Is Ray relevant today?

DEFINING A star, Satyajit Ray wrote, "A star is a person on the screen who continues to be expressive and interesting even after he or she has stopped doing anything...". He cited one example, that of Dhritiman Chatterji in the film, "Pratidwandi."

It was now the turn of that 'star', who took centrestage, though decades later, and spoke at length about one of the masters of World Cinema.

"Ray Today" was the title of the event that was organised FIPRESCI (Federation Internationale de la Presse Cinematographique) at the British Council. The moderator of the evening was Gowri Ramnarayan, FIPRESCI's representative in South India.

Do Satyajit Ray's film retain any contemporary relevance at all? Well, that was the question that triggered a discussion that was interspersed with film clippings ("Pather Panchali", "Charulatha" and "Pratidwandi") and excerpts from interview done by Chatterji himself.

The actor spoke on various aspects of Ray's (Chatterji pronounces it as Rai) films... the themes, content, music and socio- political background of the Bengal of Ray. Of course, two hours was not enough to cover the life and works of one of the masters of World Cinema.

Over the years, critics have pooh-poohed Ray's later films ("Ghanashatru" onwards) for not being technically up to the mark, and many even felt he was beginning to sound didactic.

Reacting to that, Chatterji, who has acted in a couple of Ray films, opined that there could be two reasons: his failing health (an ambulance with a doctor on call was always present on the sets), and perhaps, the fallout with Subrato Mitra, that ace cinematographer, and art director Bansi Chandragupta.

When asked if Ray was a dictator on the sets or a team man, the actor replied, "To begin with, Ray was a man of few words. It was a bit disconcerting at times. I remember while working in "Pratidwandi", I did my own thing. Then one day I asked if what I was doing was right. All he said was "If it's not right, I'll let you know!" Actually, he had great management skills. If he had not been a film maker, he would have been the managing director of Hindustan Lever!"

Ray, like Akira Kurosawa, wanted to make films for a larger audience, especially a Bengali audience.

"He was sympathetic towards people who believed in the narrative system. He worked with the mainstream format but tried to be different." he continued, "You see, Bengali cinema was wedded to a literary idiom. 'Pather Panchali' gave Ray an opportunity to move away from that idiom."

In other words he resorted to a cinematic idiom, where visuals told the story. Another aspect that added to the greatness of his cinema was "the complexity of texture. There were many layers to his films."

As for the contemporary relevance of Ray, Chatterji gave the example of "Shakha Proshakha", an outline for which was written many years ago. When Ray finally decided to make the film, he replaced the issue of Vietnam with that of corruption, as he felt that affected everybody and was a more contemporary theme. In an interview to Chatterji, Ray said, "I want to make statements on what's going on." Ray did see himself as a contemporary film maker.

As for Ray's relevance today, Chatterji rightly put it, "It is for the younger generation to watch his films and decide for themselves."

SAVITHA GAUTAM

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Section  : Entertainment