The sixtieth anniversary of the release of ‘Mahanagar’ (The Metropolis) was observed in 2023. This film, directed by Satyajit Ray was released on 27th September, 1963. It starred Madhabi Mukherjee in the lead role and marked the debut of a very young Jaya Bhaduri (later Bachchan). It portrays the quintessential Calcutta of the 1950s, where modernism is at clash with traditional values. A grudgingly supportive husband, a wife who takes on the job of a saleswoman and befriends an Anglo-Indian colleague, was certainly a novel concept in those times. The digitally restored version with English subtitles was shown on Indian screens at multiplexes after having been screened in numerous festivals and museums worldwide in 2023. As the credits roll, the opening shots of the tram sets the mood, which is all the more nostalgic because the iconic tram is facing extinction in present Kolkata. This was the first of Madhabi Mukherjee’s films with Ray, the other two being ‘Charulata’, adapted from Tagore’s novella ‘Noshto Neer’ (The Broken Nest) in 1964 and ‘Kapurush’ (The Coward) in 1965. ‘Mahanagar’ went on to win the Silver Bear for Best Direction at the Berlin Film Festival in 1964. ‘Charulata’, which is considered as one of the most coveted masterpieces of Ray, went on to win the Golden Bear for the Best Film and yet again the Silver Bear for the Best Director at the Berlin Film Festival in 1965. But these were not among the first films of Ray.
The first film of Ray was ‘Pather Panchali’ (The Song of the Road), released on 26th August, 1955, based on the eponymous novel by the famous Bengali writer Bibhuti Bhushan Bandyopadhyay. The making of this film is a history in itself. With no Producer, an assembled cast and crew, Ray only had a small note-book, filled with sketches, dialogues and the treatment. This script along with another sketchbook that illustrated the key dramatic moments of the film were later donated by Ray to the Cinémathèque Française, Paris. At that moment he was an employee at D.J. Keymar, with a wife, child and an aged mother to support but that didn’t stop him from spending his investments, pawning off his wife’s jewellery to fund the film which took nearly five years to complete, lastly at the help extended by the Chief Minister Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy. At this period, neo-realism in films like ‘Do Bigha Zamin’ by Bimal Roy and ‘Roshoman’ by Kurosawa inspired him greatly and almost all the scenes were shot on location, depending on the vagaries of nature. The shooting was to be done on Sundays due to his job at Keymer. He set out to take the first shot on 27 October 1952. The scene was that of the simple joy of little Apu and his sister Durga (who come from a highly impoverished family) on seeing a passing train, while running through a field of Kaash flowers in a godforsaken village of Bengal. The following Sunday when they returned to shoot, to their horror they discovered that the Kaash flowers had been feasted upon by a herd of cattle. He had to wait for the next season of flowers to complete the scene, because these bushy white flowers bloom only in autumn, just before the Durga Pujas. But the film was completed at last and took its place among the greats of world cinema. It went to the Cannes Film Festival with Nehru’s personal approval and went on to be named as the Best Human Document at the festival. Among numerous other awards, it was named the Best Feature Film and Best Bengali Feature Film at the 3rd National Film Awards in 1955. As a novel, ‘Pather Panchali’ (1929), was a classic example of a Bildungsroman (a coming of age story) and the film by Ray lived up to the promise. But Ray did not leave the bleak journey of Apu incomplete. He directed a trilogy, the other two being ‘Aparajito’ (The Unvanquished; 1956) and ‘Apur Sansar’ (The World of Apu; 1959). The third film of the trilogy i.e. ‘Apur Sansar’ was remarkable in other ways too. It introduced two of the greatest stars of Indian cinema, Soumitra Chatterjee and Sharmila Tagore. Though Sharmila starred in several other films of Ray like ‘Devi’ (1960), ‘Nayak’ (1966), ‘Aranyer Din Ratri’ (1969), ‘Seemabadaddha‘(1971), it was Chatterjee who became his true protégé and starred in fourteen films by Ray. Famous as Ray was for his eye for detail, he made an exception with ‘Nayak’ (The Hero) though. The story goes that when his favourite Soumitra asked his Manik Da (the nickname of Ray) why he was not being considered for such a major role, Ray’s simple answer was, “You’re not Uttam Kumar”. In the mid-sixties, Uttam Kumar was the ultimate dream hero Bengali cinema ever had and Ray utilised his screen presence and charisma to create a tormented matinee idol whose fame had emerged as his greatest antagonist. It was the second film with an entirely original screenplay by Ray himself, after ‘Kanchenjungha’ (1962). The film was a resounding box-office success, besides being feted at international festivals.
