Memoir Captures the Man Behind the Iconic Director

[1]

THE MAESTRO would have turned 90 this month (read May 2), had he been alive. And continued to create magic with his cinematic sensibilities across the 70 mm canvas of celluloid. Two decades after his demise, Academy Award winning pioneering auteur of Indian filmdom, Satyajit Ray, still inspires the contemporary breed of movie moguls and filmmakers with his illustrious range of repertoire. His thought-provoking films leave a lasting impression on every avid cineaste and inquisitive film student’s mind that has ever watched them with focused interest.
Fondly called and remembered as Manikda in his close circles, Ray is a phenomenon in his own right. True to his pet-name Manik, his reel-rubies are a treasure to delight in. Leading doyen lensman Nemai Ghosh pays fitting tribute to this internationally acclaimed versatile genius and his most revered mentor in his fresh new offing, Manik-Da: Memories of Satyajit Ray. A perfect gift to a bibliophile or an curator to browse through, the title is published by HarperCollins India. The paperback edition discloses in its simplicity the ease and camaraderie that existed between one of India’s finest filmmakers and his protégé, a photographer extraordinaire.
There was this thirst of a creator in his eyes, always. A keen observer, Nemai Ghosh had perspicaciously tracked down Manikda’s movements by every inch and freeze-framed his activities mostly on the sets and sometimes off it amongst his familial surroundings. “I first visited Manikda on his Bhooter Rajar (Ghost-king) set from the famous children’s allegorical fable Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne, which was put up in the Rampurhat jungle area of West Bengal. As the sequence goes, Bagha was dozing off underneath a tree-shade, while water droplets trickling down from the leaves ceaselessly conjured a bizarre beat on his trademark drum, placed beside him. Noted art director Bansi Chandragupta had actually invited me to the sets to catch that particular day’s shoot and meet the man of all reasons. And it was at his behest that I could gather enough confidence and courage to go and get a glimpse of my favourite filmmaker, meticulously calling the shots for one of his masterpieces. Eminent Banshida then introduced me to Manikda and the cinematic genius uttered words of appreciation looking at one of my photographs taken on the sets then and there. Well, that was the defining turning-point of my life. He said, tumi toh amar angle mere diyechho (You’ve clicked one of my preferred camera angles in the picture) and patted me on the shoulder, insisting to keep up the good job. No sooner had he encouraged my craft than I got refuged under his wings and ever since, the amicable association remained inseparable till he left us behind with his august legacy,” recollects a nostalgic Nemaida with a strain of emotion in his voice.
Of late, the book was launched amidst much fanfare at Kolkata’s Starmark bookstore by none other than national award-winning critically appraised Bengali filmmaker and a die-hard Ray admirer, Rituparno Ghosh.
Widely known as a Ray specialist, Nemaida has photographed every aspect of the great stalwart at work from 1967 till he breathed his last in 1992. This ace photo-biographer of the Oscar recipient — who had accepted the golden statuette on his death-bed at a ripe age of 71 — endeavours to unveil the man behind the director’s mantle in his myriad moods and moments, while wielding the megaphone on the sets or without it at his private space.
“The Bengali version of the book was earlier published by Bingsha Shatabdi publications. But his English volume has been long overdue I feel,” he volunteers. For those not in the loop, a Delhi based cultural organisation is busy coordinating on archiving the master filmmaker’s rich arsenal of works to preserve his inimitable legacy for posterity. An array of 101 photographs by Nemaida has been acquired from Kolkata-based reputed Mon Art Galerie. “It will travel to both Paris and Rome for a twin-gallery show to be shortly hosted by the ICCR,” he chips in. Also on the cards is a five-city tour of a photographic exhibition in Europe, including Barcelona and Madrid in Spain, to be held sometime this year.
Reflecting back, Neemaida rues over the forgery of one of his milestone vignettes — Renaissance Men: Satyajit Ray and Ravi Shankar in Calcutta, having got clicked in 1983. “The photograph was forged over a DVD cover. I did slap a lawsuit afterwards for a fast-track settlement and sued many other akin agencies for similar such breaches to back my case and a genuine cause. But how long can we artistes pick up a bone to go on fighting against piracy,” he sounds perturbed, raising a potent issue to mull over.
Like a true jewellery connoisseur makes no mistake in judging the hallmark of gold or other precious stones and bonafide metals, similarly, Ray too had a sharp eye in spotting raw talents and harnessing them to a perfect finish. At the initial sighting of Ghosh’s snapped images, the cinematic virtuoso could detect a sign of promising potential in the former’s keen artistic sense of photography and, hence, prodded him further to pursue his calling with an undeterred passion. As a result, the shutterbug has amassed a bulk of 95,000 portraits on Ray alone. Thanks to his uncanny affinity towards the man who epitomised an institution in himself. Thus, a partnership was coalesced to span over a quarter of a century. The persona became an integral subject of Ghosh’s photo album and preoccupied most of the part of his analogue gadget, expelling any extra light.
Ray had immediately found in Ghosh, a like-minded spirit who he felt would intuitively understand his requirements and so did he in return. Both shared some good reciprocal vibes and built up a strong bond of bonhomie between them. In the process, Nemaida was granted permission to capture the avant-garde arthouse filmmaker at work and play, thereby arresting on film a mosaic of his diverse, unplugged moods.
The brand new cherishable asset is a collector’s prized possession at his library bookstands. It is a 128 page-turner of over 50 exquisite, hitherto never-seen stills, printed in resplendent black-n-white chromes. The tome is a carefully nuanced and lucid translation of the Bengali original and contains a perceptive foreword by Sharmila Tagore, former censorboard chairperson, a doyen Indian actress of recognition and above all, Ray’s discovery in her debut vehicle, Apur Sansar. The introductory foreword aptly presents Ghosh’s thoughts on Ray to a wider cross-sectional reach of English readers in great depth and with crystal clarity.
Well-known for his snapshots of Ray and from the latter’s films, Ghosh has exhibited his oeuvre at Cannes in 1991, at London in 1992 and several times at Delhi and Kolkata, back home. Besides, Nemaida is accredited as the author of Faces of Indian Art: Through the Lens of Nemai Ghosh, Satyajit Ray: A Vision of Cinema (with Andrew Robinson), Satyajit Ray at 70, et al.