Ray and after

Illustration/Uday Mohite

Curating a Satyajit Ray film retrospective is a kind of high point of my curating career. Among other things, I'm learning to pronounce his name Show-tto-jit Rai, Bengali-style. The Toronto International Film Festival's (TIFF) Cinematheque has invited me to be Curator of Satyajit Ray, His Contemporaries and Legacy, that runs from August 4-27 at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, Toronto. I'm due to personally introduce the series in Toronto next week as well, visa gods willing.

In fact, this is the fourth time I'm collaborating as Curator/Consultant with TIFF Cinematheque, the year-round programming home of the festival, since 11 years. The first time was for ‘Raj Kapoor and the Golden Age of Indian Cinema' (where I was Consultant; curated by Noah Cowan, 2011), ‘Indian Expressionism' exploring the influence of German Expressionism on Indian cinema over half a century (I was Curator, 2012), Musicals! The Movies that Moved Us (I was Consultant; curated by Cameron Bailey, CEO TIFF, 2021-2022), and Satyajit Ray, His Contemporaries and Legacy (I'm Curator, 2022).

We want to celebrate Satyajit Ray during his centenary year (1921-1992), delayed a year by COVID, but we also wanted to open up the canon to include Ray's distinguished contemporaries, as well as younger generation directors. So of the 10 film package, four films are by Ray, four by his contemporaries and two by younger generation directors, altogether spanning the Indian subcontinent and 64 years. It is important to me that the film package also speaks to the younger generation. I am acutely aware that many of the younger generation have only heard of Ray, but not seen any of his films.

With his brilliant debut feature, Pather Panchali (The Song of the Little Road, 1955), Ray catapulted himself onto the international stage. He directed 37 works, including fiction, documentaries, and shorts, mainly in Bengali. A polymath and leader of India's parallel cinema movement in the 1950s, he questioned the nation's post-independence legacy, including poverty, patriarchy, and corruption - yet his films remained deeply humanist, and usually hopeful. Ray's films have been screened at Cannes, Berlin, Venice, and TIFF, and the director's international awards include an Honorary Oscar in 1992.

We open with Ray's personal favourite, Charulata (The Lonely Wife, 1964), about a married woman snuffing out her literary talent to save her affair; Devi (The Goddess, 1960), in which a patriarch's dream turns his daughter-in-law into a goddess incarnate; Nayak (The Hero, 1966), about a matinee idol's insecurities; and Shatranj Ke Khilari (The Chess Players, 1977), a magnificent historical film in Hindi about the British overthrow of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah of Awadh in 1856. Also showcased are films by four Ray contemporaries: Ritwik Ghatak's Partition masterpiece Subarnarekha (The Golden Thread, 1965); Aparna Sen's Mr and Mrs Iyer (2002), which addresses communalism through a love story; Jago Hua Savera (Day Shall Dawn, 1959), directed by AJ Kardar (born in Lahore, part of West Pakistan when the film was made), and shot in Bangladesh (then in East Pakistan); and Mani Kaul's astonishing, avant-garde documentary Siddheshwari (1989). Works by latter-day directors include Amit Dutta's breathtaking Nainsukh (2010), which drew inspiration from both Ray and Kaul, and Anik Dutta's Aparajito (The Undefeated, 2022), a charming primer on how Ray made his first film.

Curating is a kind of adventure, a detective game, a gamble. Your dream list of films may be very far from the films you actually manage to get - because you want films on 35mm restored prints, there's sleuthing to trace which archives may have it, sometimes the rights holder or print holder can't be traced. I am very proud we have two restored 35mm prints from the Academy Film Archive, yes the Oscar-wallahs: Charulata and Shatranj ke Khilari (in India it is near-impossible to see a film on 35mm print any more); we also have Mr and Mrs Iyer on 35mm print from the Directorate of Film Festivals and Devi in a beautiful 4K digital restoration from Janus Films. I'd like to acknowledge Cameron Bailey, who invited me on board, my colleagues Jessica Smith, Manager, TIFF Cinematheque, Andrea Picard, Senior Curator, and Ishany Bhattacharya, Coordinator, TIFF Cinematheque Programming, along with the National Film Archive of India, Directorate of Film Festivals, Films Division, National Film Development Corporation and all the individual rights and print holders. As a curator, I like the films to talk to each other, and hope I have succeeded.

Meenakshi Shedde is India and South Asia Delegate to the Berlin International Film Festival, National Award-winning critic, curator to festivals worldwide and journalist.
Reach her at meenakshi.shedde@mid-day.com