Satyajit Ray - The Renaissance man
 

by Jagath Savanadasa

Mahanagar, a Satyajit Ray film classic was shown a few years ago in the local TV. But it is doubtful whether viewers looking for entertainment per se would have enjoyed it. They would not have been mentally transported to the world of make - believe that the average Indian commercial film is replete with.

On the other hand quite a number of more selective and discerning, fans would have been deeply absorbed by Mahanagar or any other Ray production struck by their incisive and vivid examination of Indian life.

All of Ray's films, a good example of which is Mahanagar are a portrayal of realism and truth. They are also a description of what Indian life was more than fifty years ago. Having stated the above though the writer admires Ray's films. His admiration also extends to selected other Indian films, especially Hindi films, some of the actors, actresses, play back singers, the music directors as well as the lyricists.

Particularly those of its golden era, from the late 1940 until about the mid 1970's. But what is fascinating about Ray was his amazing versatility. Though Ray's greatest passion was films and it was through that medium that he demonstrated his brilliance there were many facets of his gifted life that simply astound you.

What went into the making of such a versatile genius?

The beginnings

Amongst the first persons of note in the family tree of the Ray's, a distinguished lineage of the Brahmo community in Calcutta, was Upendra Kishore Ray Choudury his grand-father. Upendra was a cultured man deeply interested in literature and the arts.

Satyajit's father Sukumar Ray inherited the talents of his father. He was a university graduate, who also followed a course in Print Technology that took him to England. Like his father literature was his first preference of work. Sukumar however died young at 36 depriving society of a gifted man and leaving Ray's young mother widowed.

Satyajit Ray's early youth was similar to that of his father's and grand father's. But the evolution of society brought with it a new infusion and exposure to a wider life.

He however remained deeply attached to his widowed young mother whose boundless love for him was well-known and is an integral part of the Ray legend.

In 1936 Ray became a student of the President's College, Calcutta. It was the third generation of the Ray's to enter the portals of that great Institution.

The course in fine arts that Ray followed in Shantiniketan later, founded by yet another famous son of Calcutta, Rabindranath Tagore laid the foundation for his career.

His early working life centred on designing and illustrating publications and the only time that Ray was employed was in a British advertising house. Ray had a deep interest and love for Western classical music, on the other hand the three years at Shantiniketan had given Ray an insight into India's age-old culture and her rich tradition of classical music.

The outcome was to add a new dimension to Ray's life. In addition to purchasing discs of symphonies and concerts, Ray also began to attend concerts of Indian classical music.

Satyajith Ray's life at this stage provides an illuminating insight into his artistic leanings. But few in Sri Lanka would know that he was also an outstanding writer and created a fictional detective character named, Feluda for children who was extremely popular. Ray also diversified into science fiction.

And he created a much-loved figure named Prof. Shankar, which was also typical of Ray's inventive capacity that thrilled thousands of young Indians.

But to Ray these varied areas of his interest were secondary to the one consuming passion - the entry into the hitherto unchartered world of the alternate film (avante garde). And the way in which he achieved it, directing a series of masterpieces is an invigorating part of the history of world cinema.

Pather Panchali

Pather Panchali (Song Of The Little Road) the first of Ray's productions of rare quality in cinematic art was released in 1955. It had taken Ray three years of intense and hard work.

Pather Panchali marked the first public exposure to the product of an extraordinary creative mind. The amalgamation of visual artistry with a balanced input of entertainment was hailed by critics in the West as the pioneering work of a masterly cinematic explorer. But within India itself the initial response to this film was only lukewarm, to put it mildly. It was not popular cinema that evoked mass appeal. But it had a universal theme and was completed on a low budget.

Ray-the formative influences

Ray had acknowledged the formative influence that filmmakers like Vittorio De Sica had on him. Bicycle Thief, a classical film of the early fifties - particularly its true to-life appeal had impressed Ray. He also admired Hollywood greats, such as John Ford, John Houston, Orsen Wells and Charlie Chaplin. Ray on his own admission belonged to the classical school of film making.

De Sica too was of the classical school and so was Jean Renior, son of the great French impressionist painter Auguste Renior.

Until the arrival of Ray on the scene, Indian films were by and large of a commercial nature and of a set-pattern. The centre of India's film industry was Bombay (Mumbai). But there were however exceptions to the formula film, usually produced in Bombay. Bimal Roy was one of the best Bombay-based directors who produced some excellent films. Guru Dutt was another.

