Bhuvan Lall: Ray of hope in Goa

HOLLYWOOD REEL

Satyajit Ray is being honoured at the International Film Festival of India

In 1982, Indian film maestro Satyajit Ray was invited to attend the Cannes Film Festival and honoured, along with the other living legends of the cinema world. That year at Cannes, Ray suggested to the government of India that the travelling International Film Festival of India should be given a permanent home and located in a place like Goa.

Some 22 years later, the 35th edition of the International Film Festival of India is being held in Goa. Interestingly, this is also a year when the world is celebrating the 50th anniversary of Ray's classic "Pather Panchali."

Ray burst on the world stage in 1955 with "Pather Panchali," a coming-of-age film about a small Bengali village boy and his family. The film won the Best Human Document Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1956 and brought Ray instant fame. "Time" magazine described the movie as "the finest piece of filmed folklore since Robert Flaherty's 'Nanook of the North.'" Martin Scorsese described watching the Apu trilogy "� starting with "Pather Panchali," which follows Apu's growth - as one of the great experiences of his life.

After "Pather Panchali," Ray went on to establish a reputation as a true auteur, a craftsman and master storyteller who kept tight control of every aspect of his films "� writing, producing, designing sets and costumes and scoring them, in addition to directing.

Ray has been called the most sublime filmmaker since Jean Renoir and helped revolutionise world cinema from the 1950s to the 1970s. Greatly admired by Hollywood, Ray, who won almost every major prize in cinema, refused to work in America, fearing that his artistry would get lost amid the demands of the studio system.

In the eighties, Ray suffered two major heart attacks and had to refrain from film making for nearly five years. Despite his health he made "Ganashatru" (An enemy of the people), "Shakha Proshakha" (The Branches of The Tree) and "Agantuk" (The Stranger). In 1991 Ray's "Agantuk" went on to become one of the top 10 earners in Paris.

That year in Hollywood the governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) met to decide on the Oscar awards. Canadian film maker Norman Jewison got up to address the governors about the importance of the work of Ray to the world of cinema. Minutes later the 40 members of the board were unanimous that Ray should be awarded a "Lifetime Achievement Oscar" in recognition of his rare mastery of the art of motion pictures and for his profound humanitarian outlook. Unfortunately when the award was announced, Ray had suffered another heart attack and was confined to a hospital bed.

The Academy requested Prof. Dilip Basu, a University of California Santa Cruz history professor, to travel to Calcutta and present his mentor Ray with the Oscar. In March 1992, Basu with the Oscar in his briefcase reached the Calcutta hospital where Ray was being treated for his ailments to record the acceptance speech.

"When I saw his condition, I couldn't say a word," Basu remembers, "I had tears in my eyes."

Audrey Hepburn introduced Ray during the Oscars ceremony on March 30, 1992. The world heard the trembling film maker delivering his acceptance on a video screen as Ray talked of his long love affair with American cinema and the opus-length fan letters written to stars and directors.

"As a small schoolboy, I was terribly interested in cinema, became a film buff, wrote to Deanna Durbin, got a reply, was delighted. Wrote to Ginger Rogers, didn't get a reply. Then I wrote a 12-page letter to Billy Wilder after seeing `Double Indemnity.' He didn't reply either. Well, there you are."

Less than a month later on April 23, 1992, Ray, died at a Calcutta nursing home.

In July 1993 the original negatives of 18 of Ray's early films were found to be in critical condition and six Ray film classics including "the Apu Trilogy", "Music Room", "Two Daughters", and "Devi" burned in a mysterious fire in a London film laboratory. The Academy (AMPAS), along with Prof. Basu, began work on the restoration of Ray's films.

The negatives of 14 of his films have been fully restored. The Academy recently announced that it would pay for the costs of restoring the rest of the Ray films. Restored film elements are preserved at the Academy's vault (a vault in Calcutta is yet to be built); the original negatives, upon restoration, are returned to the producers in India at no cost to them.

This year, as Ray had once desired, the IFFI has been moved to Goa, where homage will be paid to his work and one of his restored films will be screened.

Tom Luddy, founder of Telluride Film Festival, who was a close friend of Ray, Michael Pogorzelski, director of AMPAS Archives, and Joseph Lindner, who along with Pogorzelski are in charge of Ray restorations at AMPAS, and Dilip Basu are flying to Goa to speak about the master film maker they all knew.

As Basu puts it: "Nobody makes movies like Satyajit Ray did."

(Lall is the president and CEO of LALL Entertainment, a company based in Los Angeles and New Delhi. He can be contacted at lallentertainment@hotmail.com)