Two anecdotes on Ray
These are two anecdotes on Satyajit Ray.
Professor Subodh Chandra Sengupta was a famous professor of English literature of Calcutta’s hallowed institution , the Presidency College. From his autobiography “Te hi no dibasa gota” in Bangla I got this gem. One evening, in the early 1950’s Professor Sengupta was taking a walk in Maidan, Calcutta’s lungs. He met his “Lomba chatro” ( meaning ‘Tall student’ in Bangla ). The ‘Tall student’ said that after learning art from Nandalal Bose of Santiniketan, he was working as an illustrator in D.J.Keimer & Co, an ad agency. Professor Sengupta was visibly upset because he knew his ‘Tall student’ was excellent in English and got highest marks in English in Calcuuta University Intermediate in Science exam. His professedly instinct was that this ‘Tall student’ would have made more contribution to field of English education if joined a college or university. He particularly harbored a secret wish to tutor this ‘Tall student’ to that goal. But alas! This would not happen, because this favourite ‘Tall student’ of his has joined an advertisement firm, which in his opinion was simple waste of a talent. He was a very well-respected professor of English that time and he thought he sampled enough students in life so that his predictions will never prove wrong.
Within a year or two Prof Sengupta was amused and delighted to find himself wrong in at least one of his predictions about the future of his students. In 1956 this ‘Tall student’ of his made a movie called ‘Pather Panchali’ . Shall I have to tell the name of the ‘Tall student’ to cine buffs?
The second story is also about Ray. Not a story…a true event. All of us know by know that Ray had a great eye for details. The dresses, the furnitures of period pieces, the make-up of characters were pursued to the minutest detail making his movies almost flawless with regard to details. Be it Charulata or Ghare Baire or Nayak, the details never missed his eyes. The movie goers used to be baffled too like my grandfather. Dr.Murari Mohan Mukherji, a pioneer in Plastic Surgery in India happened to be my maternal grandfather. I heard this from him. Even in his heydays he used to catch up movies in Calcutta cinema halls during night shows. Most of the times family would accompany him and you have to remember those days there were no mobiles. Being a busy and responsible surgeon he would give the phone number of the cinema hall to the hospital so that in emergency the hospital can call the hall manager. Many a times movie goers in Basusree or Purna or Bijolee or Metro would be annoyed to see a sudden message flashing on silver screen (between the reels) calling a Dr. Murari Mukherji to go to SSKM Hospital since his patient was serious.
Anyway let me not deviate from Ray. Once my grandfather went to see ‘Ashani Sonket’ made by Ray. “Ashani Sonket” or “The distant thunder”, starring Soumitra Chatterji was made after the eponymous novel by Bibhuti Bushan Bandyopadhyay written on the backdrop of Bengal famine during World War II. Ashani Sonket had a character caller ‘Pora Jodu’ (meaning the burnt faced ‘Jodu’….this villainous character raped a young lady in the film by luring her with promise of food in the time of famine). The burnt and scarred face of ‘Pora Jodu’ attracted my grandfather’s attention. Unlike others he was not despising the man. Rather, being a plastic surgeon he thought of doing a cosmetic surgery on this man. After coming back from the hall, he called Soumitra Chatterjee ( he had acquaintances in Tollygunge film industry and few of the heroes and heroines of that time went under his scalpel ). He inquired about the address and status of this ‘Pora Jodu’ with Soumitra Chaterjee and expressed his wish to rectify the scarred face of ‘Pora Jodu’ by surgery. Soumitra Chatterjee started to laugh and cleared my grandpa’s confusion by saying “ Daktar babu, that was not burns you saw; this is the Ray effect. This character ‘Pora Jodu’ is a result of make-up. Manikda has great eye for details and told his make-up man to make his scarred face a realistic one. Don’t worry; he doesn’t need your surgical intervention.” Knowing this my grandfather was relieved.
These are the two anecdotes I share about Ray. If you want more I have another in store.
Tags: Bengali, Memories, satyajit ray
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Really nice article
…Could do with more such stories :D
Biswa Prasun, This was simply wonderful. Thank you. Please give us more….
Thank you Nivedita. I will definitely write another on Ray. I have some stories on Uttam Kumar, Ghatak too. Will anybody read if I dwell on past ?
Anyway I liked your posts on Rajnartaki, Raichand Boral. I appreciate your efforts to digitize very old movies. Please keep us posted more regularly on this project. Not all old things are to be thrown away.Next time I will try to find something on Kamal Dasgupta from Calcutta.
