This book brings together Satyajit Ray's major writings and talks on film making and film makers, and presents them
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English Pages 212 [230] Year 1994
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SATYAJIT RAY
OUR
FILMS THEIR FILMS
HYPE Rl O N NEW YORK
Acknowledgements I
Mr R. N. Das who first my talks and articles on when Mr Das was the manager
wish to thank
suggested that
in 1971,
put
I
was of Orient Longman,
together in a book
the cinema. This
Calcutta. I
am grateful
to the publishers for bearing with
long period of gestation.
The blame
me
through the
for the delay rests squarely
on
my shoulders. I had been careless in preserving my own published most of which lay scattered in the pages of film journals, film club bulletins, daily newspapers and various other periodicals. Thanks are due to the late Nemai Ghosh (of Chhinnamul fame) and Shri Sunit Sen Gupta for their invaluable help in retrieving writings,
some of the more
elusive pieces.
Finally, a special
word of thanks
to Shri
Nirmalya Acharya
helping the book along at every stage, from
emergence
its
inception to
for its
as a finished entity.
S.R.
Copyright
©
1994 Orient
Longman
Limited, India, and Merchant Ivory
©
Productions, Inc. First published in India All rights reserved.
No
part of this
manner whatsoever without
Orient
Longman Limited
book may be used or reproduced
1976.
in
any
the written permission of the Publisher. Printed in
the United States of America. For information address: Hyperion, 114 Fifth
Avenue,
New
New York
York,
1001 1.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ray,
Our
films, their films
/
Satyajit.
Satyajit
Originally published
:
Ray.
—
1st
U.S. ed.
cm.
p.
Bombay
:
Orient Longman, 1976.
Includes index.
ISBN 1.
Motion
0-7868-6122-3 pictures.
PN1994.R335 791.43
—dc20
I.
Title.
1994
94-16078
CIP
FIRST
10
U.S.
EDITION
987654321
&
Contents
Foreword
iv
Introduction
i
OUR FILMS What
Is
Wrong
17
with Indian Films?
Extracts from a Banaras Diary
A
Long Time on
the Little
19
25
Road
30
Problems of a Bengal Film Maker
38
Room
44
Winding Route to a Music Film Making 48
The Odds against Us 57 Some Aspects of My Craft Those Songs
72
Meetings with a Maharaja
An
Indian
New Wave?
Four and a Quarter
109
Renoir
in
in Calcutta
76
81
100
THEIR FILMS Some
63
Have Seen Hollywood Then and Now 128 Thoughts on the British Cinema Italian Films I
Calm Without, Fire Within Moscow Musings 162 The Gold Rush 168 Little Man, Big Book 172 Akira Kurosawa
180
Tokyo, Kyoto and Kurosawa
New Wave and Old
Master
Silent Films
A
199 Tribute to John Ford
Index
213
152
208
187
194
120
142
—
&
Foreword
‘Fame
invests a
—
man
with an aura of unapp reachability,’
Ray wrote
Ray (1921-92), one of the and one of the most kindly giants, was revered
of his fellow cineaste Jean Renoir. Satyajit giants of world cinema, for
many
tor,
professional
gifts
—
as the
complete film
composer), as a typographer and
man
dren’s monthly magazine, as a devisor of puzzles,
and
Few
storyteller.
rounded
fully
(writer, direc-
illustrator, as editor
artists
and
of a
chil-
as a novelist
of our century, however,
have been more approachable, on both a personal and a professional level,
than Bengal’s most modest and most
Apu
humane
film
maker,
The Music Room (1958), Devi (The Goddess, i960), Charulata (The Lonely Wife, 1964) and The
creator of the
Chess Players ( 1977 ).
Trilogy (i955~59)
—
The door
to Ray’s Calcutta
apartment was never
closed to anyone genuinely seeking his help.
A measure of the man, and of his genius as an informal teacher, can be gained from these succinct, diverse and often intimate film essays, first
gathered together and published in India in 1976.
telling,
The most
perhaps, are Ray’s frank, vivid and often wry descriptions of
the fashioning of his
own
films
—
the lessons he learned from the
first
shot taken for Pather Panchali; the misfortune that resulted from the hire of a crane for The Music Room; the poetic conclusion to a location
search for a maharaja’s tumbledown palace.
about the
art of
cinema not
at film school,
Ray
taught himself
but by taking, he
recalls,
on the Kurosawa
hieroglyphic notes in the auditorium; and his observations
work of his Masters
—Chaplin,
Billy Wilder, John Ford,
Here is both the enchanted and the technician pinpointing the effect cinematic moment, a man kicking a broken bottle into a
are invaluable for their dual perspective.
spectator of The Gold Rush,
of a true
ravine, in Ford’s Fort Apache.
John Pym
Introduction
A
maker rarely writes about films. He is either too busy making one, or too unhappy not to be able to make one, or too exhausted from the last one he made. Cocteau could write a film maker’s diary because he was a sort of superior dabbler who never knew the sustained pressures film
of professional film making. Eisenstein used words as copiously as he used celluloid; but then he a theoretician as
much
w as
a teacher and
r
as a film maker. Others
have written
about their films at the end of their careers. But by and large film their
makers have desisted from adding footnotes
to
own work.
This reticence has encouraged the growth of a mystique
which has helped the film maker
ego while
to sustain his
concealing his vulnerability. His ego
is
an indispensable
part of his equipment. With vast amounts of
money
at his
and a whole army of talents at his beck and call, he must work with a far greater sense of power than any other artist in any other field. The very word ‘Action’ with which he gets a scene going has the authentic ring of an army command. Indeed, he knows well that as long as the
disposal
film
is
in the
making, he
is
the one
who
is
expected to
dominate.
