The Last Years of Satyajit Ray

Following is an excerpt from ‘Ray On Ray: A Son Remembers’ by Ashoke Nag. (Om Books International, ₹395)

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Satyajit Ray received a crushing blow when he had his first heart attack in October 1983 and the second in March 1984. The Ray family visited Houston, Texas, for his cardiac surgery. His cardiologist, Dr Denton Cooley, felt that Ray could not withstand the rigours of film-making again. He was confined to editing stories by contributors for Sandesh, writing the odd article on films and translating writings by famous sci-fi writers like Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov. ‘What transpired during that exacting phase is that Father spiralled into a writers’ block cerebrally. It was an extremely depressing period for him. A prolific writer like him was experiencing a complete vacuum intellectually as far as original stories went,’ says Sandip.

An intensely sensitive human being like Satyajit Ray was the first to realize this creative crisis. But a genius like him, who would normally be putting in sixteen to seventeen hours of work every day, couldn’t sit in his study doing nothing. ‘Together with translating writings by Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov for Sandesh’s readers, he was intermittently penning articles on films or varying subjects for Sandesh and sending in the occasional piece to other journals when there was a request from the ABP group or some publishing set-up.’

It must be revealed here that Ray’s personal physician, Dr Dinesh Chandra Mullick, of south Calcutta’s well-known Puddapukur household, had shared with me that he had intervened and told other doctors who were treating Ray, especially cardiologist Dr Kanti Bakshi, that Ray would sink into Alzheimer’s if he was left to languish in this fashion.

This period was followed by a two- to three-year hiatus. ‘Then came an offer from the government inviting Father to make a documentary on his father Sukumar Ray to mark his centenary in 1987. Doctors decided that a documentary wouldn’t be too exhausting for Father. They also felt since the entire documentary would be shot in Calcutta, Father’s health parameters could be monitored by physicians. Thus, the risk perception was that much less. Father was tremendously enthused and plunged into intense research work. He read up reams of material revolving around Sukumar Ray. Thus crystallized the documentary Sukumar Ray.’

According to Sandip, during the crafting of the documentary, doctors discovered that the great man amazingly remained stable health-wise. ‘This led physicians to give the green signal to Father to also make feature-length films, but they attached a caveat: he would need to restrict himself to indoor shooting. This would help doctors to keep a check on his condition at intervals. Besides, an ambulance also stood by in the studio in case of an emergency,’ recalls Sandip.

Given that he could only create a film indoors, Ray made up his mind to focus on a play which could be transcreated within the confines of a film set. ‘Ibsen was always a favourite playwright of Father. Therefore, he chose Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People and drafted a screenplay and transposed the drama to an Indian context. A temple figured in Father’s film script, so he approached his art director Ashok Basu for his expertise in constructing a temple within the precincts of the studio. A temple came up in the back lot of Indrapuri Studio,’ shares Sandip.

In the run-up to the making of Ganashatru, Ray had visited the studio to get a clear picture of the sets and the lighting. Everything was set, yet on the eve of shooting, lightning struck. Ray suffered from irregular heartbeats, was administered medicines, and was advised by doctors to rest in bed. The film director’s fate, as also the film’s, hung in balance. ‘I went into a meeting with Dr Kanti Bakshi and Dr Dinesh Chandra Mullick to discuss the way ahead. We mulled the option of deferring shooting by a day and starting work the day after,’ says Sandip. But Dr Mullick dissented. He said that ‘if Manik learns that shooting has been put off because of his poor health condition, he will sink into a depression, resulting in a possible further deterioration in his state of health’.

‘By that time, Dr Bakshi had also got a feel of Father’s psyche and emotions. So we finally decided on delaying the call time for actors from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. We went across to Father and informed him that Ganashatru’s shooting was on and the camera would roll as scheduled the next day; we had just pushed back the call time a little,’ Sandip reveals.

The next day, Ray was definitely better and was accompanied by everybody in the car, together with his doctors, to the studio. The moment shooting took off, the doctors discerned an incredible transformation. Ray had become tremendously active and was showing no signs of being a serious cardiac patient. Being in his familiar environs, his much-cherished movie sets, had come as a huge fillip.

‘While Dr Mullick was almost constantly present on the sets to keep a track of Father’s blood pressure and his cardiac situation, Dr Bakshi would come across after wrapping up his chamber commitments,’ Sandip says. Ganashatru’s shooting went off without any further hiccups whatsoever. However, the doctors had imposed a stricture – Ray could not operate the camera himself and would need to leave that strenuous task to Sandip. Ray was obviously a trifle disenchanted. After all, he used to be unflinchingly positioned behind the camera from the time Charulata was shot. ‘Somewhat hesitantly, Father accepted the doctors’ diktat. Of course, having watched me operating the camera from the time I made my first feature, Fatikchand, he had complete faith in my camerawork. However, what was crystal clear was that he was bent on making films.’

Incidentally, Daniel Toscan du Plantier and Gérard Depardieu, both ardent admirers of the great film-maker, had arrived from Paris while the shooting of Ganashatru was in progress and exchanged ideas with Satyajit Ray, expressing their devout interest in embarking on a co-production with him. The planned movie would be produced under the banner of Satyajit Ray Productions and Plantier’s Erato Films.

