By Ranjan Das Gupta
On Satyajit Ray’s 99th birth anniversary (May 2), his countless admirers have reason to rejoice. Ray Society in association with Penguin Random House is bringing out a collection of English translations by Satyajit Ray of his grandfather Upendra Kishore Ray, father Sukumar Ray and his own. The book will be launched after the lockdown.
“The rare book will have English translations of Tuntunir Boi, Heshoram Hushiarer Diary and Abol Tabol (Nonsense Rhymes). Additionally Profesor Shanku, some Pheluda stories and select ones authored by Baba will be there. All translations from Bengali to English are by Baba himself,” said Sandip Ray, the director’s son.
“The name of the book is Three Rays. A select number of stories from Tuntunir Boi, poems of Nonsense Rhymes, Professor Shanku and Feluda will appear. The translations of Feluda appeared in the 80s in a Kolkata based magazine Target. Professor Shanku translations in the 80s appeared in British publication Dutton. Ray’s earlier books are Our Films Their Films, Deep Focus and English translation of Bishoy Chalachitra,” Sandip added.
Besides scripting, directing, composing music and drawing illustrations, Satyajit Ray was an author of substance. Be it science fiction, children’s tales or detective stories he excelled in his writing skills. Ray’s writings be in English or Bengali were reader friendly yet substance oriented and optimistic in approach and style.
The legend was deeply inspired by works of Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay, Rabindranath Tagore and Munshi Premchand. Arthur C Clark, Anthony Chekov and Ernest Hemingway were also his favourites. Ray firmly believed the roots of classical literature lay in intelligent humanist approaches. Going overboard with any cause or emotion was never his forte.
The proverbial British essence of restrain was there in all Ray creations, be it literature, scripts, direction or composing. During an interview to me for a leading weekly in 1991 he mentioned, “Restrain at the right juncture is required to let creativity blossom. Every aspect of a creation has its own beauty.”
KA Abbas did say that according to him the only three examples in international cinema when a film became as famous as its literary version were Gone With The Wind, How Green Was My Valley and Pather Panchali. Satyajit Ray always confessed that literature, cinema and drama had individual languages of their own. None could be compared easily.
Ray’s illustrious grandfather and father are household names of Bengali literature. They blended basic emotions, social concerns and humour brilliantly. So did Satyajit Ray. His humour was full of intelligence and wit. Above all he abhorred vulgarity and popular gimmicks to play to the galleries. Satyajit Ray was certainly not a Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay as an author. But he did carve himself a secure niece as an author who matters even today. For children oriented literature he firmly believed to speak and write in the language of a child sans complications.
According to Sandip, “It took a few years for me to collect all the stories and put them together. Since Penguin Random House has maximum rights of Ray’s earlier English works he gave it to Penguin for publishing. Ray Society was formed after the sad demise of Satyajit Ray. In the middle 90s it was formed to preserve, restore and put in order all of Ray’s works. DN Ghosh is President, Arup Dey is the CEO and I am Member Secretary.”
I remember my discussion with Mrinal Sen in 2018, months prior to his demise, at his residence. I was praising Feluda’s stories. Sen disagreed. He said, “I am not impressed by Feluda. The sleuth’s adventures don’t appeal to me. But with Professor Shanku, Manikbabu (Satyajit Ray) has proved how good and versatile he is as an author. The way he appeals even I cannot.”
(The author is a senior
freelance journalist)
Photo courtesy: Ray Society