Despite having to live in Satyajit Ray’s shadow, Sandip Ray has carved an identity of his own as a film maker.
Sandip Ray can afford to bask in the glory of his last film, Gorosthaney Sabdhan, the Feluda mystery, which released in 2010. This was his fifth film on detective Prodosh Chandra Mitter, created by his father, Satyajit Ray, in the mid-1960s, after Baksho Rahasya (2001), Bombaiyer Bombete (2003), Kailashey Kelenkari (2007) and Tintorettor Jishu (2008). Gorosthaney Sabdhan is Ray’s most complex, yet successful Feluda film.
“If I want to dedicate my entire career to making Feluda films, I don’t think there will be any dearth of producers. They queue up for my Feluda films,” says Ray. For the record, against his five, Satyajit Ray made only two Feluda films: Joi Baba Felunath and Sonar Kella. The films revolve around Feluda’s adventures as he cracks mystery after mystery along with his cousin, Tapesh Ranjan Mitra or Topshe, and friend Lolmohon “Jatayu” Ganguly. All told, Satyajit Ray wrote 35 Feluda mysteries; so there is a lot of ground his son can cover.
But Ray’s acquired identity as the film director who revived the cult detective is a bit of an irony. The 56-year-old’s first independent work, Phatikchand, made in 1983, won him the National Award for best director as well as best film. Target, made in 1995 after Satyajit Ray’s death, was critically acclaimed internationally. Ray has made 13 films in all.
Living in the shadow of an illustrious father can be daunting. If someone felt it more than Ray, it was Satyajit Ray. In his last interview, to Independent of London, Satyajit Ray had famously said: “He is handicapped by the additional weight of being my son…” Ray is only too aware of it. “No matter how much we shielded him from this criticism, he was very accessible. He liked interacting with people; so, much of what was being said about my work came back to him.”
People believed that Phatikchand was Satyajit Ray’s work. “That was after I had strictly forbidden him to come for shooting. But when tongues started wagging, anyway, I told him he should come every day,” Ray recalls.
More From This Section
In a career that probably began when he was in his early 20s, Ray has taken the difficulty of being Satyajit Ray’s son in his stride. “I understand that people expect a lot from me. But at some point, you have to forget and move ahead; otherwise you will not be able to work. You can’t please everybody,” he says. And he has moved on. In fact, his plate is full. The next Feluda is already in the works — probably Royal Bengal Rahasya-and, after that, a ghost story written by Satyajit Ray.
“Royal Bengal Rahasya is one of my favourite Feluda stories. But it was written at a time when wildlife protection rules were not so stringent. Feluda has been modernised to an extent, so we can’t move back in time. We have to keep the rules in mind,” Ray explains. Of course, he would have liked to do Joto Kando Kathmandute, but the environment is not conducive for that at the moment.
At some point in time, he will also make a film on another cult figure created by Satyajit Ray, Professor Shonku, a scientist well versed in 69 languages. “This is the right time to do a Shonku because technology will make it possible. It (series) has to start with a bang, if I can get the right producer,” Ray says.
Phatikchand may be Ray's first film, but he had been operating the camera for Satyajit Ray for long. “He started involving me gradually. In Shatranj ke Khiladi, he asked me to operate one of the cameras for the last scene. I was petrified,” remembers Ray. But slowly he got into the groove. He was the director of photography in Satyajit Ray’s last three films — Ganashatru, Shakha Proshakha and Agantuk.
Post-production work always fascinated Ray, who grew up on the sets of his father's films and picked up the grammar of film-making from the unit members. “The unit members were my real friends. I didn’t want to bother my father during shooting, so my numerous questions were reserved for the unit members,” he adds. Though Satyajit Ray never really trained his son, he was an institute in himself. It was just about enough observing him during the shoots. The timing of the shoots was planned to coincide with Ray’s school vacations. Phatikchand's first cut was two hours and 20 minutes. When Satyajit Ray saw the film, he said it should not be more than one hour and 45 minutes, but left it to his son to figure out what to edit. He did figure out, after a week.
It’s difficult for Ray to pinpoint when he began to take an active interest in films. It was something that came naturally to him, and despite the criticism, he never really thought of doing anything else. Pratidwandi can probably be taken as his starting point, where he was a still photographer, though it was in Seemabaddha that his name got added in the rolling credits as a still photographer along with Nemai Ghosh.
Like his father, Ray too has dabbled in different things. “I had a strong interest in graphics and it started with Hirak Rajar Deshe. The art work for my father's later films was done by me,” he says. He also edits Sandesh, the first children’s illustrated monthly magazine, started by his great- grandfather, Upendrakishore Raychowdhury, an institution of sorts. Ray’s grandfather, Sukumar Ray, best known for his nonsense rhymes, is another institution. He is also Ray's pick among the legendary Rays. “He is my personal favourite,” he says.
To be cast in the shadow of an illustrious father may be daunting, but to carry forward a legacy of three generations of talent can be as much an asset as a liability. Ask Ray.