By this time, Ray was creating his own music, posters for his films and had even emerged as a prominent writer of children’s fiction with Feluda the detective and Professor Shanku the scientist. He was even extensively writing short stories with a psychological insight and sometimes macabre twists which he could not portray in his films. He continued his work as a graphic designer and calligrapher, designing book covers of his own and others, creating all publicity material for his films and experimenting with Bengali graphemes. In 1961, he revived the children’s magazine ‘Sandesh’, which was founded by his grandfather Upendra Kishore Raychowdhury through his publishing house M/S U. Ray and Sons in 1913, his father Sukumar Ray, the famous Bengali writer, being one of the prominent partners. Many of Satyajit Ray’s famous fictional characters like Feluda and Professor Shanku were introduced through the pages of ‘Sandesh’. The children of the 1960s and 1970s generation, used to wait with bated breath for the illustrated copies of ‘Sandesh’ or other magazines and later books, wherever Ray’s stories were published. Some of the literary characters found their way into his films as well. The characters Goopy Gyne and Bagha Byne, created by his grandfather, was given celluloid shapes in fantasy adventure comedy films like ‘Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne’ (1969), ‘Hirak Rajar Deshe’(Kingdom of Diamonds; 1980), both directed and written by Ray himself, along with the composition of the musical score. The third among the sequels ‘Goopy Bagha Phire Elo’ (The Return of Goopy and Bagha; 1992), though written by Ray himself, was directed by his son Sandip Ray. Feluda, the sleuth, was characterised by Soumitra Chatterjee in the films ‘Sonar Kella’ (The Golden Fortress; 1974) and ‘Jai Baba Felunath’ (The Elephant God; 1979). It was around this time that he was also making ‘Shatranj ke Khiladi’ (The Chess Players; 1977), in Hindi, based on a novel by Munshi Premchand, on the annexation of the kingdom of Oudh during the reign of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah. Besides a casting coup of mainstream Hindi, Bengali and British actors, the surprising eye for detail worked once more when he decided to cast Amjad Khan, the ferocious villain Gabbar Singh of the recent Hindi blockbuster ‘Sholay’ (1975) in the role of the reticent Nawab who becomes a pawn in the hands of British imperialists. Similarly surprising was the fact that Amitabh Bachchan, the reigning superstar of Hindi films was chosen not to act, but give his voiceover in his unmistakable baritone. Needless to say, the film received rave reviews, though was not so much of a commercial success.
Satyajit Ray emerged as one of the greatest and most versatile personalities of his times, the Manik (gem) from Bengal, who shone brilliantly on the international stage. He was awarded the Legion d’honneur by the French President François Mitterand in 1987, when he happened to come down to Kolkata to present the award to Ray in person, on the steps of the National Library. Besides numerous international awards that he received throughout the span of his decades of work, he was respected and honoured by the Indian government as well. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1965, the highest honour in Indian cinema the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1985 and the highest civilian honour the Bharat Ratna just before his death in 1992. On his deathbed in a Kolkata nursing home in 1992, he was awarded the honourary Oscar, the only Indian to have done so, at the 64th Academy Awards. While the award was being announced at Los Angeles by the legendary actress Audrey Hepburn, it was a haunting picture of the great man clutching the golden trophy in his hand and giving the acceptance speech on video, his baritone halting and broken. He passed away merely twenty-three days after that. Lights, Camera, Action would never be the same again without Manik Da and his different takes or rather his strokes. [Write-up: Purba Chatterjee]