{"id":1575,"date":"2015-05-02T10:42:13","date_gmt":"2015-05-02T10:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev.learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/?p=1575"},"modified":"2026-08-12T13:27:57","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T07:57:57","slug":"the-master-and-his-actor-satyajit-ray-soumitra-chatterjee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/the-master-and-his-actor-satyajit-ray-soumitra-chatterjee\/","title":{"rendered":"The Master and His Actor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apur Sansar<\/span><\/em> (The World of Apu<\/em>), the third and last part of the The Apu Trilogy<\/em> by legendary Indian film-maker Satyajit Ray was released on 1st<\/sup> May 1959. Soumitra Chatterjee debuted on screen with this film and went on to act in 14 of Ray\u2019s 27 feature films as the central character. At the age of 80+ Soumitra is still active on screen and on stage (theatre being his first love and he acts and directs plays even today with equal \u00e9lan) and remains a vital element to the Bengali intelligentsia and existence.<\/p>

\"Soumitra,
Dhritiman Chatterjee (extreme left) and Soumitra Chatterjee (2nd from left) at the lecture session by Soumitra \u2013 \u201cThe Master and I\u201d at Satyajit Ray Auditorium, Rabindranath Tagore Centre, ICCR, Kolkata.<\/figcaption><\/figure>

\u00a0<\/p>

\"Polish
Polish poster of Apur Sansar<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Fifty-six years after the release of Apur Sansar<\/em> to mark that iconic event and to celebrate the 94th<\/sup> birth anniversary of Satyajit Ray (born on 2nd<\/sup> May 1921), Society for the Preservation of Satyajit Ray Archives organized a lecture session by Soumitra \u2013 \u201cThe Master and I\u201d at Satyajit Ray Auditorium, Rabindranath Tagore Centre, ICCR, Kolkata. For the last few years the Ray Memorial Lecture on the occasion of Ray\u2019s birthday had been an event which drew crowd to the fullest. We had the privilege to listen to the likes of Javed Akhtar, Shyam Benegal and Naseeruddin Shah. This is the first time a person who was an integral part of the Ray team would pay homage to the master and also delivering the lecture in Bengali.<\/p>

The evening started off with the inauguration by Chatterjee of a seven-day exhibition of photographs that depict the Ray-Chatterjee association. The exhibition is excellent \u2013 a mixture of posters and candid pictures taken by a host of photographers over a period of time and both during shooting or in private moments. This was followed by a book launch \u2013 Probondho Samogro<\/em>, a collection of essays in Bengali by Satyajit Ray brought out by Ananda Publishers in association with the Society.<\/p>

\"Charulata
Charulata in Berlin (Photo by Ray) \u2013 Soumitra with Sashi Kapoor, Jennifer Kapoor, Madhur Jaffrey and Felicity Kendal<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Soumitra Chatterjee himself is a legend in his own right \u2013 a playwright, an elocutionist, a theatre actor and director, a poet and the editor of one of the finest literary magazines of Bengal \u2013 Ekkhan<\/em>. It is not surprising hence that Soumitra\u2019s delivery will be ornate, literary and yet touching the deeper soul with such magnificence that the audience will be left numb and emotional. Ray-Soumitra association is unparalleled in Indian cinema finding some semblance in World cinema in Kurosawa-Mifune and Bergman-Max Von Sydow. It is hence a bit strange that Soumitra had to wait for the Ray Memorial Lecture this long.<\/p>

\"Charulata
Charulata in Berlin (Photo by Ray) \u2013 Soumitra with Sashi Kapoor, Jennifer Kapoor, Shailen Mukherjee and Felicity Kendal<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Soumitra narrowed his focus on Ray\u2019s handling of actors \u2013 how awe-inspiring it was to find that he would probably never cast someone who doesn\u2019t seem fit for the role apart from a very few deviations. To elaborate, Chatterjee reminisced how he longed for the role of Goopi in Goopi Gyne Bagha Byne<\/em> and insisted that he would do the job well if given a chance. Satyajit seemed not convinced that Soumitra\u2019s aristocratic looks can be fully transformed to a village urchin in Goopi with make-up and finally ended the conversation saying \u2013 \u201cYour profile is not matching with the mental image I have\u201d. We all know now that Tapen Chatterjee as Goopi reached such unsurmountable heights that is difficult to achieve for any great actor as well including Soumitra.<\/p>

