E-Paper
Ray still radiates on the Riviera
A journey that began down a ?little road? has gone up many freeways around the world in 50 years, writes Saibal Chatterjee.
The first time Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road) was screened 49 years ago, it was banished to the midnight hour. Only one jury member was present in the auditorium and the film seemed destined for international oblivion until Andre Bazin, celebrated film critic and Cahiers du Cinema co-founder forced yet another show of Pather Panchali. The entire jury watched the film and awarded it a special Best Human Document prize.
This time around, Satyajit Ray’s masterly first film isn’t obviously up for an award, but as Professor Dilip Basu of the University of California Santa Cruz and the prime mover of the global effort to restore and preserve his body of work, pointed out before the screening, it did command a prime time slot in the 58th Cannes Film Festival’s crowded schedule.
The screening of Pather Panchali kicked off the Cannes Classics series in the presence of Sharmila Tagore, who was discovered by Ray in the third film of the famed Apu trilogy, Apur Sansar.
“The fact that a film made 50 years ago can still draw so many people to a movie hall thousands of miles away from the filmmaker’s beloved Bengal is evidence of Ray’s skills as a communicator. I am really proud and honoured today that a bit of my career is inextricably intertwined with that of such a master,” Tagore said.
The most significant announcement of the evening, however, came from a representative of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which has been spearheading the restoration efforts with Prof. Basu’s Satyajit Ray Film and Study Collection.
“We have already restored 16 of his 37 films in a project that began way back in 1992 (the year Ray won an Oscar for Lifetime Achievement). That was when we first discovered that the negatives of his films were falling apart. We will continue this work until all his films have been fully restored,” he said.
Prof. Basu is a trifle annoyed that the French television channel, TV5, has scheduled a show of Pather Panchali with an “old, poor print” during the ongoing Cannes Film Festival. “If only they had got in touch with us, we would have given them a print with the restored elements,” says. “The print we have brought to Cannes has French subtitles.”
Minor glitches apart, the Satyajit Ray legacy has survived half a century of neglect and poor upkeep. With the Academy committed to saving it forever, hope lives on. A journey that began down a “little road” has gone up many freeways around the world in 50 years. Seeing the way Ray still radiates on the Riviera, the sparkle is far from being in danger of a fadeout.
