is the second film personality after Charlie Chaplin to have been awarded an honorary doctorate by Oxford University. He received Dadasaheb Phalke award and Legion of Honor by the President of France in 1987. The academy of motion picture arts and science awarded Ray an Honorary Award in 1992 for Lifetime Achievement.
Satyajit Ray left us on 23rd April, 1992 at the age of 72 years.
Ray’s 100th birthday coincides with counting day in Bengal. When, no matter which party comes to power, we will have lost a part of Ray, a loss of civility, reasoned rhetoric, a tradition of religious and cultural amity and overall, a part of what makes our Bengaliness. A Bengaliness that also includes the voice of creative and rightful dissent and difference, each in his own way, each as he thought fit.
“The only solutions that are ever worth anything are the solutions that people find themselves.”- Satyajit Ray.
By Zavijah.
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