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His different strokes

Films apart, Satyajit Ray, whose 85th birth anniversary is celebrated this month, had a distinctive style as an illustrator and graphic designer

MAN OF MANY TALENTS While Satyajit Ray's filmmaking ability is celebrated world over, his contribution in other fields, especially illustrations and graphic design, was also significant

In October 1952, a young Bengali filmmaker set out to shoot his maiden film, with Rs. 8,000 in his bank account and an eight-member unit. He had no screenplay, just a visual script of dynamic sketches and scribbling. The film took two-and-a-half years to complete and when released, it changed the course of Indian cinema. Its maker went on to make 27 more feature films in a career spanning four decades and came to be hailed as one of the greatest filmmakers of the 20th Century. If he were still alive, Satyajit Ray would have been 85 this month.

While his filmmaking was celebrated, Manik-da's contribution to several other fields was just as significant. "Satyajit Ray's first ambition was, doubtless, to be a graphic designer," wrote artist-scholar K.G. Subramanyan in his article "The Graphic Talent of Satyajit Ray" (Santiniketan, November 1996). "Like his grandfather, who died about six years before he was born, and his father, who died when he was barely two-and-a-half years old, Satyajit had a natural talent for drawing."

After completing his honours in Physics and Economics in 1940, a 19-year-old Ray accepted his mother's suggestion and enrolled to study painting at Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan, though he never meant to be a painter. There he came under the spell of masters like Nandalal Bose and Benode Behari Mukherjee and later confessed that the years spent in Santiniketan were among the most rewarding in his life. "It was there that I learnt to look at nature, how to respond to nature and how to feel the rhythm of nature... If Santiniketan did nothing else it induced contemplation and a sense of wonder in the most prosaic and earth-bound of minds. It had brought me an awareness of our tradition which I knew would serve as the foundation for any branch of art I wished to pursue."

Much as he valued his stay in Santiniketan, he could not continue there for long. "There were no films there (in Santiniketan)," said Ray, who abandoned his studies and returned to Calcutta. In June 1943, Ray joined D.J. Keymer, then one of the biggest ad agencies in India, as an assistant visualiser. Within a few yearshe rose to become the company's art director. He also worked for the publishing house Signet Press as a commercial illustrator, becoming a leading typographer and book-jacket designer.

Amazing range

In his introduction to the commemorative volume Satyajit Ray: An Intimate Master, Santi Das reveals that Ray had a distinctive style as an illustrator and graphic designer. "He never repeated himself, and moved with ease from brushwork to pen and ink, from black and white to colour. Even his shooting scripts, with the shots sketched in, were works of art. There have been few professional artists or designers who have such a wide range."

Subramanyan explains that the highpoint of Satyajit's graphic work was in his book jackets, innovative typography, posters and hoardings he designed for his own films and scribbled visuals for the shooting of Pather Panchali. "These show flair, taste, originality, playfulness and a power of invention hitherto rare in the Indian design scene."

In his later years, Ray was very guarded in references to his graphic work. When an exhibition of them was organised in Delhi in 1990, he wrote a small note in the catalogue: "Since I consider myself primarily to be a filmmaker and secondly to be a writer of stories for young people, I have never taken my graphic work seriously and never considered it as worthy of being exposed to the public."

Subramanyan, however, dismisses these assertions. He believes that Ray's graphic talent not only impacted the design scene in Bengal but extended to his own films as well. "His films too, at least some of them, reveal it in ample measure in the image detail, tone and texture of the general presentation and the conjuring up of an atmosphere charged with various shades of emotion, all on the basis of various kinds and grades of visual stimuli."

In his own lifetime, Ray's mastery over the cinematic medium came to be recognised worldwide. He received numerous awards and commendations including the Magsaysay Award, Deshikottama by Vishwabharati University, the Legion of Honour (the highest honour of France), Padma Vibhushan and doctorates from several universities. In 1992, shortly before his death, he was awarded an Oscar for lifetime achievement in cinema. That year he was also conferred the Bharat Ratna.

ATHREYA

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