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HAILED BY MANY AT HOME AND ABROAD AS INDIA'S RENAISSANCE MAN

A DAY WITH SATYAJIT RAY

by Dheera Sujan Special to the Star
**Over the years, Ray's vision has become darker, more despairing ... and his films, always striving for truth, have changed too, like Calcutta, the city he lives in.
e has been hailed as Indias twentieth
, centurv Renaissance man. Him director, artist, writer, musician, children's Illustrator. Satyajit Ray doesn't Just dabble In these fields, he excels in each of them. He's inherited the mantle of the intellectual aristocracy of Bengal, and he Wears It nobly. Both his father and his grandfather were renowned artists and writer Rabindranath Tagore was a family friend. Ray himself, through his films, has Introduced the culture, language, and sometimes the literature of his beloved state to the world.
If one knows his background. or is familiar with his work, its hard not to feel overawed by the prospect of actually meet-) ing him in person. But the tall, slightly frail looking man has an easy laugh and a gently manner which puls one at ease without encouraging undue familiarity.
This is the manner with which he directs his actors—both professional and non-professional. He treats everyone as his equal—from the youngest child actor to the villagers he often uses In smaller roles. He has a reputation of always listening to everyone who approaches him. He guides rather than commands; illustrates what they should be feeling rather than tells them how to show II. Yet his control over every last details of the film is com-Cte. He picks or writes own stories, does his own casting and designs, directs the camera work and the editing, and even selects the materials to be used for costumes. His actors say he could also easily fcl in his films if he wanted—he has the ability—but Ray is quite a shy man. and prefers the role of auteur to actor.
A heart attack followed by a couple of major heart operations has slowed him down a bit. and placed a few restrictions on his out-doors activities, but his son Sandeep acts as his second pair of legs, and Satyajit Ray is still very much In the driver s seal.
He lives in a crumbling old house in the old city which he refuses lo leave. The sounds of Calcutta — incessant traffic noises, the calls of peanut sellers, and the cries from neighbouring apartments — drift in through the large open windows of the front room cum study which is crammed with ihe tools of several artistic trades.
Books, books and more books are everywhere, jam nung the huge bookshelves along the walls, on lop of tables, and under them; Bertrand Russel lo Arthur C. Clarke. Bengali magazines, and completed works in old hardback sets. Children s' stories and learned volumes on art, science, films. Not one of them looks new or un touched. Dogeared files full of papers (reminiscent of the musty piles seen in the offices of railway station clerks) lie on every table surface. A huge box of used artists crayons and pencils stand on a side table.
On the piano he used to use while composing his scores, sits a bust of Beethoven, next to some of his film trophies. The plies of cassettes in the corner show an eclectic taste — Indian ragas to Mozart quinters — Ray's knowledge of western art. especially music, is immense.
A film is like a piece of Western classical music in the period of Mozart to Beethoven" he says. "They both have a formal structure and they both have to finish at a particular time — Indian classical music isn't like that at all. It's improvised and free flowing."
Some of his films contain passages and dialogues with three or four voices; listen to a Mozart opera, and you’ll notice a similarity in form. Charulate (1964). the film he regards as his best, is a prime example of this structured musical form.
Perhaps it is this st rue Hire, this formalism, hidden by the superficial coverings of story, dialogue, action, which have made his films so palatable to the educated Western taste.
Film is essentially a Western medium" he says. Ray. who started oft his ca reer as a graphic artist, learnt about films by spending. hours in
darkened cinemas watching and studying the films and the techniques of the early greats like D.W. Griffiths and Eisenslien, and later, Renoir and Ford, Capra and de Sica.
In fact, it was after watching de Sica's Bicycle Thieves, a film that moved him deeply, that Ray re solved to make a film using similar naturalistic tech niques, but set in an Indian framework. The much loved Bengali novel. Pather Panchali. provided him with the perfect material.
Since his earliest films, Ray has had a very strong appeal to the West. In Europe. the USA and Japan, he's revered as a cinematic great, along with names such as Bergman. Kurosawa. and Renoir. Tn Azerbijan. there's a film club named after me—the Satyajit Ray Film Society" he say with a slightly surprised raise of the eyebrows. He's been honoured in just about every international film festival worth its salt.
Critics say the reason for this connection with the West by an artist who remains essentially Indian in the universality of his themes—love, greed, innocence and its inevitable corruption—large themes, yet all drawn by a hand that excels in the miniature.
The camera lingers on a train in the distance connecting the outside world with a forgotten village where the cycle of birth, life and death continue unheeded. A girl, frail of body, but exhuberent of spirit dances in the rain that will be the cause of her death. A young man who's spent his life writing his novel learns it means nothing after the death of his beloved, and hollow-eyed, he offers the pages to the wind ... it was images like these in Ray's great trilogy. The World of Apu that established his reputation, not only as a good craftsman, but also a humanist visionary.
However, over the years, Ray's vision, which began like hfe country's, with such hope for the future, has become darker, more despairing. He started his career in Calcutta, but the Calcutta of today is a vastly changed world, and Ray's films, always striving for truth, have changed too.
Hope has given way to resignation, just as the main character of The Middle Man (1975) gave way to corruption. His film, Deliverance (1981) was a cry of anger against the cruelties inflicted on those on the lowest rung of the caste ladder.
'Our treatment of the untouchables is a blot on our history, and in this film, there was no scope for even a ray of optimism," he says. Deliverance is very bleak, but it speaks the truth."
Ray's refusal to overtly involve himself in politics has sometimes been criticized. especially when Calcutta was almost tom apart by the violence of the 70 s. But the criticism is somewhat unfair. His films, more often than not, have been social comments on a so clety he knows intimately.
In a world increasingly giving way to corruption, both moral and physical. Ray remains essentially optimistic, with few regrets for things left undone. I've has a remarkable good life" he says. Tve managed to do Just about everything I'd set out to do."
Years ago. Ray had wanted to make a film of the great Hindu epic The Mahabharata, but after researching the subject, decided it was unfeasible. Now he knows he’s too old to undertake such a project, but talks of the possibility of adapting a part of the epic for the screen. His doctor has told him that he's at his fittest when shooting, and he delights in saying that he has to keep filming—for medical reasons. So perhaps we ll still have a chance to see the magic combination of Satyajit Ray with one of the greatest stories in the world's history. Ray himself doesn't want to commit himself. "Well see” he laughs, "we ll just wait and see."'
An Indian-born freelance writer and broadcaster, brought up tn Australia. Ms Sujan now works for Radio .Nederland at the Hague. She visited Bangladesh during the movement that led to the overthrow of the Ershad regime. She will be writing occasionally for The Daily Star.