Do you possess Sadhana Bose’s Alibaba ?
Yes, please write more on Ray, Ghatak, Uttam Kumar… I am sure there is a big audience for that. I eagerly look forward to more anecdotes from you. Do you have any on P.C.Barua/any of the New Theatres people?
And thanks for looking up any material about Kamal Dasgupta next time you are in Calcutta. No, I don’t have Sadhona Bose’s Alibaba (1937).(I think it was made only in Bengali; maybe you will find it– atleast the songs– in Calcutta? If you find it, please let me know.)
Yes I have one on P C Barua. I will write it sometime.
I don’t have Alibaba but I have an audio cassette of the play having songs sung by others.
Biswa- that was lovely indeed.you seem to have a bank of such riches ( anecdotes ).do keep them coming.ah!Basushree,Purna,Metro,Bijolee….I’m missing Cal now !!!
Sethu : I was apprehending that nobody will read my recollections. But you care about the past. That’s why I am encouraged to write another article on Ray.
Wonderful piece, now waiting for your next Ray anecdote
Thanks. I will try to write them and post one by one.
Biswa, I think my uncle and your grandpa were colleagues in SSKM, my uncle was a plastic surgeon too, later migrated to Australia – Abheek Ranjan Majumdar.
Indraneel, If Dr.Majumdar worked between 1953-1988 in SSKM, then he must have been Dr.Mukherji’s colleague.Good to find a connection here. Thanks.
Nice anecdotes.
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To all those interested in Satyajit Ray (and who isn’t?), would suggest two books by him.
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1. “Our films, their films” (Orient)
2. “Speaking of Films” (Penguin)
Both these books have collections of very interesting articles by Mr. Ray, feels like he’s talking to you or narrating a wonderful story (wonderfully). No.2 is a translation of a book (Bisay Chalchitra) of his bangla articles.
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Can anyone tell me which of Mr. RAY’S films are available on DVD with subtitles..have never come across any here in Patiala (Punjab) where i live. Is PIKOO available?
rolf: All the full length feature films are available in subtitled DVD in pack of 3 movies ( Eagle DVD) or Solo (BIG Home Videos and Shradhha).
Pikoo is not released as a DVD so far, to the best of my knowledge.
Rolf : Andrew Robinson’s Inner eye and Marie Seaton’s Portrait of a director are 2 good books on Ray. Sadly, Marie Seaton’s book is out of print. Penguin India published collector’s edition few years ago. Even that is out of print. I have got a photocopy from IIT Bombay library where I am finishing my Ph.D in Biotech.
As mentioned by UH Ray DVD are available from Eagle or Big Home video films. These are digitally remastered copies by Merchant-Ivory productions.
Is Ray’s 1961 documentary film on Tagore available? Do you know? I have been searching for it for years.
I remember seeing the documentary twice on Doordarshan. Calcutta Doordarshan station may have the original reels.I don’t know.
He made other documentaries like ‘Two’, ‘The Inner Eye ( on life and works of the blind painter and his teacher of Santiniketan, Binode Behari Mukherji)and ‘Sikkim’. God knows where are they ? I have never seen them.
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Thanks Biswa. Have read Andrew Robinson’s book, been searching for Marie Seaton’s book for some time, but havent found so far.
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Thanks uh.
Biswa babu, Khoob Bhaalo!! Thanks for this amazing POST!!
Lovely article …
Had a query … Quite a few years back , Shaw Wallace had come with a calender which had black and white stills of Satyajit Ray films’ shoots. Any one has any clue if the pics are available as scans online ?
Biswa..
It’s so nice to read about such unknown facts about legends like Satyajit Ray..
Thank you for the effort, keep them coming..
Rahul
Biswa,
You seem to have a great lineage too !
I have probably mentioned this earlier, your narrations are very special and leaves the readers with a great aftertaste.
So, please stop being modest and write more regularly
Cheers!
Thanks UH. OK…I will try to write more. and regularly….
Boss..really a nice write-up..It’s really nice to hear about great man satyajit ray after a long time…Please write something about ritwik ghatak also..Actually..i was sick of reading articles about ‘Love Aaj Kal’..this is really refreshing one..do write something more about ray,ghatak and mrinal sen..we should not forget their contribution to indian cinema…
Thanks Girish. I will keep on writing about the past. I know many stories and it is good to see passion for cinema has so many interested persons.