Ray was an auteur without parallel

He had mastery over every aspect of filmmaking. May 2 marked his birth centenary

May 2 marks the birth centenary of one of the greatest filmmakers in the world. Satyajit Ray, the pride of our nation, was honoured with the Academy award (Oscar) for lifetime achievement, a doctorate from Oxford University and 32 national awards. He was also a recipient of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award. The Indian government conferred on him its highest civilian title, the Bharat Ratna.

I have watched his debut film ‘Pather Panchali’ (1955) again and again. Interestingly, with each viewing, I find something new, and I am awestruck by the profound knowledge he displayed while translating his ideas onto celluloid.

Each and every image of the film is etched in my memory. It influenced me so much that instead of just watching and enjoying, I began reading about films and appreciating them in a whole new way.

Later, when I watched his other films, I felt his towering presence, even though he always remained behind the screen.

He was truly a Renaissance man, an auteur who had complete control over all the aspects of his films. He was not only a director but also a scriptwriter, cinematographer, editor, lyricist, music composer, costume designer, illustrator, calligrapher and graphic designer. Even in films where he had other technicians working for him, he always had the final say.

As an artist who had earlier worked in an advertising agency, he had the skill to prepare the storyboards for his films, sketching every detail of camera angles, lighting, positions and movements, costumes, and the sets. His precise storyboarding brought clarity to how every scene had to be shot. He believed every shot has a specific reason in depicting the past, present and the future, sometimes metaphorically.

In the movie Charulata (1964) the loneliness of Charulata is portrayed through images of doors, windows and grills, showing the interrelationship between the indoors and the outdoors, the inward and the outward, the present and the future, openness and closeness and even the birth and death of her emotions.

She uses a pair of binoculars to watch the inaccessible world to get closer to it and find her freedom. The camera zooms out from her, showing the reality of her confinement, boredom, monotony and suppression. Through her binoculars, she looks at what is bright outside, from a room that is dark. Here, the play of light of shadow brilliantly suggests her state.

His films generally seem slow but that is how his images linger. If one listens to the background scores, one gets drawn into the mood and the period of the film. Every detail meaningfully contributes to his storytelling.

His films paved the way for a parallel cinema, an alternative to the mainstream commercial cinema in India. The highly acclaimed Japanese director Akira Kurosawa once said, “Not to have seen the cinema of Ray means existing in the world without seeing the sun or the moon.”

For students of filmmaking, the iconic filmmaker will continue to educate and influence. He always dreamt of our large audiences becoming interested in realistic cinema. Let us hope the day will come soon.

(The author is a director, singer and actor)