But once the making rates
and
is
over, the sense of
helplessness creeps in.
only answerable to
critics,
He
which
power evapo-
realises that
all artists are,
he
is
not
but to the
Our Films, Their Films
2
man who provided the wherewithal, and to the faceless millions who form the public pulse which must now beat with his film for the film
itself
not to
fall
by the wayside
and die. No wonder the film maker is reduced to a state of mute resignation. All he can do is wait for the next film to restore his ego by handing him back his mantle of authority. It
is
only in recent years that film makers have begun to
show signs of being articulate. Not in writing, though, and not on their own. Indefatigable critics armed with tape recorders have coaxed them out of their retreats, cajoled them into speech and faithfully recorded and transcribed every word. For obvious reasons, only directors with marked individualities and large followings have been chosen for this
purpose. If this has not led to a full-scale revelation
of the mysteries of creation, interesting glimpses of their
doing led
has at least given some
it
working methods, and by so
to a partial demystification
of the film making
process.
A
phenomenon has Quite a number of film
sort of reverse
recent times.
also taken place in critics
have given up
writing and switched over to film making. In France in the late fifties a
Cinema
whole group of young
left their
critics
from
Cahiers du
desks and started a now-celebrated film
movement. Similar things have
also
happened
in Britain
and elsewhere. It is interesting to observe that once the transition was made few went back to writing again. If I had my choice, most of the pieces in this book would not have been written at all. They are the outcomes of promises for articles and talks
moments
to various
not to say that
I
given
at
unguarded
magazines and organisations. This
is
regret having written them. In the unique
circumstances in which films are
made
in Bengal,
accounts of my experiences and working methods
some
may have
— Introduction
3
some value, at least for those in our country who would tread the same path but are not aware of the pitfalls. Some of the problems a film maker faces are of a general for all.
More
own unique
set of
nature, where one man’s solutions
would do
often than not, a film brings with
it its
Some may be
stumbling blocks.
may
call for effort.
disposed of easily, others
may
Yet others
prove wholly intract-
These usually end up by clinging tenaciously
able.
to the
which the director fervently hopes
film as blemishes
will
not be noticed.
A
lesson
conceal
is
have learnt and have been at pains not to
I
that film
demanding of all ‘creative’.
making
by
is
most physically
far the
activities that are dignified
The whole
by the epithet
process takes place in three broad
and editing. All three are creative; and the third one uses mainly one’s
stages: writing, filming
but while in the
first
head, the second calls for the use of cerebral, physical times.
Any
film
all
one’s faculties
—
and emotional going full steam at all maker who while at work bears any
resemblance to the popular conception of the
withdrawn individual is
in rapt
artist as
communion with
his
a
Muse
obviously shirking and has no business to be within
miles of a movie camera.
And
yet to one
who
relenting pressure, film else does. I
hope
I
survives the initial shock of un-
making
have been able
some of the unique excitement
The second part of foreign films.
I
offers
I
the book
to
rewards as nothing
convey in
get out of
is
my
my
workings
work.
mainly concerned with
have been making films for twenty-two
years. Before that, for
about the same length of time,
I
had
looked at other people’s films, mostly from other countries,
mainly American. In
my
childhood,
visits to
the cinema
Our Films, Their Films
4
were
with the delights
big, if infrequent, occasions filled
of the latest Chaplin or Keaton or Harold Lloyd. This was followed, in the early years of sound,
Hardy
When
ture phase.
choose vista.
by a Laurel-and-
phase, a Tarzan phase and a swashbuckling adven-
my own
I
was
diet.
Westerns,
fifteen or so, I
earned the right to
This led to a great opening up of the
gangster
comedies, dramas and
horror
films,
films,
musicals,
those other species which Holly-
all
wood served up with such expertise came tumbling my way to be lapped up with ever-increasing appetite. I noted each
in a
title
comments, and
pocket diary, adding brief
little
my own star rating.
The addiction
persisted through college, with
tant change of attitude
my
critical
:
the stars gave
way
one impor-
to directors as
had earlier learned to recognise the hallmarks of the major Hollywood studios. I could make out an film from a Paramount one, or a Warner’s production from a 20th Century Fox one, by the distinctive quality of finish which each major studio took special care to put on its products. It was described by the word ‘mounting’, and it was fun to try and make out what this mounting focus of interest.
I
MGM
consisted
marks of
now gave way to a study of the halldirectors. In what way was Ford different from of.
This
Wyler, or Wyler from Capra, or Capra from Stevens? This was precisely the point where
my
interest took a seri-
dawned on me stars, more than
ous turn. It had suddenly the studio,
more than the
the director
who
gave a distinguished film
that
more than it
was
mark of
dis-
the story, its
tinction.
After college and graduation,
I
went
to Santiniketan for
had vague plans for a career in gradrawing but needed a foundation of discipline to be able to make any use of it. With me went my small but precious collection of gramophone rea course in Fine Arts.
phic
arts. I
had a
I
flair for
Introduction
5
cords of classical western music. because, in leaving the city, hind. As
it
I
I
needed
was leaving
my second love my first love be-
turned out, the only cinema in the vicinity of the
campus was two miles away, had wooden benches for seats, and showed mythological films. This put me in the doldrums until I discovered in the shelves of the arts department library three books on the cinema. They were Rotha’s Film Till Now and the two books of theory by Arnheim ,
and Spottiswoode. I
Santjniketan in the middle of the
left
Japanese
months
air raids
after
my
first
spate of
over Calcutta in the winter of 1942. Six
home
return
I
got a job as a visualiser in
a British-owned advertising agency.. Calcutta
now
being a
base of operations in the war, Chowringhee was chock-a-
block with GIs.
