Satyajit Ray's Patik Chand in Sinhala
by Professor Sunanda Mahendra
 FICTION: In addition to his fame in filmmaking Satyajit Ray
(1921-1992) holds a reputation for being a literary scholar and a
creative writer about which we are not much aware.
He comes from a family of scholars with the intimate association of
the great Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore to whom Ray had paid a
tribute for kindling the creative spark latent in him to us, Ray is a
filmmaker of his own identity and as we read his short stories and
articles of varying topics we also come across a communicator with his
own identity.
The latest addition to Ray's repertoire of creative works comes the
short novel of much recognition now translated into Sinhala with the
original title Patik Chand by Chandrika Wijesundara (Sarasavi 2007).
Firstly it is one of the most readable works these days. One of the
main drawbacks in most of the present day translations, obviously, is
the lack of readability. But as translations of varying types are
needed, it is a welcome process to translate as far as possible the
unknown works, which by and large possess a lasting worthiness instead
of going to the mainstream hunting for more saleable popular works.
Creativity
Ray's short novel Patik Chand gets us to more of his creativity that
has gone into his films. His protagonist is a young boy from a
well-to-do family but loses his touch with the disappearance from the
home.
The family members, inclusive of the father, make attempts to get in
touch with the boy making all efforts with no stone left unturned.
But the boy spends most of his time experiencing the so far unseen
areas in his life like the encounters with the bazaar people, robbers,
jugglers, plunderers, magicians and hood winkers of varying types.
He comes to grips with them and sees that he is completely enmeshed
in that circle of behaviour forgetful of his domestic background. In
this make-belief process, the author shows the various facets of the
Bengali society in which a young boy could live and how he could be
misled in the hidden areas of darkness.
Behind the police watch for which the parents pay so much attention,
the reader is shown to the cause of an accident the boy undergoes out of
which the child loses his tendency to remember the things of the past
more or less a fantasy as it is created.
As this tendency is erased off with the lapse of time the young boy
comes to know what has happened. Whether this really happened or a make
belief will be the eventual query of an average reader; it may have
happened somewhere or it will happen somewhere.
Child in disaster
While there is no apparent physical disability caused, the story like
a fairy tale causes a series of episodes interlinked, showing the
situations of a child in disaster from the point of view of the reader
and not from the point of view of the child himself.
Whatever it is in the end the reader is shown once again that the
normal life of the child is regained and the most significant factor and
to live with parents is the greatest bliss.
The worry on the part of parents especially the father who has the
ability to throw money to get the child once back to his home and as he
seeks advice from various people are shown as the parental agonies in
one's life which is known and perceived only by those who have actually
lived a life misery when issues of this sort plunge.
As far as possible the translator Chandrika Wijesundara uses the
tenor of the local idiom both in the summaries and the dialogues to
enhance the value of the original work.
Poetic vision
Ray's Patik Chand is an experiment in the narrative structures that
he was trying to build up in the cine-visual language.
As Ray for the most part had got the creative inspiration and
influence of the great scholar Rabindranath Tagore, in the best capacity
possible, the poetic vision of the latter is observed as transformed
into visuals.
The tradition of narrative is basically an oriental method of story
telling from several points of view, and relating a story in many
episodes with some in the simplest possible manner embracing simple
structures within which one sees a sub text and the meanings that emerge
are not the ones that are visible but the meanings of the second layer
of narrative which could be classed as a symbolic layer with more
vision.
Perhaps a modern critic would point out that this is one of the
aspects covered by the fairytale writer of the ancient past of whose
influence the modern day writer ought to be inspired.
So this aspect of narration and content is visible in both the
filmmaker and the storywriter in Ray. In order to understand this factor
one has to reread and dissect the narrative structure of Ray's work in
the light of some of the new semiotic concepts of reading into meanings
and expression.
Narrative forms
This function is not left to the average reader who enjoys a mere
story, but to the critic who so wishes to understand the narrative forms
of Ray in a comparative study of his visual presentations and his
narrative structures in the oriental context and that kind of study will
not go a waste.
I am not too sure whether this work of Ray is only meant for children
and /or youth, but suffice it to say that the readers of all ages ought
to enjoy the way the experience of the human behaviour with its inner
and outer conflicts are introduced.
The short essay inserted by way of an introduction to the work
selected from an essay in 'Frontline' periodical helps the reader to
know more about the author's skills in all fields of creative arts. The
Sinhala translation of Ray's Patik Chand is an ideal modern
supplementary reader at all levels of reading.
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