Kochi Industries and law minister P Rajeev said Satyajit Ray marked India's place in the world cinema as his movies were expressions of persistent transformation and creativity. He was speaking after inaugurating one-month-long The Ray Centenary Show jointly organized by Kerala Lalithakala Akademi and Kolkata Centre for Creativity (KCC) on the occasion of the birth centenary of the world-renowned filmmaker, at Durbar Hall Art Centre of the Akademi in Kochi on Sunday. He not only created a syntax and language not only for Indian cinema, but for world cinema.
At a function presided over by Mayor Adv M Anil Kumar, filmmaker and cinematographer Shaji N Karun delivered the keynote address. Ray was lonely and thus a good listener, but as he was a great artist, he never resorted to cynicism, Shaji N Karun said. He also recalled his convocation of 1974 at Pune Film Institute when Ray was the Chief Guest. Ray wanted to see his diploma movie and mentioned his name in his speech, he said. Ray's movies deeply depicted characters who were going through various pressures of life, especially women.
Artist Surendran Nair was honored on the occasion. KCC Visual Arts Head Sidharth Sivakumar spoke on the unique features of teh exhibition which brings together the lesser-known aspects of Ray’s works from Gallery Rasa’s collection like his lobby cards, original storyboards, pressbooks, posters, book covers, and rare photographs of the maestro by Nemai Ghosh and Tarapada Banerjee.
.Kolkata-based documentary maker Joshy Joseph, Mini S Menon, Kendra Sahitya Akademi award-winning Bengali translator Sunil Naliyath, Akademi Chairman Murali Cheeroth and secretary N Balamuralikrishnan also spoke on the occasion.
The show also displays enthralling additions to the previous volumes including costumes from the film ‘Shatranj ke Khilari’ - courtesy Suresh Jindal, producer of ‘Shatranj ke Khilari’ - and never-seen-before letters written by Ray to Debjani Ray, thus presenting the most comprehensive exhibition of Ray.
On September 27th at 5 pm, a presentation will be held by Pinaki De on ‘A Fine Balance: Sense of form in Ray’s graphic design’ while on September 28th at 5 pm Drithiman Chatterjee and Tinnu Anand will involve in an online debate on the topic ‘Post Ray’.
On October 2, 12 and 16, three Ray classics will be screened. The screening will be held at 5.30 pm. On October 6 at 5 pm, the book on Ray’s films titled ‘Prapanjam Prathiphalikkunna Jalakanam’ written by renowned film critic C S Venkiteswaran and published by SPCS will be released as part of the festival. As part of the show, a discussion will also be held involving Girish Kasaravally, Gautam Ghosh and Shaji N Karun which will be moderated by Samik Bandyopadhyay on October 23, 2022..
