SATYAJIT RAY: 2010

December 23, 2010

Quiz throws new light on Ray's genius

KOLKATA: Since his debut film Pather Panchali' hit the screens in 1955, Satyajit Ray has been in the spotlight. Cine buffs have not only viewed and analyzed his works, his personal life has also been meticulously scanned to understand his enigmatic personality.

Eighteen years after Ray died, one would believe that there is hardly anything left to unravel about the genius. But the assumption proved wrong on Saturday when members of the maestro's cast and crew, Ray aficionados, students and Ray fans were stumped time and again at a quiz on the multi-faceted personality.

Conceived and organized by Ekhon Satyajit editor Somnath Ray in association with Eisenstein Cine Club, the 8th Ray Quiz threw up many a surprise. Some questions had even Sandip Ray, thespian Bibhas Chakraborty, cinematographer Soumendu Ray and actors Barun Chandra and Pradip Mukhopadhyay groping for answers. Barun Chandra, who played the lead role in Seemabaddha', was felicitated at the event.

"Which Ray film had the maximum number of stars?" was one of the questions in the final round that had the audience including Ray's inner circle dubbed the grand jury' at the show engage in a passionate debate. "Paras Pathar," answered the Jadavpur University mass communication team comprising Shankhamala Ray and Nilorona Chakraborty. The answer was adjudged correct though Ray experts wondered if Shakha Prasakha' or Kanchenjungha' should have been the answer.

Another question that triggered heated discussions was: "Which is the first Ray film that did not have a conventional heroine?" The answer adjudged correct was Aparajito' though many wondered why it wasn't Pather Panchali'.

A clip from Agantuk' showing Mamata Shankar singing Bajilo Kaharo Bina' was followed by the question: "Who sang the song?" There was complete silence in the auditorium. "That is a tough one," Bibhas Chakraborty was heard whispering to Sandip Ray. The latter nodded in agreement. "That is too tough a question for college kids," muttered Pradip Mukhopadhyay who had acted in Jana Aranya'.

"Ruma Guhathakurta's daughter Sromona," answered the JU mass comm team. "Absolutely right!" said the quiz master as the audience clapped and cheered. The duo finally won the quiz, edging out the JU economics team by 10 points. The CU mass comm team finishes third.

Though the organizers had received confirmation from at least 18 teams from CU, JU, Vidyasagar University, Burdwan University, Gurudas College and Asutosh College, less than 100 had turned up. With the city still simmering over Thursday's campus violence, many gave the event the miss.

Read more: Quiz throws new light on Ray's genius - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata-/Quiz-throws-new-light-on-Rays-genius/articleshow/7125452.cms#ixzz18sEieMeM

December 7, 2010

AudioBook based On Short Stories By Satyajit Ray

May 1, 2010

Happy Birthday Satyajit Ray

Growing up in the Calcutta of the 1980’s and early ’90s meant living with power shortages and political shutdowns. Nothing else happened. But we Bengalis drew solace from the fact that we had Jyoti Basu, Mother Teresa and Satyajit Ray (not necessarily in that order).

For a generation that had only seen communist rule in the state, West Bengal Communist Party leader Basu, the longest-lived of the three until his death in January at the age of 95, was the patriarch whom we saw often on our grainy black-and-white television sets string along the corridors of Writers’ Building, the state secretariat. Mother Teresa was the woman who could get foreign celebrities to make a pit stop in the “black hole” just to meet her.

And then there was Ray, who belonged to one of the most illustrious Bengali families, towered at 6 feet 5 inches and had a deep baritone, making him an intimidating presence to those lucky enough to meet him. But to us teenagers he brought real joy.

Ray’s work spanned a century of Bengali life – from the late 19th century at the peak of the Bengal cultural renaissance when Charulata falls for her brother-in-law Amal, to the partition of Bengal in 1905 when the psuedo-revolutionary Sandip tries to seduce his friend’s wife Bimala in “Ghare Baire” (Home and the World), to the turbulent Calcutta of the 1970s where the protagonist Siddhartha tells an interview board in “Pratidwandi” (The Adversary) that the triumph of the human spirit in Vietnam was the most significant event of the last 10 years, more than the moon landing.

“To a large extent Satyajit Ray introduced naturalism to the cinema of India,” said Pranav Ashar, president of The Taj Enlighten Film Society.

We watched transfixed as Ray wove his magic wand over each frame – whether it was wonderstruck Apu and Durga running through fields to catch a glimpse of a train in “Pather Panchali,” Ray’s first film, known in English as “Song of the little Road,” or the angst of the decadent landowner Biswambhar Roy in Jalsaghar (The Music Room). Even his children’s films were scathing commentaries on class conflict.

“The main attraction to me of Ray’s work is his abiding humanism,” said Arup K. De, 53, of the Kolkata-based Satyajit Ray Society, which works to preserve the director’s films. “His works transcend the barriers of time and culture, even though he was a deeply-rooted Bengali.”

Ray retained a spirit of quintessential “Bengaliness,” even amidst his refined western sensibilities. Of the other two great film-makers who were his contemporaries – Ritwik Ghatak was always something of a maverick while Mrinal Sen came across as too political. Ray showed us our middle-class pathos and angst.

The Japanese director Akira Kurosawa once said of Ray, “Not to have seen the cinema of Ray means existing in the world without seeing the sun or the moon.”

One quibble. People outside Bengal often overlook Ray as a writer. Even if he hadn’t made a single film in his lifetime, Ray would remain immortal to this Bengali for literary works like the detective series Feluda.

By Subhadip Sircar.

Source: India realtime