In a Cinematic Interstellar

A vision unlike any and a craft executed to perfection, Satyajit Ray transformed Indian cinema with his camera. Today marks the birth anniversary of the legendary figure.

Satyajit Ray. Illustrated by Dishani Goswami: Visual Storyteller at ThisDay

Cinema, a word that can unite thousands of people in one go. In a place such as India whose different film industries are integral to its culture, cinema is nothing less than a religion in our country. As the legacy of Indian cinema continues further ahead, there was a time when a man from the land of Bengal put Indian pictures on the global map. It was the start of a new era, a rise of a phenomenon. The phenomenon was called Satyajit Ray.

As Ray has been a much-discussed man, it cannot be denied that the man’s name has become something symbolic to Indian cinema and literature. From common readers to academic scholars, everyone has done their necessary dissection on his films, books, etc. Till today his birth anniversary, 2nd May 1921, is celebrated in honour of his works and as evident, hot debates to musical praises, all continue revolving around him. Despite dying in the previous century, Ray is recalled time and again and stays in relevance to date.

It was probably with films like the Apu trilogy, Jalsha Ghar that the legend established himself as one of the path-breaking film-makers ever born, one who will not only change the course of Indian film-making but also have a global impact. With equal inventiveness in literature, he created one of the most well-known sleuths in Bengali fiction, Feluda.

Credits to him that an entire generation of readers would be born who will grow up with his stories, and characters like Professor Shonku, Feluda, Topshe, Jotayu, Tarini Khuro, etc will become immortalized in the city’s cultural landscape.

Hailing from a background that was already well known in the literary circles of Calcutta, Ray was going to be no different. Grandfather Upendrakishore Ray and father Sukumar Ray were already well-established figures. All eyes were on the grandson. Thus, bags were packed and off he was sent to Visva-Bharati for higher education. There he met Nandalal Bose and Benode Behari Mukherjee who became integral in his formative years. Later he would go to London and watch Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves which would inspire him in a major way. The French Director Jean Renoir was also a source of inspiration for him having worked with him closely. Ray’s life and works have been a tribute to such notable persons.

Films such as Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne, Charulata, Devi, Aranyer Din Ratri, Sonar Kella, Teen Kanya, Ghare-Baire are some of the few that Ray is most known by. Working with actors like Soumitra Chatterjee, Sharmila Tagore, he crafted a space that represented Indian cinema in its totality.

As talks about his film spread far and wide, honours and awards stood in the queue for him. The legend won a mind-numbing 32 national awards, a Padma Bhushan and a posthumous Bharat Ratna. Apart from many foreign awards, the highlight of his life was receiving the Legion of Honour from the president of France and an honorary Academy Award just a few days before his death.

What Tagore was to literature, Satyajit Ray was to cinema. One of the greatest Bengali ever born, Ray passed away on 23rd April 1992. Living for seven decades, his life was nothing less than a saga. A chain-smoker, a collector of antiques and paintings, and a meticulous and dedicated person to his craft, he was the sort of person whose spirit will live on even if the entirety of human civilization is wiped away. Hence, as the years pass by, Satyajit Ray, the filmmaker, the writer, the calligrapher, the designer lives on in spirit and memory.

The cinematic genius at work; Source: Dailyo; Public Domain