With the Plantier–Depardieu offer cropping up, Ray decided to revisit an early draft of Shakha Proshakha he had written for the Bengali journal Ekkhon. He developed this rudimentary storyline into a full-blown screenplay. ‘It is an entirely original script and not based on any play or novel. Doctors, of course, again requested Father not to shoot outdoors. However, there was just one outdoor shooting in the script for which Father had to travel to Shukhna forest in north Bengal. Doctors agreed and made all arrangements so that it would not be strenuous for him. But despite his fragile cardiac condition, he pulled off the outdoor shooting remarkably. Nothing to be amazed about really, because he could bring off everything when it came to film-making or in any other field which interested him,’ says Sandip emotionally.

He goes on to add that Shakha Proshakha’s shooting coincided with the editing work of his own directorial venture, Goopy Bagha Phire Elo. ‘We used to be at the shooting of Shakha Proshakha during the day and return to the editing table for Goopy Bagha Phire Elo in the evening. In fact, both films were completed simultaneously,’ says Sandip.

According to Sandip, Satyajit Ray also travelled to Bombay for the mixing work of both Shakha Proshakha and Goopy Bagha Phire Elo at (V. Shantaram’s) Raj Kamal Kala Mandir. Ray’s seasoned mixing supervisor Mangesh Desai was attached to this outfit. ‘Sadly, however, Mangesh Desai had passed away by then. We had received news of this during the shooting of Batik Babu in Darjeeling. Batik Babu, featuring Iftekhar and Pankaj Kapur, was part of Doordarshan’s Satyajit Ray Presents series. Incidentally, Mangesh Desai’s understudy Hitendra Ghosh, who was a deft hand by then, helped Father as he went about with mixing the two films separately,’ enlightens Sandip. ‘The mixing exercise did not involve any physical stress on Father, only cerebral preoccupation. Therefore, he was perfectly alright,’ Sandip recalls.

After Ganashatru and Shakha Proshakha, doctors took stock of how Ray was feeling health-wise. Ray’s reply to them was positive, but a big hurdle for him was the rider from doctors of avoiding outdoors. This invariably threw up a dilemma for the virtuoso director. ‘Father loved shooting outdoors. Anyway, realizing that there was no way out of this state of affairs, he went back to his short stories and decided on one called “Atithi”,’ says Sandip. ‘Atithi’ was the springboard for Agantuk. There happened to be one outdoor stint in a couple of villages close to Santiniketan. Doctors did not object to Ray journeying to Bolpur for this shoot because it was close to Calcutta.

‘Agantuk’s shooting began with Utpal-da and the children at the Maidan. In fact, my son, Souradip, was born on that day. I remember Father visiting the Woodlands Nursing Home to get a glimpse of his grandson and then proceeding for shooting. NFDC’s production head was also present during the shooting. Agantuk progressed without a hitch in any way, except one technical fault in the camera and the film. Father discovered this aberration while he was editing the film. He decided against getting the sets constructed again and went for a “patch” shooting in his study. Utpal-da figured in the scene. I was operating the camera, but Father would always bend down to get a “look” of the shot. Once the shot was done, he exclaimed without a warning: “Done. I have said what I had to say.” I had a strange feeling, because a creative artist always found more thoughts to express. Anyway, after that shot, Utpal-da came up to Father and told him he had failed to match Father’s expectations. Father differed with him and said that without Utpal-da, the character of Manomohan Mitra would never have materialized.’

After Agantuk, Ray wondered what his next project would be. By this time, he had had several discussions with Dr Bakshi about the paucity of medical help in villages and virtually no life-saving drugs reaching rural areas. ‘This pained Father tremendously. He developed a screenplay along these lines and discussed it with Dr Bakshi and Dr Mullick to get the medical nitty-gritty right. He had titled his planned film Uttaran. Dr Bakshi and Dr Mullick requested Father to simplify the title. So he came up with an alternative title, “Jagaran”.’

Subsequently, the doctors realized that Satyajit Ray’s health was sliding further. Therefore, they suggested that he restrict his outdoor shooting close to Calcutta so that he could return home every day. ‘We went out scouting for villages within half an hour from Calcutta, but no village of the type Father was looking for could be traced near the city. After consulting with the doctors, it was decided I would shoot at the outdoor locales, while Father would restrict himself to the indoors. This was in 1991. But Father kept deteriorating. He was admitted to the Belle Vue Nursing Home and passed away in April 1992,’ says Sandip emotionally.

‘I was very reluctant to shoot the film, but was urged by NFDC and Soumitra Kaku to complete what would be a tribute to Father. He had cast Soumitra Chatterjee and Subhalakshmi in the main roles. Thus, when the production finance came through, I embarked on shooting the film, reverting to Father’s original title, “Uttaran”. I also roped in actors like Sadhu Meher whom Father truly liked. Shooting went off very smoothly and I tried to maintain his style, but it was impossible to achieve that touch. Holding on to his handwritten script, I shot the film in a total trance,’ says Sandip.

He goes silent. I switch off the tape-recorder.