Mehboob Khan usually associated with blockbuster productions in the early years of Hindi cinema too produced qualitative films. Andaz and Mother India were among them. The second named the only Indian film that was nominated for an "Oscar".

Yet a another block-buster production was Mughal-e-Azam considered an all time epic of Hindi cinema. A sensitive cinematic experience in the mid-1950's was Bimal Roy's Devdas in which he combined to a measured blend the key elements of film making such as sound, light and dialogue.

Also as different to Satyajith Ray to a high degree was Roy's utilization of the histrionic ability of the great Dilip Kumar whose role as Devdas was widely acclaimed as a milestone in the realm of acting. Devdas was based on a popular Hindi novel with the same name.

I first viewed Devdas as a youngster and again the same film in my late twenties. I saw it a third time recently but on this occasion a newly produced Devdas. This time however its opulence and grandeur bowled me over. But it was in marked contrast to the earlier presentation, which was more realistic.

After Pather Panchali, Ray produced several other outstanding films. His second, Aparajito, was initially considered an abject failure in India until it won a major international award and was hailed by foreign film critics as a superlative presentation. (It is a curious point, this change in attitude of domestic critics once a film is acclaimed in the West. Is it a typical South Asian failing?)

Aparajito portrayed the wrenching experience of a teenager released into the world from the love and care of a selfless and protective mother. Aparajito critics state was perhaps the only occasion in which Ray mirrored his own life, briefly.

Aparajito long after it was released continued to receive the highest appreciation as one of the classics of cinematic expression. His third film was Apu Sansar (The world of Apu).

These three films formed a trilogy of non-conventional cinema that carved for Ray a permanent niche in international cinema. Indeed Ray's pioneering work provided the launching pad for other film producers to explore the world of avante garde.

Following the selection of Pather Panchali as the best film at Cannes in 1956, Aparajito won the Golden Lion the next year at the Venice Film Festival.

Ray's subsequent masterpieces, Mahanagar, Charulatha and Nayak achieved the unmatched honour of consecutively bagging the best directorial awards at the Berlin Film Festival in 1964, 1965 and 1966. During those history making years, Ray's versatility came to the fore, when he made two other films, which contrasted vividly with the trilogy that, had captivated the film world.

The two were Parish Panther (The philosopher stone, a film that combined the serious and the comic) and Jalsagar, which examined with sympathetic consideration the vanishing glory of the Zamindars (the Landlords) and the concurrent rise of the men engaged in commerce.

Devi, yet another of Ray's classics sought to eliminate blind beliefs such as divine incarnation and dogmatism, the widespread prevalence of which was inimical to Indian society and was inconsistent with realism.

This continuous string of fascinating cinema in the realm of the alternate film not for the average film buff, but for those in search of true to life creations, soon made Ray an icon in the world of cinema.

Towards later years in his career Ray produced Kuchanganga, a film on the experience of an upper middle class family's holiday in Darjeeling. Kuchanganga was based on a story written by Ray and it was his first film in colour.

His image now was so high that he was ranked along with post-war giants of cinema such as Orsen Welles, Vittorio De Sica and Akhiro Kurosava.

His Perception of cinema

According to Ray, a keen student of the history of films, it was the neo-realism of the 1940s that made some in the field of film making dare breakaway from tradition that conformed to a set pattern. It was a way of looking at life and its vicissitudes and times with an open mind and devoid of hypocrisy.

Ray notes that the credit for this pioneering innovativeness should go to the Japanese film makers. It was basically a Japanese concept. The true film evolution, according to Ray occurred in the 1960s . Permissiveness in cinema was of major sociological significance, he had observed and was in fact reflective of the changing mores of western society.

But Ray had emphasised that it was ridiculous to justify permissiveness as a higher form of truth. In his lucidly written book - "Our Films And Their Films", Ray also notes the claim of critics that film makers like Renin, Carna, Clarie Stroteim, Dryer, De Sica and Pubst, all of the avante garde school falsified human relationship in their films was an insolent implication.

Ray and music

Ray has commented that of all stages of film-making it is the orchestration of music that needed his greatest concentration. Ray worked with Ravi Shanker on four occasions, with Ali Akbar Khan and Vilayat Khan three times - all masters of Indian classical music.

