Close encounters with Ray’s fantasy world

Pankaj Kumar Deo

Books on Satyajit Ray in the 21st century are bound to be a throwback to another era— a period in the second half of the last century when watching films was considered an artistic pursuit. Tall, grave and resolutely urbane, Ray was initially a cinephile who later turned into a filmmaker. He evoked awe and admiration among his fans. For, he was the last icon of the Bengal renaissance whose creations — be it a book, a magazine or a film — were awaited with bated breath not only in his native state but also globally.

Films of Satyajit Ray sparked vigorous intellectual debates in the smoky coffee houses and other hangouts of Kolkata. People passionately argued for hours on what a certain scene in a Ray film actually meant or whether an actor did justice to a particular role. One such question that once raged in the intellectual circles those days was why Ray chose Uttam Kumar in the main role for Nayak. Ray had been casting Soumitra Chatterjee with such regularity that such a question was bound to come up.  Another such question related to the controversy whether Spielberg’s ET was inspired by Ray’s story of The Alien or did the Hollywood director plagiarise it outright?

Often a literary masterpiece is made into a movie. Rarely has ever a cinematic masterpiece been turned into a novel. Obviously, Bhaskar Chattopadhyay, the author who novelised Ray’s film Nayak, had big shoes to fill. The novel Nayak may or may not be up to the expectations of a reader who has seen the film. However, it does succeed in portraying vividly the characters and their emotional upheavals, especially of the central protagonist caught in the duality between his real life and his life as a film star, perceived by others. 

Although the novel is not as gripping as the film, it can be an interesting read during a train journey, for the story treats travel as a metaphor for life. And it contains some real gems when it comes to dialogues. One such example is when the central protagonist, film star Arindam Mukherjee (Uttam Kumar in the film), tells Aditi Sengupta (Sharmila Tagore in the film), the journalist, who interviews him: “Look, Miss Sengupta, we stars are not much different from the ones in the sky — twinkling and glowing brightly in the dark firmament, giving people down below joy and hope. But, it is best to watch from a distance. The closer you try to get, the more uncomfortable it becomes.” Sandip Ray’s foreword to the book reveals one of the well-kept secrets — the train in Nayak, like the ship in the Titanic, never moved, for the film was shot on a set and not on a train.  

Nayak, made in 1966, traces the life of a matinee idol — the ebb and flow of emotions he undergoes during a 24-hour train journey from Kolkata to Delhi — reflected through flashbacks, interviews and Ray's subtle narrativisation, in cinematic terms, of how stardom exacts its price from an actor. It was made from an original script written by Ray himself. Ray chose Uttam Kumar over Soumitra Chatterjee to play the role perhaps because Kumar was indeed a star or Nayak in his real life as far as Bengali cinema was concerned. Ray attempted to reveal the life of a film star, to explore the nuanced perceptions of his fans, and to make a film on a 24-hour train journey, thus maintaining the unity of time as enunciated by Aristotle. Chattopadhyay’s novel, too, succeeds to a large extent in achieving these three objectives. 

Perhaps a defining moment in Ray’s life came when he decided to make a film in Hollywood on something he loved most—science fiction. And the controversy does not seem to die down even today whether Ray’s script for The Alien pawned Steven Spielberg’s much acclaimed film E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial. The story of Ray’s attempt to make The Alien, the movie that never saw the light of the day, comes alive now in the form of a book. 

Travails with the Alien: The Film That Was Never Made and Other Adventures with Science Fiction, as the title of the book suggests, offers a glimpse into the trials and tribulations that Ray went through as an Indian filmmaker making a foray into Hollywood to make a sci-fi film The Alien, his relationship with his international colleagues and their perception of him. For those looking for memorabilia, the book has a cornucopia of images of the filmmaker himself, his script of the film, letters he wrote and received, and even the sketches he made for The Alien, a film he could never make. It is an enlightening page-turner and a must-read for sci-fi lovers who want to know about Ray’s contribution to this genre and his place in the history of World cinema. The book brings forth several unknown aspects of the auteur’s life in filmmaking, one that involves renowned sci-fi writer Arthur C Clarke, Hollywood celebrities Peter Sellers, Marlon Brando and Columbia Pictures. 

Overall, the book is indeed a collector’s item and presents both the aura and era of arguably one of the world’s best filmmakers. The book is a treasure trove of Ray memorabilia and offers rare insights into the life of alegendwho as an auteur masteredevery aspect of his filmmaking.