Raynama

A multitude has gathered behind him,yet he is a lone figure.  In one of the most interesting photographs on display at the Nemai Ghosh photographic exhibition at the ICCR,Satyajit Ray doesn’t seem to be aware of the crowd behind him; his attention is solely focused on something beyond the frame. This frozen moment eloquently reiterates the thought that the French great,Jean Luc Godard had voiced— a filmmaker is always alone. Nothing can be more classically romantic than this thought— to imagine Ray alone,on the sets,before a blank page in his study and in the editing room of a studio.  Maybe for Ray,to be alone meant to ask questions. And to make films meant answering.

Of course,these are mere conjectures. Ray was known to be a team player,but Nemai Ghosh’s frames narrate a telling story. In each photograph,Ray is an authoritative,leading presence,whether he is instructing Babita in a scene for Ashani Sanket (1975) or preparing for a shoot on the ghats of Benares for Joi Baba Felunath (1978). The camera,sketch books,the crayons and other paraphernalia are mere props for his vision. And his towering physical presence is the embodiment of the vision. So when he is shooting for a crucial scene of Jana Aranya (1975) from inside the boot of a car in a Kolkata thoroughfare he is lithe energy. When he is directing Sir Richard Attenborough in a library sequence for Shatranj Ke Khiladi ( 1977) he is knowledge and brevity.

The sketch made by Ray (which is also displayed at the exhibition) that illustrates the aforementioned scene from the film,attests that very fact. It’s all neat lines and meticulous details,as opposed to the spirited and quirky sketches for Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne.

However,one can’t help but wonder whether one is drawing lines on air when one is trying to find a fresh perspective to these much-showcased photographs. After all,these frames have been subjected to much intellectual musings and discussions,of which many have claimed that these photographs and the story they tell are actually the photographers’ creation of an independent narrative.

Satyajit Ray: From Script to screen is on at the ICCR till June 28.