Ray’s scripts of Charulata vanish from Kolkata home

‘‘We left the Lake Temple Road House in 1970. Many things were misplaced then, including the shooting scripts of Teen Kanya and Charulata. Somebody tried to sell back the scripts of Teen Kanya, but then I decided against buying them. But there is no trace of Charulata,’’ Ray Junior told The Indian Express.

Dismissing the possibility of a police complaint, Sandip Ray said: ‘‘I don’t wish to make a police complaint after 30 years. And if you ask about the film script, I think it is there in bit and pieces. But the shooting scripts, with Ray’s drawings, jottings and other stuff, are lost’’.

Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, who is also the President of the Ray Society, said he was ‘‘appalled’’ and wanted the Ray family to take ‘‘immediate action’’. Angshu Sur, Director of the Calcutta Film Festival, reacted with disbelief.

‘‘The first thing the family or the Ray Society should have done is to lodge a complaint. How can the scripts disappear from their own residence? Why don’t they keep it in the archives?’’ he demanded.

Actor Madhabi Mukherjee, who won critical acclaim for playing the eponymous role, was crestfallen at the news.

‘‘Its a pity. But then even I am to blame. Ray had given me a film script of Charulata written in his own hand, but I have lost it, too. I was unmarried then and I guess somebody just threw it away. But I hope that Ray’s Charulata remains alive to the world through the film,’’ she said.

Filmmaker Mrinal Sen — Satyajit Ray’s contemporary — was surprised, though he admitted that many of his scripts, too, have been lost to eternity.