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Remembering the Ray

Satyajit’s celluloid tale

Published : Thursday, 20 April, 2017 at 12:00 AM  Count : 304
Nazmun Naher Shishir
Cover Story
Goopy Gyne and Bagha Byne enchanted my 1996's days as soon my father brought a giant television set after his return from the UN mission along with a VCR set. Amloki and Hortuki dweller's exile made their day dreams come true and their clapping-magic make me feel so empowered that I wanted to be exiled one day after grown up!
After some months, Apu took over the magic fever. And soon after I am fifteen, I started loving Uttam Kumar in Nayak and started cursing Amal for not admiring Charu enough. This is how my days were filled with Satyajit Ray's world. It reminds me Akira Kurosawa's words about Ray, "Not to have seen the cinema of Ray means existing in the world without seeing the sun or the moon."
To tribute Ray in his 25th death anniversary, April 23, 2017, five of his best celluloid tales are here to enrich your watch list. Though Ray is someone, none can list him in five. Even if you know every bit of his endeavours, you would feel 'yet to know...'
Pather Panchali (1955)
Pather Panchali, a debut film of Satyajit Ray, is eloquent and cinematic in visuals and its voice has given Bangla cinema a worldwide recognition. To depict rural Bengali life Ray was inspired by Italian neo-realism. This poetic but naturalistic portrayal of a family and a certain time frame of their life enchanted me. And the characters like Apu and Durga and their relationship made me feel twice about my bonding with my younger. I started discovering my surroundings in a quiet different way. I never knew a celluloid capture can be such realistic and so simple that it seemed a next-door life. You will be able to relate your family with Apu's. He and his free-spirited sister Durga would show you your mischief-managed childhood. And Sarbajaya as mother is universal who is equally loving and hard at them in their mischief. Not only that, when Apu's father was away it's Sarbajaya who hold the family together with utmost sensibility. The perpetual discovery of Apu is splendidly presented and thus Pather Panchali won an award for Best Human Document at Cannes in 1956.
This film, along with Aparajito (1956), and Apur Sansar (The World of Apu) (1959) form The Apu Trilogy.

Agantuk (1991)
Ray's last mark in the world of cinema is Agantuk, based on one of his short stories, 'Atithi' (The Guest). The central conflict of the film revolves around 'identity crisis' of a man and a family's struggle to accept or reject it. Through a letter Anila came to know about the man who claims to be her long lost uncle. Sudhindra, her husband is suspicious about the incident. The man claiming to be Manomohan Mitra, an anthropologist stays with the family after his sudden arrival. This mystery character who has travelled all over the world and claims the property of the family made me equally curious about his life.
The quest of belief and disbelief lead viewers to the same suspicious journey, the family was going through in the cinema.

Aranyer Din Ratri (1970)
The most interesting fact of this adventurous film is it has adapted literary technique of the carnivalesque. Above all, the story of friendship and bonding unfold the dimension of the relationship of people who are different from each other yet bonded together deeply. Their social stages are different for instance Asim, the elite handsome hunk; Sanjay, a literary enthusiast but works as labour executive; Hari, a straightforward cricketer wants to forget his baggage of relationship; and Shekhar, the jobless comic-man. The four friends urge to escape the society and daily humdrum of urban life. Their will powers were strengthened to step out of the land of tribes.
Often I escape with Asim, Sanjay, Hari and Shekhar though this film from the perpetual life of mine and often take a little relief imagining I am one of them. If you have not watched the film yet, my urge to you, watch the film and rejoice your escape-woods.  

Mahanagar (1963)
Mahanagar, set in Calcutta during 1950s, not only makes me wish to visit the magical city but also inspired to become an independent woman at my early age. The story is centred on an independent middle-class woman, Arati Mazumdar, played by the elegent Madhabi Mukherjee, who takes her first job to deduce financial pressure of the family.
Her decision was purely a financial one and not at all driven by the idea of emancipation. By opposing her both families she walk into this road as her husband's income was not enough for the family. Here in the story, a door to door saleswoman's job taken by a home maker woman unfolded the patriarchal dimensions of the men's world through her husband Subrata--- jobless, suspicious, insecure and egoistic man. It shows when a woman is psychologically and financially independent she steps into a more difficult world created by not only the outsiders but by the family members.

Charulata (1964)
Madhabi Mukherjee all over again snatched my heart with her flawless gesture in Charulata as Charu. The film tells a tale of a wife, leading a wealthy secured and idle life, who is residing in Calcutta. Her husband, Bhupati, runs a newspaper and spends more time at work leaving her wife at home alone. However, his love for Charu makes him realise her loneliness and hence he asks his cousin Amal, portrayed by charming Soumitra Chatterjee, to accompany her. Thus Amal, a writer, enters into the house and his bonding with Charu increases with the thread of their writing adventures.
Eventually, Charu and Amal's feelings for each other cross the boundary of friendship however, Amal restricts his desire. Charu's childish demand for every second's attention from Amal and her jealousy regarding him used to make me feel her lonesome life of a housewife who is all wealthy but lonely.   
Satyajit Ray, the prolific film maker, made my childhood and adolescent more colourful by his black and white films. His films not only enlightened me with nature, cities, adventures, societies but also driven me to perceive the life to the lees. He received a lifetime achievement Oscar shortly before his death in 1992 which makes me proud to be a Bangalee.











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