Satyajith Ray's 14th death anniversary:

Asia's legendary film-maker

Vimal Waidyasekera

CINEMA: Fourteen years ago, in the twilight of his illustrious career spanning 37 years, the only prestigious award that had eluded him was presented to him at his hospital bedside by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts, an Oscar for lifetime achievement, a fitting tribute to Asia's greatest film maker Satyajit Ray who passed away soon afterwards after a brief illness at the age of 71.

"Ray could have lived longer perhaps had he not undergone the ordeal of making films the hard way he did. His fate is no different from that of Vincent Van Gogh who died in penury but his masterpieces are now selling for millions of dollars," wrote the Daily News editorial on his demise 14 years ago.

Satyajit Ray was born in Calcutta to a prominent family who were close friends of Rabindranath Tagore. For a short time he studied at Shantiniketan, hence his adherence to the Tagore-Nandalal Bose tradition of an Asiatic Orientalism.

His father Sakuman Ray was a popular sitarist and his grandfather Upendra Kishore Ray, a writer and publisher who created the fictional characters of "Goopy Gyne Bagh Byne" which later Ray turned into a film which became his major commercial success of his career.

He made this children's film at a time when the "Ray School" of regionalist realism came to be adopted by Mrs. Indira Ghandi's government as the kind of cinema the State would support. He withdrew into the non-controversial area of children's films in order to keep away from the political establishment.

Earlier film star turned politician Nargis, Member of Parliament had mounted a scathing attack on Satyajit Ray, accusing him of peddling India's poverty abroad.

His earlier career was in advertising where he became a famous illustrator.

Having done the illustrations to an edition of Bibhutibhusan Banerjees' famous novel "Pather Panchali", he mooted the idea of filming the novel after having met and seen the famous French director Jean Renovi filming "The River" in Calcutta. However the turning point of his career was after he saw Vittorio De Sica's classic "Bicycle Thieves".

In "Towards Realism in films" Satyajit Ray says, "It is indeed a strange paradox that in the face of astonishing technological advances which the film has made in the Western countries, the best of contemporary cinema art has been produced in Italy, a land notoriously deficient in the matter of technical equipment for film making. It is, however, from the Italian films that modern filmdom has learned of the abiding and cincial values of pure simplicity, realism and humanistic portrayals on celluloid."

Having collected a band of enthusiasts, they pooled their resources and began work on "Pather Panchali" (The Song of the Road). Subrat Mitra who had never cranked a camera before became its cinamtographer. All the actors and actresses except Dame Chunbala who played the role of the grandmother, were non professionals.

Shubir Banerjee the boy, was discovered by Ray's wife while playing in front of the house. From such - raw talent came the acting. No make-up was used, shooting was confined to exteriors. The rest is history. Many consider it to be one of the ten best films ever.

Ray made this film under extremely difficult conditions and eventually completed when the West bengal Government helped him to complete the film from its road building programme, being misled by its documentary look and its little "Song of the Road."

The shooting style was strongly influenced by the neo-realist commitment to location shooting and available light. In all his films artistic control predominates from the very first frame to the last whilst camera effects, camera tricks and distinctive editing techniques are non existent, instead there is a kind of compression within a shot an the intensification of an emotion within a single frame; visual elements that tell their own story upon the main action.

He has a very keen eye for the expressive image and a strong feeling for atmosphere. He tells a story not in words but with images and depicts vividly and realistically, the harshness of everyday life in India. Some of his earlier films like "Charulata", which he considers his best, were located in the past using the subjective camera and seen through the eyes of his mentor Tagore.

During his career as a movie maker he made 22 films. The Sri Lankan fans were fortunate enough to see his earlier works of art at the Satyajit Ray Film Festival held at the New Olympia theatre in the early sixties organised by the Cinema Sixteen Society.

The films shown were the Apentrilogy - Pather Panchali, Aparajitho, Apu Sansar, Jalsaghar, Teen Kanya and Kanchenjangha his first colour film. Following a prolonged illness he came back to make "Ganeshatra" in 1989 and in the final years of his life he scripted a few films for his son Sandeep Ray.

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