The pavement book
stalls
displayed wafer-
and Time and the jam-packed cinelatest films from Hollywood. While I sat at my office desk sketching out campaigns for tea and biscuits, my mind buzzed with the thoughts of the films I had been seeing. I never ceased to regret that while I had thin editions of Life
,
mas showed the very
stood in the scorching
summer sun
in the wilds of Santi-
niketan sketching simul and palash in
full
bloom,
Citizen
Kane had come and gone, playing for just three days in the newest and biggest cinema in Calcutta.
Although Hollywood struck an extraordinarily rich vein
and my film going had never been more frequent nor more richly rewarding, I felt only partially eduat this time,
cated. All those great
names
Soviet cinema stared at
Sound
,
French and German and
in
me from
but there was no
way
I
the pages of Sight and
could get to see them.
Luckily some of the great film makers of Europe had in the
meantime migrated to encounter
to
Hollywood, and
I
was soon
thrilled
my first Hollywood-Renoir and my first Holly-
wood-Clair. This was followed by a sudden influx of Soviet
Our Films Their Films
6
,
saw the first part of Ivan the Terrible on a Sunday morning in a North Calcutta cinema. The Gothic gloom of the film, Cherkasov’s grand gestures, and the music of Prokofiev stayed with me all through the day and well into the night, until I fell asleep and found them back in a grotesque dream, in the middle of which I woke up gasping for breath. It turned out that a paan I had bought from a shop next to the cinema had never forget the day
films. I shall
I
,
me
given
my
quinsy, swelling the inside of
point where
I
throat to the
could barely breathe.
had taken out subscriptions to most of the film magazines in the English language and snapped up every film book I could lay my hands on. One of my most valued acquisitions was a second-hand copy
By
the time the
war ended,
I
of the screenplay of Rene Clair’s British film, The Ghost
me
gave
it
my
was
Goes West. This
and
first
encounter with a film
script,
the idea to start writing screenplays as a
pastime.
In the year of India’s independence
we formed
the
first
film club in Calcutta, thereby shackling ourselves willingly to the task of disseminating film culture
my job
In
ligentsia.
of book jackets. In
were
mind,
to
my as
opened
amongst the
intel-
was now firmly established not only
but also as an illustrator and a designer
as a visualiser,
occurred
I
me
all this
time the thought had not once
of changing
my
profession.
Graphics
bread and butter, while films were food for the music was too.
my
and
eyes
My three years in
ears to our artistic
tage, so that in addition to
and concertos,
I
Santiniketan had
and musical
heri-
buying records of symphonies
was now regularly going
to concerts of
Indian classical music.
For the
first
two years of
its
existence, the
membership
Introduction
7
of our club refused to go above twenty-five.
Our
enthu-
We
siasm was beginning to acquire a tinge of cynicism.
we
could see over.
We
attack.
did not have
much
of a
field to
disseminate
were also being subjected to a two-pronged
One came from
the film trade, which spread the
word that a group of subversive youngsters was running down Bengali films at meetings and seminars. The other came from a household which included one of our club members.
It
was an isolated
typical one. This
case, but
member had
may
well have been a
offered us the use of his
drawing room for one of our meetings. Since we did not have a regular club room, members took turns to provide facilities in their
own
houses.
On
this occasion, in the
mid-
was summoned by the owner of the house and summarily told that he would not dle of our discussion, our friend
put up with film people spoiling the sanctity of his house.
We I
were thrown out of the place.
now decided
to spread
our gospel over a wider
wrote an article on Bengali films which the leading English dailies of Calcutta.
explosive
piece
field. I
came out in one of I had thought my
would shake the Bengali cinema
foundations and lead to a massive heart-searching
to
its
among
our film makers. Nothing of the sort happened. The piece
was simply shrugged off by the people of the trade
as yet
another piece of tomfoolery by some arrogant upstart who saw only foreign films and knew nothing of local needs and local conditions.
But others
if
the trade itself ignored
on the
fringe of
came
out,
writer
who was about
I
much
as
who
article,
did not.
A
there were
few days after
it
got a phone call from a well-known screen to start
he would direct himself. his film,
it
my
He
an ambitious new film which
said he wished to see
adding that he had admired he admired
my
article
my book jackets. We made
me
about
almost as
an appoint-
Our Films Their Films
8
,
ment, and
I
turned up in his
proachable logic,
new
next day. With
office the
me
he offered
irre-
the job of art director
on
Even if I felt a little deflated, I did not have the heart to pass up an opportunity to find out what ‘local conditions’ were really like. And I felt this was something I could handle in my spare time without having to give up his
film.
my regular job. conference,
of the
sets.
I
accepted his
offer,
attended the
first
story
came back home and started making sketches week later, word came that the job had been
A
given to a well-known painter with a
flair for interior
de-
coration.
The second
offer pleased
me
more.
