Today being the birthday of Satyajit Ray the internet is flooded with articles remembering the genius of Ray, his impact on Indian cinema, his impact on Western filmmakers and so on. It has been 25 years since Ray has passed away. A quarter of a century has passed but still Bengali cinema has not been able to get out of the Ray nostalgia. Now you may argue that nostalgia, be it about Tagore or Ray, is an integral part of Bengali culture and thus this is unavoidable. Maybe this is true to a great extent but I want to argue why the time is ripe to move away from the Ray nostalgia for the Bengali parallel cinema to go back to its glory days. And moreover, the death of Rituparno Ghosh has exaggerated this need to move away from this Ray nostalgia.
Both Aparna Sen and Rituparno Ghosh were two directors who kind of inherited Ray's style to a large extent and this was inevitable because of being so close to Ray's time. (Aparna Sen has frequently mentioned that Bengalis have received Tagore and Ray as some kind of inheritance). The two films Aparna Sen made in the early 80s, 36 Chowringhee Lane and Parama had traces of Ray's influence but were original in its own way. Both movies were directed in a much more aggressive way than Ray would have ever done. I suppose since Ray was still working in the 80s Aparna Sen made a conscious effort to be different. In case of Rituparno Ghosh, the influence was much stronger but by the end of his career he had developed his own style too. Jeevan Smriti, Rituparno's last work, which is a documentary on Tagore is surely better and quite different than Ray's documentary on Tagore, the earlier being much personal and emotional than the latter. Although Rituparno's portrayal of female characters was influenced by Ray it was more nuanced and much more emotional. I feel Rituparno's characterisation of women is much closer to Aparna Sen than to Ray. This can be very well understood if you watch Parama, Dahan and Utsav. Being influenced by a certain director is natural, but it is important to develop a personal style which is distinctively different. The best example of this is Wes Anderson. He is a western director whose work has been extensively influenced by Ray. He even made his Ray homage film, The Darjeeling Limited, but nowadays a Wes Anderson movie can be identified just by its style.
Handling rural issues
Ray is a director of the bhodrolok, he is a director of the city. In my eyes, Calcutta trilogy and Jana Aranya are Ray's best works. Ray's understanding of Calcutta is surely much refined than his understanding of rural Bengal. In the Apu trilogy, only Pather Panchali is a truly rural story. Ashani Sanket is another not so great an attempt of Ray at understanding the rural life. Ritwik Ghatak, although was too melodramatic, had a better understanding of rural Bengal. Titas ekti nadir naam corroborates that fact. Ray, in some of his interviews also has expressed his disappointment at not being able to address rural issues better.
Today also Bengali cinema is lacking in the same area. Parallel Bengali cinema needs to indulge in portraying the nuances of the struggles of rural Bengal. Rural Bengalis are going through a significant phase change in their lifestyles. This change has to be captured efficiently on silver screen. Also, tackling the issues of mofussil is also needed. These are areas where directors can develop their own styles. Kaushik Ganguly's Cinemawallah does a good job in depicting the mofussil life.
Rather than pandering to petty middle-class sentiments, Bengali parallel cinema needs to portray the issues the "daily passeneger" class faces. I am not saying that movies about the posh bhadrolok should not be made. But probably at this juncture, a movie like Shobdo or Labour of Love is more necessary than an Apur Panchali or Antaheen. Movies need to speak a universal language. Ray's films did that, but now we have to move away from his style. We cannot delve in the same nostalgia for 30 more years. It's high time the filmmaker of the aantel learns to make movies which rather cater to the "aam janata" than to the scotch-drinking bhodrolok of South Calcutta.
