Today on Satyajit Ray’s 100 birth anniversary, when the entire world is writing about him and praising him for the art he created. I don’t really know what an aspiring filmmaker like me can write about him. Because obviously I do not have anything new to offer, other than my personal experiences of watching, reading and getting inspired from his works.
Rabindranath Tagore and Satyajit Ray are the two names (and their works) of utmost importance when one belongs to a Bengali household. In spite of being brought up in a Bengali family that was not very much the case with me. I grew up in a small town of Chiplun in Maharshtra, kilometers away from West Bengal in terms of distance and culture. My early exposures to Ray’s works were probably my mother singing the Rabindrasangeet from his movies. Be it his Phule Phule Dole Dole (known as The Swing scene) and Ami Chini Go Chini from Charulata or Bhidhir Badhon from Ghare Baire.
I remember mother singing these songs while doing her household chores. Thus, the cultural dissemination of works or Tagore and Ray happened hand in hand. It was only a little later when the first laptop came into our house, I watched the films of Ray for children (I must have been 11-12 then). I remember watching Goopy Gyne, Bagha Byne, Hirak Rajar Deshe and off course the train ride to Sonar Kella. Watching those graphics of Goopy Gyne, Bagha Byne in the song ‘Bhooter Raja Dilo Bor’ gave me such a thrill in those days. It was only later after studying film making that I understood the magic behind creating those images on screen in our cinematography classes.
Later when I read the stories of Feluda, Professor Shonku and all his magical stories in ‘Indigo’, I used to wonder how this one person came up with all the multiple stories and characters. In days when I was confused about my roots if I was a Bengali or a Marathi, I remember watching ‘Teen Kanya’ and ‘Pather Panchali’ in a small gathering where many of my Marathi friends had gathered to watch world cinema.
I remember feeling so proud that I was the only person in the room who didn’t need the subtitles. I somehow felt proud to be a Bengali after watching his films. Eventually when the interest in studying films increased, I watched his other films. I read ‘The home and the world’ and ‘The broken Nest’ both by Tagore on one such summer vacation after which I was driven to watch both the films ‘Ghare Baire’ and ‘ Charulata’. Both the characters of Charu and Bimala appealed to me immensely. Women like Charu and Bimala were absolutely fearless and did not want to stay within the boundaries that the society had drawn upon them.
These were the women I had had rarely gotten to see on screen before. Again the writing of Tagore and direction of Ray created magic which marveled me more than anything. It was only later after joining film school, I watched more of his films to study the art of film making. Last vacation when mother went to Kolkata, I remember telling her to bring me any Satyajit Ray (film) related book and what my mother got for me put me to surprise even more. She handed me over the ‘Travails with the Alein’. It was such an excitement to see his drawings and writing all there in that book.
For me Satyajit Ray has always been one such figure that has made me proud of my culture and more importantly has given to tremendous hunger for good literature and films. He brought me close to Bengali culture through his films and stories. Even today because I can’t read Bengali, I find comfort in the audio stories of Prof. Shonku and Tarini Khuro on Radio Mirchi in Bengali. I might not be someone who is his biggest follower and neither do I claim to have watched all his films, but for a Bongashtrian (born in Maharashtra and raised a Bengali) like me, who has always been confused about the cultural identity, his works definitely provide the much needed solace.