One
of the screen-
had turned out in my spare time was based on a short story by a well-known Bengali writer. It concerned an overbearing English manager of a zemindari estate whose dark doings are brought to an end by a plucky Bengali youth with radical leanings. The treatment was read by a friend of mine who recommended it to a businessmanplays
I
who was was summoned in the
thinking of producing a film. Soon
acquaintance
businessman’s presence and asked to
read out the treatment. est conference table
I
I
I
sat
down on one
side of the long-
had ever seen, and had to turn
my
who occupied
the
chair at an angle to face the businessman
head. Across the table, facing
me
directly, sat a professional
cameraman who had been trained at UFA in the days of Pabst and Murnau. Behind me, peering over my shoulder, sat a
well-known director with many
opened
my
finished the
many of
and
scene
started
when
I felt
if I
recital.
a tap
on
I
had scarcely
my shoulder. ‘How
could see that he had designs to nip
named
said I
me
in the
a lower figure than the one he presumably
prescribed as the obligatory I
my
climaxes do you have in your story ?’ asked the maker
hits. I
bud
script first
hits to his credit. I
minimum
had not counted, but he was
for a potential hit.
free to
work
it
out as
Introduction
9
the story unfolded. Fortunately
the reading of my screenplay. said he liked the story very
When
finished the producer
final scene
now
where the hero gives the
I
much, and had only one small
make: in the
suggestion to
no further taps intruded
of confrontation,
cringing English
manager
end with the per-
a piece of his mind, his words should
emptory exhortation: ‘Quit India.’ The film was never made.
In 1949, Jean Renoir came to Calcutta to scout locations for The River Based on the talks I had with him, I wrote .
an
article.
When
the English magazine Sequence published
me
up film journalism as a sideline. I had two more subjects in mind: one on the nature and function of background music, the other on an Orson Welles film I had seen recently. I hoped to make a major contribution to film criticism by demonstrating that in The Lady From Shanghai Welles had made the first the thought occurred to
it,
to take
,
‘atonal’ film in the history
of the cinema. Neither one ever
got written. In April of the following year,
work
for six
P
& O
months
Doubtless the
man
wholly dedicated to the pur-
of selling tea and biscuits.
What
my
on
and I was to
in
a full-fledged advertising suit
wife
liner bound for England. I London in my agency’s head office. management hoped that I would come back
India on a
left
my
the trip did in fact was to set the seal of
in
London
if
I
in the
I
saw
made
Bicycle Thieves
.
I
—
knew immediately
that
and the idea had been some time I would make it same way, using natural locations and unknown
ever
at the
doom
advertising career. Within three days of arriving
back of
Bather Panchali
my mind
for
—
actors.
All through
my
stay in
London, the
lessons of Bicycle
Our Films, Their Films
10
and
Thieves
neo-realist
cinema stayed with me.
my
On the way
treatment of Pather Panchali.
back
I
drafted out
That
it
did not get going until two years later, and did not
first
any lack of enthu-
get finished until two more, was not for
siasm on
my
part.
For the next twenty years, whatever
cinema
—and
cerned either
wrote on the
I
wrote both in Bengali and English
I
—con-
my own films or films of other countries. In my own work, I have realised why film
writing about
makers have written so plex
is
about film making. So com-
little
and
the process, so intricate
elusive the triangular
relationship between the maker, the machines and the
human
material that
single day’s
tion
work
deployed, that to describe even a
is
in all
its
and execution would
makers. Even with such
details of conception, collabora-
call for abilities
gifts,
beyond most
film
a lot of what goes on in the
dark recesses of the film maker’s mind would go unsaid, for the simple reason that
reading afresh
my
Pather Panchali , I realise I
lems
One girl
cannot be put into words. In
I learnt.
in strange, oblique ways. Let
of the shots
I
had
to take
Some
me
on the
—from
of these lessons
give an instance.
day was of the who is unaware
first
Durga observing her brother Apu
of her presence
day’s shooting of
first
had barely touched on the prob-
faced or the lessons
I
came
it
account of the
—
behind a cluster of
tall,
swaying
had planned on a medium close-up with a normal lens, showing her from the waist upwards. We had with us on that day a friend who was a professional cameraman. While I stood behind the reeds explaining to Durga what she had to do in the shot, I had a fleeting glimpse of our friend fiddling with lenses. What he had done was take out the normal lens from the camera and substitute one reeds.
I
with a long focal length. ‘Just take a look at her with one,’ he told
me,
as I
came
to
this
have a look through the
)
II
Introduction
viewfinder.
but in
my
I
had done a
of
lot
photography before,
still
unswerving allegiance to Cartier-Bresson,
never worked with a long lens.
What
the finder
had
I
now
re-
vealed was an enormous close-up of Durga’s face, backlit
by the sun and framed by the swaying, shimmering reeds she had parted with her hands. It was irresistible. I thanked my friend for his timely advice and took the shot. A few days
later,
in the cutting
room,
was horrified
I
to dis-
cover that the scene simply did not call for such an emphaclose-up. For all
tic
its
beauty, or perhaps because of it, the
shot stood out in blatant isolation from
its
companions, and
thereby spoilt the scene. This taught me, at one stroke, two
fundamental lessons of film making: ful
only
little
(b)
if it is
right in
its
context,
(
a
and
a shot
do with what appears beautiful
to
is
beauti-
this rightness has
to the eye;
never listen to advice on details from someone
and
who
does not have the whole film in his head as clearly as
you do.
And
these are not the only lessons
ful first day.
on a
In fact, on every
full
I
day that
film in the twenty years since I left
some glimmer of
light has
learnt
my
I
on that fatehave worked
advertising job,
revealed some small hidden
mystery of the infinitely complex process that
is
film
all
these
making.
One years
is
of the things
I
have aimed at constantly in
economy of expression. In Santiniketan, as a student I had been drawn towards far-eastern calli-
of painting,
graphy, which goes to the heart of perceived reality and
by means of minimal brush strokes applied with maximum discipline. In films, the maker is concerned both with what one sees and what one hears. In human terms, this is reduced to action and speech. These are bound up with a character’s social identity as well as his individual
expresses
it
identity at a given point in a given story.
