It
took me a month and 5 days to go through innumerable articles, blogs, research
papers and cinematic reference materials, to be able to jot something crisp
about Satyajit Ray from his vast ocean of Filmography. And then finally I came
across my weapon of choice to share with you some interesting information on
Manik da (Satyajit Ray’s nickname). I picked the most fascinating yet uncanny
unspoken message behind most of Ray’s work.
And it involves Ray’s retreat into children’s stories, a predominant part of Rayology, greatly evident in his work at:
-
Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne (The Adventures of Goopy and Bagha, 1968)
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Sonar Kella (The Golden Fortress, 1974)
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Joi Baba Felunath (The Elephant God, 1979)
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Hirok Rajar Deshe (The Kingdom of Diamonds, 1980)
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Pikoo (Pikoo’s Day, 1981)
If
you meticulously watch all the above movies, you will feel Ray’s ardent love
for his young audience. The movies catered immense learning amidst
entertainment for children; and each one had a strong moral to learn from its
narration and story. And if you are still thinking where did Ray get the
expertise to understand his young audience so well, don’t forget he belongs to
the great Ray family known for four generations from Upendrakishore Ray
Chowdhury to Sandip Ray – all great storytellers.
As
a child I had strong memories of many of the books by Upendrakishore Ray
Chowdhury because I had read them over and over again. Upendrakishore was an
accomplished writer, painter, violin player and composer, technologist and
entrepreneur. He was the grandfather who wrote storybooks for children.
“Tuntunir Boi” with its illustrations, coupled with the version of Ramayan and
Mahabharat that he had written for children were some of the earliest books I
read. Speaking of his illustrious ancestors, Satyajit Ray himself never
hesitated to rate Upendrakishore Ray’s draftsmanship as an illustrator higher
than that of Sukumar Ray.
Above
Picture: Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury
The
children’s monthly magazine “Sandesh” that Upendrakishore started in 1913
always had the best of stories and drawings. After the death of Upendrakishore
Roy Chowdhury in 1915, his eldest son Sukumar Ray
succeeded as the editor of the magazine in 1915. The Sukumar Ray
years established "Sandesh" as a unique magazine that combined
literary values with humour and fun and a lot of information from different
parts of the world.
Sukumar (father of Satyajit Ray) was a Bengali
humorous poet, storywriter and playwright. As perhaps the most famous Indian
practitioner of literary humour, he is often compared to Lewis Carroll, who
dedicated his life in writing poems and short stories for children (primarily).
His works such as the collection of poems including "Aboltabol"
"HaJaBaRaLa", short story collection "Pagla Dashu" and play
"Chalachittachanchari" are considered great masterpieces equal in
stature to Alice in Wonderland, and are regarded as some of the greatest
treasures of Bangla literature. More than 80 years after his death, Ray remains
one of the most popular of children's writers in both West Bengal and
Bangladesh.
Above
Picture: Sukumar Ray
Deep
within the roots of Ray family, each generation carried their love for children
through their work and along carried the glimpse of it through the children’s
magazine “Sandesh” which was periodically published.
I got introduced to Ray’s iconic sleuth Feluda through
the pages of Sandesh magazine and Feluda is a part of my household today
through Satyajit-Sandip Ray’s cinematography and through the pages of Anadamela
Pujabarshiki.
Ray
was meticulous in his documentation and he wrote copiously for children. From
1972, Ray started putting the date when he started a new story and also marked
the date when he would complete the story. A short story would be completed in
anything from two to five days. A novella would take as little as three days
and a full-length novel would need six days of writing or at most about
thirty-three days.
The
Feluda stories first
showed up on celluloid with “Sonar Kella” made in 1974. Ray wrote the sixth
adventure of Feluda in 1971. The film was set against the
backdrop of the fort in the city of Jaisalmer that was built in the twelfth
century. Feluda chases the two villains who have abducted a young child who
recalls living in a golden fort in his previous birth. The yellow sandstone
walls of the Jaisalmer fort glow in the light of the setting sun camouflaged in
the yellow desert. What an unforgettable cinematic moment with a strong central
character of a child – “Ray’s another dedication to his young audience”.
The second cinematic adventure of Feluda was Joy Baba Felunath. It was
set in the city of Varanasi. Complete with the shots of the bathing ghats,
sadhus and the serpentine lanes, Benaras seemed like the most logical setting
for the villain Maganlal Meghraj's den. Utpal Dutt’s performance as Maganlal
Meghraj is understated and unforgettable. The moment you see him on screen you
need to hide behind Feluda who is the only one who is staring back at the
villain as he engages in a battle of the mind. What a lovely treat as a film!
Ray’s
legendary work “The Apu Trilogy” (another treat to his young audience) appears
in the Time magazine’s all time 100 greatest films made since 1923. He was
awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke award in 1985 and received the Bharat Ratna and an
honorary Oscar shortly before he passed away on 23rd April 1992. I have been
deeply influenced by his approach to telling stories and his sketches that
accompanied each one of the adventures of Feluda. It’s been long Feluda has
stopped telling us about his adventures and so summer vacations have never been
the same for Bengali young readers.
Above Picture: Sandip Ray
Sandip
Ray also guided the children's magazine Sandesh, which was founded by his
great-grandfather Upendrakishore Ray, and continued by his
grandfather Sukumar Ray and his father Satyajit Ray.
From 1992, after the death of Satyajit, Sandip was the Joint Editor of the Sandesh (magazine).
Sandip
Ray, after his success in making Feluda movies, has recently come up with his
account of time he had with Feluda, the famous Bengali detective created by his father, in
a book named Aami aar Feluda. Sandip's book deals with the background stories
of all Feluda Movies and Telefilms. Aami aar Feluda is ghostwritten by author
Sebabrata Banerjee. Sebabrata has tried to follow the smart and fluent style of
writing introduced by Satyajit Ray that has made the new Feluda number a good
reading experience. Currently he is busy in making film on 'Tarini Khuro’,
which is also an interesting character among children created by Satyajit ray
besides Feluda and Prof. Shanku.
Ray
created characters for children that will remain etched in everyone’s memory.
And did I mention what a prolific illustrator
Satyajit Ray was! Ray mastered his own unique style that we have come to love.
As a youngster Ray learnt painting and graphic art for two years and five
months at the Tagore University in Shantiniketan. He learnt to wield his brush
with amazing dexterity.
He illustrated his book covers, film posters,
children’s books, billboards, publicity material and even the title cards.
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Write-up credit: Most of the information is taken from wiki and google references
Picture credit: Images taken from google
Sketch credit: Last sketch is purely a work of Chondryma and no content copying is allowed without permission
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