Close-up of a genius at work
Devinder Bir Kaur

Portrait of a Director Satyajit Ray
by Marie Seton. Penguin Books, India Pages 376. Rs 495

SATYAJIT RAY. India's first filmmaker to get international recognition as a master of the medium. He is regarded as one of the world's finest directors of all time. But the fact remains that as Ray made films in the Bengali language (with one or two exceptions), his appreciation is also limited to east India. As far as the rest of the country is concerned, more Indians have read about his works than have actually been able to see his films. Portrait of a Director, in this respect, can be rated as the most detailed and incisive study of Satyajit Ray's work. It is the only book which puts Ray in a historical context. It does not just help one to know the man, his films and his style of working, but also puts the focus on the Bengali film industry of that time. However, one drawback remains. The book, a result of the author Marie Seton's two-decade association with Ray, was first published in 1971, but between 1978 (when the book was last revised) to 1991 (Ray died in 1992), he had made nine films. These films the author was not able to comment on. Indrani Majumdar, who was researching and writing on Ray's films for over two decades, was asked to bring Ray's filmmaking up to date. However, the flavour of Marie's style gets lost in the added chapters.

Marie Seton first met Satyajit Ray in 1955 when Pather Panchali was released to international acclaim and fame. She watched his work on his subsequent films down the years and knew his family intimately right from Ray's mother, uncle, wife and son down to his associates. Consequently, she has been able to produce authentic and accurate details of his family background and atmosphere in which he grew up. Besides giving the entire family history of Manik, as Ray was also called, she has described the countless episodes that influenced him and sowed in him the seeds of becoming a director with a difference. In fact, Ray was barely six when he declared, "I'll go to Germany and come back and make films." However, when he finally began work on his first film Pather Panchali, he was in his 30s. And a whole chapter alone describes the countless difficulties he faced first in finding a financer and then during the making and release of the film. But for his persistence, Pather Panchali would never have been made. Even the central character Apu was found after a prolonged search. When the schools of Calcutta and ads in newspapers failed to give Ray a suitable boy, his wife Bijoya discovered the moppet playing on the roof of the next house.

The author then goes on to give undiluted details of Ray's sequel films, Aparajito and Apur Sansar. She not only narrates the stories of these films but also gives the entire dialogues between Apu and other characters. She writes with enthusiasm about the success of the Pather Panchali trilogy abroad.

After the trilogy are chapters describing Ray's zamindar films — Jalsaghar, Devi and Monihara — which showed that his discernment was no less sharp when he examined the neuroses of riches and the psychological pitfalls attending upon those trapped within endless leisure.

Ray's fascination for Tagore’s works led him on to make Teen Kanya, (which included The Postmaster, Monihara and Samapti) and Charulata. Ray has himself mentioned elsewhere that Charulata was his favourite film and a complete piece of work in every respect.

The chapter Ray's Own Themes gives the details of the making of films on his own original stories Kanchenjunga, Nayak and The Alien. The complete sequences of the Waheeda Rehman-starrer Abhijan the author has presented leave nothing to the imagination. In fact, the author has exhaustively given the entire stories of the films with every minute detail, what all went into their making and their box-office rating — so much so that the reader's opinion is also moulded accordingly. Whether the person has seen the film or not, he gets to understand it inside out.

Besides the stories, the author has dwelt quite a lot on the effect of lighting in Ray's films. She has devoted pages on how Ray waited patiently for the right light before he proceeded to can a shot. She was also present during the editing of the films and saw the genius of Ray at work.

An interesting aspect the reader gets to know of is that Ray sketched on paper most of the scenes for his films before shooting them. The book has liberally published several of these. Besides, there are pictures of scenes from all his films and also those of Ray standing in his characteristic pose while directing or contemplating or even sitting at home working on a script.

Another thing that the book brings to the fore is that Ray, right from his first film, was appreciated abroad before the public here warned up to his films. Perhaps, there was some underlying jealousy somewhere. Shatranj Ke Khilari (The Chess Players), made in Hindi, brought to the surface in India all the stray elements that had long resented his reputation and his personal stature. It brought him into confrontation with the Hindi film tycoons in distribution and exhibition. The Bombay moghuls closed ranks and locked their cinema doors against this totally new type of Ray film with dialogue in Hindi and English. Nevertheless, the film won Ray the President of India's gold medal as the best film of the year. And all 'Rayophile' friends of his felt a sense of satisfaction that he lived long enough to receive from his hospital bed an Oscar for Lifetime Achievement.

So many years after Ray's death, one thing can be said for sure. His creations have withstood the most difficult test of all — the test of time.

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