The convincing
Our Films, Their Films
12
portrayal of character through speech and action
combined
task of writer, actor
and
director. It
is
the
is
because
the director has the last word on what should appear on the screen that his responsibility exceeds that of the other
He
participants.
is
who
the one
what looks
finally decides
right and sounds right, and the measure of truth he achieves is
Father Panchali today, I
am
know
this
rural scene.
yet
Pather Panchali does,
and
ings
rises to
Of
emotions.
my
was caused by
And
characters.
its
lack of familiarity with the
possible for a film to work, as
it is
whenever
it
leaves
its
regional moor-
a plane of universal gestures and universal
course,
possible to
it is
do away wholly with
bothersome aspect of social identification. In
this
this is exactly
what the
which accounts
at
upset by errors of detail which
keep blurring the social identity of some of I
Looking
in direct ratio to his depth of observation.
fact,
vast majority of Hindi films do,
for their country- wide acceptance.
and
They
present a synthetic, non-existent society, and one can speak
of credibility only within the norms of
make-believe
this
world.
The reason why time
is
I
keep writing about
that perhaps at the back of
from time
films
my mind
there are
remnants of the zeal
to spread film culture that
film club into being.
And
it is
to
still
brought our
there are provocations too.
While
true that inadequate technical resources, erratic financ-
ing, slackness in writing
and direction and
acting,
have
all
contributed to the generally poor quality of films that sur-
round by
us, I
critics
print
—who
form.
have no doubt that equal harm has been done
—which,
On
in films,
mean anybody with
access to
keep peddling muddled notions about the art
two occasions
I
have been provoked
self-defence against attacks for deviating
from
to write in
literary ori-
13
Introduction
Obviously, what these
ginals.
translations
volved
critics
—impossible where
expected were
a change of
literal
medium
in-
is
—rather than interpretations. One of the two attacks,
published in a Bengali monthly, was aimed at Charulata. I
hastened to write back at great length justifying in
cinematic terms every liberty seed
fell
had taken. Doubtless the
I
on barren ground. Because even
maker who takes up a wholly misses the
arouses
spirit,
sticks
classic,
little
to this day, a film to the letter,
but
indignation. This
is
surely the result of lop-sided film education, of lack of
connoisseurship,
and applies only
to a country
which took
one of the greatest inventions of the West with the most far-reaching artistic potential, and promptly cut
it
down
to
size.
In the West, the cinema has seen some clearly marked periods of revolution, in the course of which certain
developed and conventions covery of a major
—or
new
new
norms
solidified.
Occasionally, the dis-
—such
as neo-realism in the
trend
—
making such as the Japanese in the fifties has led to some critical rethinking, but on the whole the larger truths have survived. Even forties
a
—
New Wave It
school of film
did not wholly change the face of the cinema.
only enlarged
its
vocabulary and dislodged some hal-
grammar. To most films now made in Europe and elsewhere, the norms still apply. It is only in the case of an occasional highly personal work
lowed bricks from the
edifice of film
that the critic has to take refuge in total subjectivity.
What
I
consider a far greater revolution has taken place
phenomenon of the
on the
level of content. This
and
described by the term permissiveness. In the begin-
is
ning,
it
is
a
was marked by a freedom in the treatment of eroti-
cism. Latterly, this freedom has
grown
about every bodily activity the camera ing.
A
sixties,
great deal has been written to
is
to
embrace
just
capable of record-
condone permissive-
Our Films, Their Films
14 ness as to
marking the end of the prudery that
their inception right first its
and
proponents, besmirched
its
up
has, according
mores from
falsified
to the time the audience
had
their
glimpse of pubic hair in a public cinema. Apart from
insolent implication that artists like Renoir, Carne, Glair,
Stroheim, Dreyer,
your own
De
Pabst,
Sica,
of past greats)
list
—
all
Mizoguchi (make up
human
falsified
rela-
tionships in their films, the view errs in discounting the
power of suggestion which rogative of all
artists.
cinema
in the
is
it
There
inherent in is
is
a pre-
no doubt that permissiveness
of major sociological significance as a re-
some higher form of
as
and
all art
changing mores of Western society; but to
flection of the justify
is
artistic truth is as ridicu-
lous as the simulated intercourse indulged in
by unclothed
performers in film after film after permissive film. Apparently, such
is
the dread in which the stigma of prudery
is
held in the West today that even the distinction between gratuitous eroticism, which ticism that
is
valid in
its
is
plain pornography,
context,
is
glossed over
and eroby most
critics.
There to
which
is
I
film books
yet another
phenomenon of major
must allude before
and
film magazines.
a serious interest in films,
much
I close.
my
I
When
significance
This has to do with I first
began
to take
could have possessed, without
on the art of the cinema, and shoved them all comfortably on to a single shelf of my book case. Today, I have a comprehensive catalogue of film books in the English language which runs to over three hundred pages. Of magazines one has strain
lost count.
on
purse, all the English books
In Calcutta, most bookshops in the heart of the
city display film
books which are picked up well before they
have gathered dust. The number of film clubs in the
city
Introduction
15
mark and keeps
has crossed the dozen
own seasonal What used
clubs
come out with
their
their
own
critics.
terms are
panels of
now
bulletins
if
and have
he knows the meaning of
and the chances are he
will not
Most
to be esoteric film
man
part of everyday speech. Ask any
average education
of
‘freeze’,
only give the right answer
up with appropriate examples. Tickets of foreign films are swooped up in no time
but back festivals
increasing.
