Two anecdotes on Ray

 

These are two anecdotes on Satyajit Ray.

Professor Subodh Chandra Sengupta was a famous professor of English literature of Calcutta’s hallowed institution , the Presidency College. From his autobiography “Te hi no dibasa gota” in Bangla I got this gem. One evening, in the early 1950’s Professor Sengupta was taking a walk in Maidan, Calcutta’s lungs. He met his “Lomba chatro” ( meaning ‘Tall student’ in Bangla ). The ‘Tall student’ said that after learning art from Nandalal Bose of Santiniketan, he was working as an illustrator in D.J.Keimer & Co, an ad agency. Professor Sengupta was visibly upset because he knew his ‘Tall student’ was excellent in English and got highest marks in English in Calcuuta University Intermediate in Science exam. His professedly instinct was that this ‘Tall student’ would have made more contribution to field of English education if joined a college or university. He particularly harbored a secret wish to tutor this ‘Tall student’ to that goal. But alas! This would not happen, because this favourite ‘Tall student’ of his has joined an advertisement firm, which in his opinion was simple waste of a talent. He was a very well-respected professor of English that time and he thought he sampled enough students in life so that his predictions will never prove wrong.

Within a year or two Prof Sengupta was amused and delighted to find himself wrong in at least one of his predictions about the future of his students. In 1956 this ‘Tall student’ of his made a movie called ‘Pather Panchali’ . Shall I have to tell the name of the ‘Tall student’ to cine buffs?

The second story is also about Ray. Not a story…a true event. All of us know by know that Ray had a great eye for details. The dresses, the furnitures of period pieces, the make-up of characters were pursued to the minutest detail making his movies almost flawless with regard to details. Be it Charulata or Ghare Baire or Nayak, the details never missed his eyes. The movie goers used to be baffled too like my grandfather. Dr.Murari Mohan Mukherji, a pioneer in Plastic Surgery in India happened to be my maternal grandfather. I heard this from him. Even in his heydays he used to catch up movies in Calcutta cinema halls during night shows. Most of the times family would accompany him and you have to remember those days there were no mobiles. Being a busy and responsible surgeon he would give the phone number of the cinema hall to the hospital so that in emergency the hospital can call the hall manager. Many a times movie goers in Basusree or Purna or Bijolee or Metro would be annoyed to see a sudden message flashing on silver screen (between the reels) calling a Dr. Murari Mukherji to go to SSKM Hospital since his patient was serious.

Anyway let me not deviate from Ray. Once my grandfather went to see ‘Ashani Sonket’ made by Ray. “Ashani Sonket” or “The distant thunder”, starring Soumitra Chatterji was made after the eponymous novel by Bibhuti Bushan Bandyopadhyay written on the backdrop of Bengal famine during World War II. Ashani Sonket had a character caller ‘Pora Jodu’ (meaning the burnt faced ‘Jodu’….this villainous character raped a young lady in the film by luring her with promise of food in the time of famine). The burnt and scarred face of ‘Pora Jodu’ attracted my grandfather’s attention. Unlike others he was not despising the man. Rather, being a plastic surgeon he thought of doing a cosmetic surgery on this man. After coming back from the hall, he called Soumitra Chatterjee ( he had acquaintances in Tollygunge film industry and few of the heroes and heroines of that time went under his scalpel ). He inquired about the address and status of this ‘Pora Jodu’ with Soumitra Chaterjee and expressed his wish to rectify the scarred face of ‘Pora Jodu’ by surgery. Soumitra Chatterjee started to laugh and cleared my grandpa’s confusion by saying “ Daktar babu, that was not burns you saw; this is  the Ray effect. This character ‘Pora Jodu’ is a result of make-up. Manikda has great eye for details and told his make-up man to make his scarred face a realistic one. Don’t worry; he doesn’t need your surgical intervention.” Knowing this my grandfather was relieved.

These are the two anecdotes I share about Ray. If you want more I have another in store.

Note: This blog written by me was published first in Passionforcinema.com in August,2009.