With his deep, analytical insight into Indian Society that has been long exposed to the West, Ray thought it fit to mix both Western and Eastern music in his films. Ray was however selective in this regard. In films with an urban background, he was more towards Western music and those within a rural fold, Indian classical music.

This was again a sign of the pains that Ray had taken to create a film in which the element of harmonization was accorded the importance it deserved. Ray who composed musical scores and written songs had opined that music is not an essential part of a film. In referring to songs in Indian films, Ray's observations are penetrative.

Why do Indians love songs so much? There is no ethnic evidence that they are more fond of singing than say the Russians, the Italians or the Americans - Ray had asked. In Hindi films, Ray had said in answer to own query, songs helped the film to click. 'To the vast mass of Indians', cinema was the only form of inexpensive entertainment. They did not have the choice that the Western public had of Music Halls, revues, plays, concerts and sometimes of permanent circus.

Ray had also voiced his appreciation of the creativity and improvisation of music of the Bombay (Mumbai) films.

Ray the colossus

Has the previous century seen many men of Ray's amazing gifts and versatility? Unlikely. All six-foot four inches of him was indeed a giant - not merely physically but intellectually too.

Apart from his work in creating great cinema that will be admired forever, his humanism, acute sense of perception and judgement, the innate refinement made him a tower above his contemporaries to such an extent that in the words of a connoisseur of the Arts - Lord Beaumont, Ray was the Renaissance Man. In the final phase of his life Ray was afflicted with heart disease. Satyajit Ray evoked the highest admiration in France and when that country decided to award its highest civilian honour to Ray, he was not well enough to travel to France.

In a rare gesture, instead the then President of France, Francisco Mitterand visited India to award the Legion of Honour to Ray at a special ceremony in Calcutta. In the citation President Mitterand stated this of Ray 'The most fascinating artiste of our time in this century of Cinema.'

The Oscar universally acknowledged as the greatest cinematic award was given to Ray towards the end of his days. India's own tribute to one of her greatest sons was also in the form of the highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna.

Satyajit Ray died on 21st April 1992. He was a colossus.

(The writer is the Secretary General of the Business Chamber of Commerce. He was earlier CEO of the National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka for 14 years. A former visiting Lecturer in Management Economics at the University of Colombo, in 1992 he was Sri Lankan Nominator for Ramon Magsaysay Foundation Awards - The Philippines.")

The World of Arts
 

by Gwen Herat

Hero From Much Ado About Nothing

Shakespeare was himself even in naming his characters. One would imagine it to be a funny name for a woman; the wronged innocent in Much Ado About Nothing. She is anything but a hero, literarily.

There is scarcely any sense of a single dominant way of understanding Shakespeare and perceive patterns that we cannot yet apprehend.

Today we feel as though we live in baffling matrix of different opinions in literature that we bequeathed from Anglo-Saxon, Renaissance, Restoration, Classicism, Romantic and the divergence of all their balance, sometime to the vulgar English as perceived by so many academics who profess the English language.

When one studies a play like Much Ado About Nothing, it is really much ado about nothing in context of analysing the Bard's prolific works. Why he came up with such an insignificant play to be included in his Firt Folio could attribute to his callous treatment of certain characters for no obvious reason.

Don Pedro who has come after suppressing a rebellion by his bastard brother, Don John is hosted by the Governor of Messina, Leonato. Presently, Don John is reconciled with Pedro.

A young Florentine Lord, Claudio and a Paduan Lord. Benedict who is a confirmed bachelor are engaged in a 'merry war' with Leonato's niece Beatrice who is apparently a spinster. These two lords are arch enemies of Don John. Claudio is in love with Leonato's daughter, Hero and Don John swears to break it up. After a masked ball, the wedding of Claudio and Hero is arranged.

John: 'It is so; the Count Claudio shall marry the daughter of Leonato.

Borochio: 'Yea, my lord but I can cross it.

John: 'Any bar, any cross, any impediment will be medicinable to me. I am sick in displeasure to him, and whatever comes afterwards his affection ranges and evenly with mine. How can't cross this marriage.

Borochio: 'Not honestly, my lord but so covertly that no dishonesty shall appear in me.

John: 'Show me briefly how?

Borochio: 'I think I told your lordship, a year since how much I am in the favour of Margaret, the waiting gentlewoman of Hero'...