for
it
re-
gardless of whether the films belong to a pre-permissive
The greats of the cinema names in the pages of Sight and Sound and books. They are now part of the local film scene,
or post-permissive era.
are no
longer just
history
up periodic
setting
ripples, sending the critics to their desks
and
their dissertations.
then, a presage of something bright, some-
Is all this,
and positive? Something that will lift the gloom and change the face of our films? I wish I could believe so. But the rude fact is, cinema has never been saved by writers. We may- have more of them now than ever before, but at the same time there are more and thing hopeful
stronger shoulders
not enough.
maker
command tory,
to
Words need
no revolution. a film
now
And
shrug them
No. Words are
the backing of action, or there
the only action that counts
calls into
is
own particular field of battle. many others like him, restore even
the dignity a great art
of having a revolution.
is
that which
play by snapping out his word of
in his
and of
off.
form has
lost,
If his vic-
a
little
of
only then can we talk
^ OUR
FILMS
What
One
Wrong
Is
with Indian Films?
of the most significant
phenomena of our time has
been the development of the cinema from a-turn-of-thecentury mechanical toy into the century’s most potent and versatile art form.
In
its
early chameleon-like phase the
cinema was used variously as an extension of photography,
and the music hall, and as part of the magician’s paraphernalia. By the twenties, the cynics and know-alls had stopped smirking and turned as a substitute for the theatre
down
their noses.
Today, the cinema commands the respect accorded
to
any other form of creative expression. In the immense complexity of
its
creative process,
it
combines in various
measures the functions of poetry, music, painting, drama, architecture also
and a host of other
arts,
major and minor.
It
combines the cold logic of science with the subtlest
abstractions of the
goes into the
human
making of
it,
—a producer for financial paganda or an
imagination.
No
no matter who profits,
matter what
uses
it
and how
a political body for pro-
avant-garde intellectual for the satisfaction
of an aesthetic urge
— the
cinema
is
basically the expres-
sion of a concept or concepts in aesthetic terms; terms
which have
crystallised
through the incredibly short years
of its existence.
was perhaps inevitable that the cinema should have found the greatest impetus in America. A country without It
Our Films, Their Films
20
any deep-rooted cultural and best able to appraise the to pioneers like Griffith,
ing public with
its
artistic traditions
new medium and
was perhaps
objectively.
Thanks
to the vast sensation-monger-
constant clamour for something new,
making was evolved and the tools for its production perfected much quicker than would be normally possible. The cinema has now attained a stage where it can handle Shakespeare and psychiatry with equal facility. Technically, in the black and white field, the cinema is supremely at ease. Newer developments in colour and three-dimensional photography are imminent, and it is the basic style of film
possible that before the decade
is
out, the aesthetics of film
making will have seen far-reaching changes. Meanwhile, ‘studios sprang up,’ to quote an American writer in Screenwriter , ‘even in such unlikely lands as India
and China’. One may note in passing that this springing up has been happening in India for nearly forty years. For a country so far removed from the centre of things, India took up film production surprisingly early.
The
first
short was produced in 1907
By
the twenties
It is is
easy to
it
and the first feature in 1913. had reached the status of big business.
tell
the world that film production in India
quantitatively second only to Hollywood; for that
But can the same be said of
statistical fact.
Why
are our films not
shown abroad ?
Is it solely
India offers a potential market for her
Perhaps the symbolism employed eigners?
Or
are
To anyone best foreign
we just
plain
is
its
own
is
a
quality?
because
products?
too obscure for for-
ashamed of our
films?
familiar with the relative standards of the
and Indian
films, the
answers must come
easily.
Let us face the truth. There has yet been no Indian film
which could be acclaimed on countries have achieved,
all
counts.
Where other
we have only attempted and
that
too not always with honesty, so that even our best films
What Is Wrong with Indian Films?
21
have to be accepted with the gently apologetic proviso that
an Indian
‘after all
it is
No doubt ral factors.
ous entity
of maturity can be attributed to seve-
this lack
The producers will tell you about that mysteri‘the mass’, w hich ‘goes in for this sort of thing’, r
much
blame the
and the director will say about the wonderful things he had in
the technicians will
have
film’.
to
tools
mind but could not achieve because of
‘the
conditions’.
These protestations are true but not to the extent you are asked to believe. In any case, better things have been
achieved under
much worse
conditions.
acclaimed post-war Italian cinema reason
elsewhere. I think
lies
it
is
The
internationally
a case in point.
will be
The
found in the funda-
mentals of film making.
much
In the primitive state films were
alike,
no matter
where they were produced. As the pioneers began to sense the uniqueness of the
gradually evolved. the
—
cinema
e.g.
medium,
And once
the language of the cinema
the all-important function of
— was
movement
grasped, the sophistica-
and content, and refinement of technique were only a matter of time. In India it would seem that the tion of style
fundamental concept of a coherent dramatic pattern
exist-
ing in time was generally misunderstood.
Often by a queer process of reasoning, movement was equated with action and action with melodrama. The anal-
ogy with music
failed in
our case because Indian music
is
largely improvisational.
This elementary confusion,
plus the
American cinema are the two main the present state of Indian films. the
American
style,
influence of the
factors responsible for
The
superficial aspects of
no matter how outlandish the content,
were imitated with reverence. Almost every passing phase of the American cinema has had
its
repercussion on the
Indian film. Stories have been written based on Hollywood
Our Films, Their Films
22
and the
Even where the story has been a genuinely Indian one, the background music has revealed an irrepressible penchant for the jazz
successes
cliches preserved with care.
idiom.