\"\"
During the Shooting of Aranyer Din Ratri <\/em>(Pic courtesy: The Master and His Actor<\/figcaption><\/figure>

On a lighter note Soumitra recalled that he was the first choice for Ashoke (later played by Arun Mukherjee) in Ray\u2019s first colour film Kanchenjungha<\/em> (1962) but couldn\u2019t do so due to date problems. Later Ray commented that it was better that a complete newcomer played the role instead of Soumitra (who was already an established hero of the mainstream romantic films by then) since otherwise the open ending of the film wouldn\u2019t have been justified to the audience who would naturally deduce a romantic bonding between the character and the heroine. Soumitra muses that at least in this case Ray\u2019s original choice would have been a mistake!<\/p>

What marks Chatterjee\u2019s lecture is not the anecdotes from his own acting or his association in several Ray films and in general for over three decades working together. He confessed that the relation was a personal one and even when he was not acting in a Ray film he would always be invited by Ray to hear and discuss the script. What marks the speech more is Soumitra\u2019s reflections of the handling of Ray of his actors. As he mentioned, Ray had no unique and single technique. He had worked with professional actors, non-actors and even stars bigger than anyone else. Ray\u2019s treatment had been eclectic to bring the best in every one of them. Even with the child artists of his several films his capability of mixing with them at their level helped him to bring out the best in them at a time when acting of most of the child artists in Bengali cinema seemed absurdly ridiculous.<\/p>

\"\"
The Machhli baba makeup \u2013 Joy baba Felunath<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Soumitra rekindled the lecture with special reference of Gobinda Chakraborty who played Dinabanadhu in Ashani Sanket<\/em> \u2013 the old Brahmin who would come from a nearby village to Gangacharan\u2019s (played by Soumitra) house in search of food and shelter. Soumitra described in vivid details how Gobinda Chakraborty articulated his transformation from an innocent old person thoroughly confused with the effects of a man-made famine to one who has to turn sly in order to survive for him and his family. Gobinda Chakraborty had also played small yet important roles in Hirak Rajar Deshe<\/em>, Goopi Gyne Bagha Byne <\/em>and Teen Kanya.<\/em><\/p>

\"Soumitra,
Soumitra, Uttam Kumar, Hemanta Mukherjee and Satyajit Ray in a meeting<\/figcaption><\/figure>

\u00a0<\/p>

Soumitra also mentioned Nani Ganguly who played Scarface Jodu in Ashani Sanket<\/em> and the village bum Lakha in Aranyer Din Ratri<\/em> and Khairatilal Lahori as the care-taker of the forest bungalow in Aranyer Din Ratri<\/em> who was actually a professional actor. It was Ray\u2019s insightful eyes that could bring out the person best suited for the roles \u2013 irrespective of their status as actor or not. In mentioning in details about these lesser known actors in lieu of the bigger names we always seem to discuss and debate, Soumitra paid them a tribute and in style, offered his homage to his mentor.<\/p>

\"At
At the sets of Sonar Kella<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Satyajit
Satyajit postering Soumitra\u2019s name<\/figcaption><\/figure>
<\/div>

The evening ended with a henceforth-unseen interview clip of Ray taken during the screening of Shatranj Ki Khilari<\/em> in London by the British Press. Any interview of Ray mesmerizes us with his clarity, confidence and subtle nuanced references of things already known but somehow overlooked in the melee. As we come out of the auditorium on an otherwise hot and humid day there are drops of rain \u2013 not even a drizzle. Soumitra Chatterjee \u2013 Ray\u2019s hero comes out and rides his car and vanishes from the scene \u2013 a scene which was as much curated by Ray as was by him.<\/p>

\"Three
Three masters at Ravi Shankar\u2019s residence in 1978 at Benares<\/figcaption><\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Soumitra narrowed his focus on Ray\u2019s handling of actors \u2013 how awe-inspiring it was to find that he would probably never cast someone who doesn\u2019t seem fit for the role apart from a very few deviations. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":374,"featured_media":1582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[424],"tags":[28,885,431,884,754,883],"coauthors":[1145],"class_list":["post-1575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indian-cinema-retrospectives","tag-satyajit-ray","tag-society-for-the-preservation-of-satyajit-ray-archives","tag-soumitra-chatterjee","tag-soumitra-chatterjee-lecture","tag-soumitra-chatterjees-films","tag-the-master-and-i"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/374"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1575"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dev.learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11884,"href":"https:\/\/dev.learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1575\/revisions\/11884"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1575"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}