ACT. II Scene. III

Don John's follower, Borochio after eaves dropping over Claudio, will attempt to exchange love vows with Hero's gentlewoman dressed in her mistress's clothes at Hero's bedroom window. In the meantime, Pedro, Claudio and Leonato ensure that Benedict 'hidden in a garden arbour' hears then discuss and drool over Beatrice's passionate love for him.

Hero and Ursula play a similar trick to coincide. On the night before the wedding Don John offers to give the Prince and Claudio proof of Hero's unfaithfulness. Later Borachio is heard boasting about his deceit perfectly manoeuvred to a drunkard comrade and is arrested by the Watch and taken to the constable, Dogberry.

Before Leonato knows is aware of anything before the wedding ceremony, Claudio rejects Hero who faints. The Prince and Claudio leave in disgust. Friar Francis who believes in Hero's innocence, reports that Hero is dead and keep her undercover until the truth is revealed. The much grieved Beatrice urge Benedict to kill Claudio. Later everything is revealed;

Leonado: 'Which is the villain? Let me see his eyes, that when I note another I may avoid him. Which of these is he?

Borachio: 'If you would know your wronger, look on me

Leonado: 'Art thou the salve, that with thy breath has kill'd Mine innocent child

Borachio: 'Yes, even I alone

Leonado:'No, not so villain; thou beliest thyself, Here stands a pair of honourable men. A third is fled, that had a hand in it I thank you princes, for my daughter's death. Record it with your high and worthy deeds. 'T was bravely done, if you bethink of it.

A repentant and a heart-broken Claudio promises to marry a neice of Leonato said to be an 'image' of Hero (she is of course the real Hero herself) The over-joyed Claudio cannot believe his eyes as he comes face to face with his beloved Hero. Beatrice and Benedict resolve their problems while Don John is taken prisoner.

Much Ado About Nothing has been performed as an eaves-dropping comedy. Based on a traditional Italian fable, it is a play glittering with artifice which is essential for a comedy of this nature to perform on stage. Devoid of the Bard's spectacular dialogue, the play depends on the movement of the story and the unexpected ending. In 1905, Bernard Shaw dismissed this play as a hopeless story. This play was exceptionally popular in the early years.

It was acted at Court during festivities and at the marriage ceremony of Princess Elizabeth to Elector Palatine in 1613. Until 1721, it gathered dust when the play was mounted with central characters of Beatrice and Benedict. With excerpts on stage in 1882 and 1903.

For a while thereafter, the Old Vice revived a repertoire from Stratford-Upon-Avon. Touring companies found it easy to perform and kept the play alive until 1988 when it was produced at the New York Shakespeare Festival at Central Park with Kevin Kline. It became so popular that the run was extended. Much Ado About Nothing had also a successful run at Stratford and Ontario in 1977.

(Shakespeare wrote this comedy in 1598-9)

Olga Dimitri's Uncertain Journeys

Olga returned to Sri Lanka four months ago and, being an artist, she naturally used art to integrate the transition of her return experience. Her last paintings glow within a medium copper and graphite. To look into the graphite darkness and find the copper light just below the surface - a surface torn and scarred, smeared and wounded, stretched and melted, opened and bulging - is to see into the experience of her matured perspective of this land, Sri Lanka. It is at once her foster land and her soul, and she has spoken it with great strength and certainty.

Olga Dimitri living in Sri Lanka for 12 years, ever since she came from urban Moscow to live with her husband on tea estate in the central hills near Kandy. This past year, Olga has been painting and exhibiting in Canada. She completed a commissioned mural in a large yoga studio and had exhibition in Vancouver, presented by the West Coast Gay Men's Society and the Roundhouse Art Centre.

In Vancouver, however, she reached for something new, something experimental, and she expressed her personal and cultural transitions through oil on paper and collages. They are of particular interest because they were completed in the first three or four weeks of her stay in Canada.

This is the time when the newcomer's agoraphobia of the West's vastness and coldness, together with the awe of its evolution and futuristic beauty, is usually at its peak.

This paintings make up the other portion of the current exhibit, which is then become a bold and sincere dialogue between her journey to the West and her return to the familiar, now seen differently.

The exhibition "Uncertain Journeys" will take place at the Alliance Francaise de Kandy from September 23 - 30.