In the adaptations of novels, one of two courses has
been followed: either the story has been distorted to conform to the Hollywood formula, or it has been produced with such devout faithfulness to the original that the pur-
pose of a filmic interpretation has been defeated. It
should be realised that the average American film
a bad model, if only because utterly at variance with our
nical polish
wood
which
depicts a
way
of
life
so
own. Moreover, the high tech-
the hallmark of the standard Holly-
product, would be impossible to achieve under existing
Indian conditions. is
is
it
is
not more
and a more the medium.
What
the Indian cinema needs today
but more imagination, more integrity,
gloss,
intelligent appreciation of the limitations of
After all, we do The complaint of
possess the primary tools of film making.
mechaand the process shot are useful, but by no means indispensable. In fact, what tools we have, have been used on occasion with real intelligence. What our cinema needs above everything else is a style, an idiom, a sort of iconography of cinema, which the technicians notwithstanding,
nical devices such as the crane shot
would be uniquely and recognisably Indian. There are some obstacles to this, particularly in the representation of the contemporary scene. The influence of Western civilisation has created anomalies which are apparent in almost every aspect of our life. We accept the motor car,
the
radio,
European costume, But within the is
telephone, streamlined
architecture,
as functional elements of
our existence.
the
limits of the
cinema
frame, their incongruity
sometimes exaggerated to the point of burlesque.
I re~
What Is Wrong with Indian Films? call
23
a scene in a popular Bengali film which shows the
heroine weeping to distraction with her arms around a wireless
— an
object she associates in her
estranged lover
who was once
mind with her
a radio singer.
Another example, a typical Hollywood
finale,
shows the
heroine speeding forth in a sleek convertible in order to catch up with her frustrated lover
who
has
left
town on
man, she abandons the car in a sort of symbolic gesture and runs up the rest of the way to foot; as she sights her
meet him.
The majority of our
films are replete with such ‘visual
dissonances’. In Kalpana,
Uday Shankar
used such disso-
nances in a conscious and consistent manner so that they
became part of film should
his
cinematic
style.
But the truly Indian
clear of such inconsistencies
steer
for its material in the
more
and look
basic aspects of Indian
life,
where habit and speech, dress and manners, background
and foreground, blend into a harmonious whole. It is
that
only in a drastic simplification of style and content
hope
for the
Indian cinema resides. At present,
would appear that nearly
all
it
the prevailing practices go
against such simplification.
Starting a production without adequate planning, some-
times even without a shooting script; a penchant for convolutions of plot
and counter-plot rather than the
strong,
simple unidirectional narrative; the practice of sandwiching musical numbers in the most unlyrical situations; the
habit of shooting indoors in a country which scape, to the
is
all
land-
and at a time when all other countries are turning documentary for inspiration all these stand in the
way of the evolution of a
—
distinctive style.
There have been rare glimpses of an enlightened approach in a handful of recent is
films. IPTA’s Dharti ke Lai an instance of a strong simple theme put over with style,
Our Films Their Films
24
,
honesty and technical competence. Shankar’s Kalpana
,
an
inimitable and highly individual experiment, shows a grasp
of filmic movement, and a respect for tradition which best
its
The
moments
satisfying
taries
to the
lifts
peak of cinematic achievement.
photography which marks the
UN documen-
of Paul Zils shows what a discerning camera can do
with the Indian landscape.
The raw ible that
material of the cinema
and music and poetry should
He do
is life itself.
a country which has inspired so fail to
move
It is incred-
much
painting
the film maker.
has only to keep his eyes open, and his ears. Let him so.
1948
Extracts
March
/,
from
7956
Diary
a Banaras
—Set
out at 5 a.m. to explore the ghats.
Half an hour to sunrise, yet more light than one would have thought, and more activity.
The
earliest bathers
The pigeons not
come
active yet, but the
about 4 a.m.,
I
wrestlers are.
Incomparable ‘atmosphere’. One just wants
gather.
to
go on absorbing
by
it.
sites
it,
being chastened and invigorated
—
The thought of having to work planning, picking and extras, setting up camera and microphone, staging
action
—
is
worrying. But here,
spiring setting. It is
anywhere,
if
is
a truly
in-
not enough to say that the ghats are
One must
wonderful or exciting or unique.
get
down
to
analysing the reasons for their uniqueness, their impact.
The more you probe, the more is revealed, and the more you know what to include in your frame and what to leave out.
In the afternoon the same ghats present an utterly different aspect. Clusters of immobile
widows make white patches
on the greyish ochre of the broad tion
is
absent.
And
the light
ghats face east. In the
is
steps.
different,
The
bustle of ablu-
importantly
morning they get the
so.
The
full frontal
movement is heightened by the play of cast shadows. By 4 p.m. the sun is behind the tall buildings whose shadows now reach the opposite
light
of the sun, and the feeling of
bank. Result: a diffused light until sunset perfectly in tune with the subdued nature of the activity. 3
Our Films Their Films
26
,
Morning scenes in the ghat must be and afternoon scenes in the afternoon.
March 2
— Explored
shot in the
morning
the lanes in the Bengalitola.
of Ganesh Mohalla are perhaps the most photogenic.
makes them so?
—The
railings,
What
curves in the lanes, the breaks in
the facades of the houses, the pattern created
windows,
Those
verandas, columns
qualitatively unvarying,
.
.
.
by the doors,
here the light
is
and one could pass off a morning
shot as an afternoon one.
We
chat with the people of the neighbourhood and they
promise cooperation. Where would we be without it? are in fact at the
mercy of the
residents here
with them with the utmost caution.
