Remembering Ray
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Between life and death, Satyajit Ray left an indelible imprint.
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Several aspects of the artistic personality of Satyajit Ray are well known except few that complete the full montage of the great maestro. He came four times to Varanasi, last in 1977 when he was busy shooting "Joi Baba Felunath".
"And I will never come here", he declared then when he was injured by a stone thrown at him by someone watching the shooting. This happenedat the banks of the Ganga near Bengali Tola, a popular spot for Bengali residents in Varanasi. Just after that injury, Ray packed up and asked this criticif there was a Bangla Press here. We rushed to a traditional old block-printing press of Bangla letters. It was early in the day and at night, a two-paged Bangla tabloid was distributed in Bengali Tola carrying Ray's declaration as the banner , "I will never come to Kashi" ("Ami ar kokhono kashi ashbona"). But the remarkable thing which one wants to emphasise here is Ray was using the same kind of artistry, which he intrinsically used in making a film, in the process of that tabloid printing. It was not craft but artistry. "Artistry in making a film is the primary factor for completing a film, which finally you call the aesthetic essence of the film. " Next morning he quietly took a sip of typical Banarasi chai after completing a shot over Kedar Ghat, and said, "As Dostoevsky used to say, beauty will save the world, artistry in writing is the faculty to write well and a non-artistic piece never attains its purpose, moreover, it harms the cause it is expected so serve. In a similar way I think of artistry. It is very much present here naturally in this incomparable atmosphere, the Ghats, the morning, the sunrise, the lights, the shadows, lanes of Ganesh Mohalla and Bengali Tola, the curves, the pattern, windows, realigns, verandas and the widows..' The film was released in India in 1979.
Traumatic condition
And we were together in April 1992 in Kolkata again but in a traumatic condition for we were approaching the nursing home for his final deliverance. He was facing death. Very few, faint words, one could hear coming from his mouth."I am now even unable to speak but still have the images stored inside my heart. The Durga temple of Varanasi, the light on Ganga before sunrise, the morning, the pigeons taking flight... circular sweeps in the sky.." On Tuesday, April 23 April, his tall figured body was no more.
On May 2, we celebrated his first birthday without him in Varanasi but with his recorded voice - "It is difficult to appreciate a work of art. It is necessary to stress the fact that to be able to tell a work of art from a work of mere craftsmanship calls for a trained response. Only a rasika can appreciate the work of art. Good art is a good conduct of being humane in the society. Only good art retains the eternal essence of the artiste."
GAUTAM CHATTERJEE
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