Satyajit Ray & Harindranath Chattopadhyay
Saying that I am a movie junkie is no big deal. In India, everyone is a movie junkie. I like my bollywood, detest those die-hard hollywood lovers and their so not fair comparisons with our movies. Yes, you heard it right, our movies. I am quite sensitive and touche about Indian cinema and that does not include only Hindi cinema. Though that is what I watch more often. Other than hindi another regional language movie which has influenced me very much is, no not bhojpuri! C'mon, yeah I do watch them whenever I feel like getting cheap thrills. :)Its Bengali cinema. If we talk about Bengali cinema there are so many names that sometimes you tend to believe that only Bengal has produced cinematic geniuses. Names like Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Ritwik Ghatak, Aparna Sen, Rituparno Ghosh, Basu Bhattacharjee and the list goes on. If you note I have only mentioned the directors. Yes, because unlike earlier now I think the director is the biggest hero (if the film is well made) and the biggest villain (if its trash).
Here, today I would like to mention that I have not been fortunate enough to go through all the works of these masters. Or for that matter any such master in any Indian language. And of course world cinema, ends for me with Batman or Spiderman or may be an Ironman! Some names are there which I keep using just to sound intellectual and hold the conversation if need be, such as Bergman, Godard, Jena Renoir, Vittorio De Sica (Whose bicycle theif influenced our Satyajit Ray to Anurag Kashyap) etc.
Anyway, So the thought of writing this piece is to write something about one of my favorite film-maker who in my limited knowledge, exposure and opinion is no less than world's best. Mr. Satyajit Ray. Personally, a decade and a half ago I first saw some rushes of his films. I found them boring. They could not hold my attention. Fortunately couple of years ago when I was bored to death and got hold of his collection ( for free obviously) the first movie I chose to watch was "Nayak" (The Hero). Only because of Uttam Kumar, the protagonist was a known face for me. Five minutes in the movie and it was a jolt, a surprise and I was watching a world class executed, edited, acted, directed movie in 1966, with limited means! I was totally blown away with the minimal use of dialogues, sharp editing, use of music, the forward looking story and the way the dilemma has been put into the story.
That movie moved me so much that after that I finished my collection in one go. Apu trilogy, Jalshaghar, Ghare baire, Aagantuk. Then i was in the quest to know more about that man called Ray. That quest led me to the literature by him and about him. Man! Such genius! Such simple and organized thought process but such universal thoughts. Today those stories can be set in any part of the world. I would not go on further analyzing his movies. But I would like to make a few points why I consider him the best and how very few in the world hold equal or greater genius than him.
1. Extremely learned man - He knew maths, science (read his short stories and see the description provided by him), sociology, history, geography and almost everything which exist in a syllabus
2. Understood the subtle role of music - He never gave away too much in terms of music. Perhaps the first Indian director to use Pt. Ravi Shankar for Pather Panchali! He also composed music for his films himself. Giving the tunes the perfect texture, tone and tenderness required in the story!
3. Sense of art/fashion - He himself was a prolific illustrator. He drew each scene of his movie before it was captured in the cinema. That includes costumes, sets, gestures everything. Very few have the patience and time to actually do that.
4. His understanding of camera and photography - Needless to say he was a genius in the era of black and white
5. Shooting on real locations - Pioneered by him
6. Use of kids in his movie - This one is interesting. If you watch any of his movie you would find the way he used kids in his movie is really really ahead of his times. Perhaps such sensitivity and maturity was shown only in the films by Gulzar. They were treated like an adult intrinsic to the movie. They had some very intense and complicated roles too. The kid Apu? or for that matter the kid in Aagantuk and many such examples
I guess there are many such points which I would love to ponder and write more. As of now these are some of my thoughts on the master.