The
We
and must deal
smallest faux pas
and the whole arduous enterprise may be wrecked.
—
March j Called on the Mohant Laxminarayan of the Viswanath Temple. The purpose was to persuade him to give us facilities for shooting inside the temple (something
which had never been done mediary, had insisted that ‘project
the deal.
I
Pandey, our inter-
before).
shouldn’t be reticent but should
my personality’, which he was sure would clinch Two things stood in the way: (a) my lack of chaste
Hindi and the Mohant’s lack of any other language, and (
b)
the fact that the chairs
designed for the It
we were given
maximum
seems at least two more
the great
to sit
upon had been
comfort of bugs. visits will
Mohant condescends
be required before
to give a
nod of that im-
mobile head of his.
Stopped on our way back at the temple. Were told we were in time for the Saptarshi Arati. perience. Those
who
miss
it
A
spine-tingling ex-
miss one of the great audio-
Extracts from a Banaras Diary
27
visual treats. Pity I can’t use
manner
in the present film.
March 4
—Visited
the
.
in
it .
any except a decorative
.
Durga Temple. People who come
here with the intent of offering a prayer to the deity usually
do
so with half a
mind, the other half being on the monkeys.
These animals go about the place as funny, they sometimes go
sistibly
if
for
they
owned
it.
Irre-
your bag of peanuts
when they swing from the and perform an impromptu carillon the sight
with alarming viciousness. But bell-ropes
,
and sound are no longer merely comic. Rich
possibility of a scene here,
with Apu.
—Worked on the script.
March 8
lem, always
is.
Long
The opening
is
a prob-
shots establishing locale are a cliche.
But should one entirely dispense with them in a film which opens in Banaras ? The urge not to do so
As in Father
Panchali, I find
it
is
strong.
has helped in not having
Working in these circumstances one must leave a lot of room for improvisation within the framework of a broad scheme which one must keep in one’s a tight script.
head.
March 15
Memorable
—At the ghats at 5
a.m. to shoot the pigeons.
The shot was to be of the pigeons takbody from their perch on the cornices and making enormous circular sweeps in the sky, as is the way fiasco.
ing flight in a
with them.
meant set
to
We
had a
explode to
set the
up and Subir had
potent-looking
bomb which we
pigeons flying.
The camera was
fairly
set the
barely half a minute to go,
match Nimai
to the fuse when, with
started
making
frantic
Our Films Their Films
28
,
but indefinable gestures.
We
could sense something was
mimed appeal to the bomb went off, the camera didn’t turn. And
wrong, and Subir made an eloquently
bomb
from exploding. The
to refrain
pigeons performed nobly, but the then
we
discovered that the motor had not been connected
to the battery.
or four sweeps the pigeons were
after three
Luckily,
bomb
back on their perch, and with the second
we had our shot. Took the 9 o’clock train
(we had
four)
Moghulsarai.
to
Ramani Babu
we picked up on the play Uncle Bhabataran; also Karuna and
(seventy-year-old resident of Banaras ghat) with us to
Pinky. Shooting inside a third class compartment. Sarbajaya
and Apu leave Banaras with Bhabataran. Train crosses bridge. S and A look out of window. B cats an orange, spits pips out of window. We give the old man an orange but he consumes
it
him another. Shot
before the
is
O.K.
camera
is
ready, so
we
give
subject to the Tri-X performing
as expected.
March 20
— Shot scene of Harihar’s collapse on the steps
of Chowshati Ghat. Very satisfactory work. ruffled the surface of the river shots.
Kanu Babu
most
fell
and
A
strong wind
movement
lent
to the
got a nasty cut
realistically,
in the knee.
Bloated dead body in the river close to bank and camera. Bathers unperturbed. Probably a
—5.30 a.m.
March 22
water from the with far
Apu
river.
common
sight.
Started with shot of
The idea was
in the foreground
and a
background, and no other
to
Apu
fetching
have a long shot
solitary wrestler in the
figures.
But bathers had
Extracts from a Banaras Diary
already arrived and to stay
29
we had a tough time persuading them
out of water, and out of camera-field, until end of
shot.
of
From
the ghats to the lanes. Concluding shots of scene
Apu
playing hide-and-seek with friends. Clearing the
unwanted elements (animate and inanimate) for long shots a Herculean task. Pack up at 4 p.m. and proceed directly to the Viswanath Temple for shots and recording lanes of
of Arati.
Durga
sets
up tape recorder
opposite the temple. Mrinal
in a house across the lane
worms
way through
his
ing crowd of devotees with mike and 90 just reaches the southern
ft.
mill-
cable which
door of the inner sanctum. Temple
attendants get busy stretching a cordon to keep off crowd
who push and crane their necks to get a sight of the image which is now being decorated for the Arati. We wait, sweating, acutely conscious of the
audacious incongruity of the
camera.
The time
arrives.
We
hold our breath. The great chant
begins. In the deafening crescendo
I
can just hear myself
and ‘cut’. The Arati goes on for an hour. The end finds us and our raw stock exhausted. As we are about to pack up, word arrives from the Mohant that he would like to hear the sound we have recorded. Would we be good enough to have our equipment conveyed to his apartment and the sound played back to him? shouting
‘start’
—
—
It
takes half an hour to reach the Mohant’s place with
the equipment, another half to install to play
back and pack up.
When we
the great
man
proval.
almost expect him to tip
*957
I
it is
it,
full
hour
finally take leave of
He
a quarter to eleven. us.
and a
.
.
.
smiles his ap-
—
A
I
Long Time on
remember
well. It
was
the
first
the Little
Road