Ray of life

Arindam Sarkar

National Book Trust (NBT), India, is planning to come out with the first national biography of eminent filmmaker Satyajit Ray in Bengali on his birthday on May 2, 2015.  Soon after that, NBT would release the biography of another famous Bengali Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee.

These two books would be released four years after the NBT published the biographies of two Bengali theatre thespians Shambhu Mitra, which is written by his daughter Shaoli Mitra, and Utpal Dutta that is written by Arup Mukhopadhyay.

According to Bratin Dey, assistant editor of NBT, these works were part of the national biography series of NBT. The NBT has planned to publish historical documents of such personalities who made significant contribution in different spheres of Indian life. After publishing the biographies of Satyajit Ray and Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, we want to work on the life and times of Jamini Roy, Ramkinkar Baij and Jyoti Basu.

Eight months back, NBT commissioned Arup Mukhopadhyay to write the biography of Satyajit Ray. Couple of months back, the author submitted the manuscript to the publisher. It was Satyajit Ray’s son, film director Sandip Ray, who recommended Arup’s name to NBT since he had interacted with his father and was much praised for Utpal Dutta’s biography.

“After Marie Seton’s "Portrait of a Director" and Andrew Robinson’s "The Inner Eye", the NBT’s biography is going to be an authoritative work,” said Arup Mukhopadhyay, who edits Utpal Dutta’s magazine “Epic Theatre”, whose golden jubilee volumes have now hit the stands.

The 500-page Satyajit Ray biography would have 70 to 80 pictures of the maestro and his works, important documents and his correspondence with eminent film directors and personalities of the world. This biography is just not a narration of maestro’s life. But it takes a critical look at his works and evaluates the opinions of the film critics of the world, claims Arup Mukhopadhyay.

The biography begins with Ray’s childhood and then covers his youth, life in Shantiniketan, Kolkata and England, stint in advertising world and his initial interest in films. “In 1955 Pather Panchali was released. It was a turning point in his life. In 1961, He began writing Professor Shonku, he revived Sandesh, emerged as a music composer and made a documentary on Rabindranath Tagore. In 1965, he created Feluda. And he never looked back as a director and a writer,” said Arup Mukhopadhyay.

Arup Mukhopadhyay said a lot of research has gone into producing this biography. After all, Ray was a multi-layered and a multi-faceted personality. Ray did not write an autobiography. His essays on films and other subjects are collected in his two books Our Films, Their Films and Deep Focus. “I am grateful to the Ray Society for all the assistance they gave me to write the maestro’s life and times,” said Arup Mukhopadhyay.

Bratin Dey said the NBT expects the biography of Satyajit Ray to be a hit and popular among the readers.