MALAYALAM
The master’s craft
K. KUNHIKRISHNAN
APUVINODOTHULLA ENTE DINANGAL: Autobiography of Satyajith Ray; Translated by Leela Sarkar; Green Books Private Limited, Ayyanthole, Thrissur-680003. Rs. 90.
SATHYAJITH RAY, one of the world’s greatest masters of cinema of the 20th century, was also an outstanding writer, publisher, and illustrator. This part of his autobiography is about the trials and tribulations he went through in the early part of his career as film maker, from 1952 to 1959, and it makes a gripping reading.
His first film, Pather Paanchali, shot on a shoe-string budget in three years, won critical acclaim and had long runs in India and abroad. Based on Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay’s novel, the film set the parallel cinema on course. Thanks are due to Mrs. Vijay Rai, for retrieving the manuscript in draft form and in editing and publishing it.
The problems of film-making those days were enormous. Financiers did not support him. He had Subrata Mitra as cameraman and Bansi Chandragupta as art director and they all achieved great acclaim along with Ray.
It was with Rs.17,000 that Ray started to shoot his first film. That was the money he had with him by way of saving and after pledging his wife’s ornaments. Finally it was out of the loan from West Bengal Government that Pather Paanchali was completed.
The difficulties he faced during the years he made the Apu trilogy are detailed movingly. The book is well translated, but the absence of the ‘blue pencil’, especially where the technical aspects of cinema are discussed, is conspicuous.
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