DOI: https://doi.org/10.36094/sc.v87.2021.The_Graphic_Talent_of_Satyanit_Ray.Subramanyan.207 ARTICLE

Sci. and Cult. 87 (5–6) : 207-210 (2021)

THE GRAPHIC TALENT OF SATYAJIT RAY

K. G. SUBRAMANYAN*

atyajit Ray’s first ambition was, doubtless, to be a intelligence and proficiency in the English language his graphic designer. His grandfather, Upendra Kishore mind was not in such studies. So when he finished these SRay Chaudhuri had a press and process studio, and and took his degree (in Economics) his foremost desire was deeply interested in good printing, illustration and was to hone his graphic skills and prepare for a career in reproduction. He also wrote stories for children based on graphic design (then called, perhaps appropriately, folk tales and myths and illustrated them; and published a commercial or advertising art).. very popular children’s magazine, “Sandesh”. According His mother encouraged him to go to Kala-Bhavana, to Satyajit he was a very versatile person, a writer, painter, Santiniketan. For her this was a natural choice. They were musician, photographer and bolckmaker, with serious friends of the Tagores and admirers of Rabindranath’s interests in science and astronomy. Satyajit’s father, many-sided genius. Also, by that time, Visva-Bharati, Sukumar Ray, was also a man of many talents. He wrote Rabindranath’s dream-child of an institution, had gained a well and his humorous skits and nonsense verse, highly distinct visibility, in spite of the skepticism, even derision, imaginative and original, are among the landmarks of with which it was eyed in the academic circles of Calcutta, modern Bengali literature. He also went to England to particularly Kala-Bhavana, under the stewardship of study printing technology, particularly advanced Nandalal Bose. By the end of the thirties Nandalal had techniques in half-tone reproduction. He too was a come to be known as an artist and teacher of great caricaturist and illustrator who enriched his published texts distinction. And his students adored him. His remarkable with zany ink drawings. So the interest ran in the family. work at the three Congress sessions at Lucknow (1936), Like his grandfather (who died about six years before Faizpur (1936) and Haripura (1938), on the invitation of he was born) and his father (who died when he was barely Mahatma Gandhi, had also shot him into national fame, two years and a half) Satyajit had a natural talent for making him as it were, the artist laureate of nationalist drawing. Having spent his early childhood in the same India. building as housed his grandfather’s press he grew up Satyajit welcomed the change though he was not amidst the hardware of the print shop. But the press closed initially sure of what to expect. In the circles he moved in up. And not long after his father’s death his mother moved Calcutta, especially among the youth, Santiniketan was not with him to another locality in town. Satyajit went through highly thought of; it was considered a camp site for long- school and college like most middle class young men. haired moon-gazers. Apart from this, Kala-Bhavana was Although well thought of by teachers for his general not like other professional schools. It offered no structured technical courses leading to a career. Besides, the picture * K. G. Subramanyan (1924-2016) - was an Indian artist, he so far had of the modern Indian art scene through the Former student of Kala-Bhavana, Visva-Bharati; Professor of Painting, in Baroda, Later Professor of Painting, Kala- reproductions in Ramananda Chatterjee’s journals was not Bhavana, Visva-Bharati, Recipient of National Award, Lalit highly appetizing either. All the same he honoured his Kala Academy; Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan, Padma mother’s wish and went to Santiniketan. And he did not Vibhushan, Govt. of India; Deshikottam (Visva-Bharati), D.Litt. (H.C.) Rabindra Bharati Univ., Assam University. come to regret it. Later in the day he confessed to friends

VOL. 87, NOS. 5–6 207 his knowledge of music widened; while his friendship with Alex Aronson, a young Professor of English who was a lover of European classical music, educated his understanding of this, he also heard much Indian classical music and Rabindra Sangit. Discussions on art with bright and well- informed classmates like Prithwish Neogy and others broadened his perspectives on art. He also took advantage of Kala-Bhavana’s magnificent art library. And with the help of his teachers got an introduction to Far Eastern art and calligraphy they greatly admired. Visva-Bharati conferred the highest academic degree “Desikottama” to Shri Satyajit Ray at He also visited with his friends the Annual Convocation on November 25,1978. some of the major cultural sites of that the two and a half years he spent in Santiniketan India, which left a strong impression. And over and above were among the most valuable in his life. Once he landed this, the many-faceted genius of Mastermosai who thought in Santiniketan and came face to face with the work of of art in a large perspective and wanted artists to Nandalal, Benodebehari and Ramkinkar he suddenly saw, contribute to every aspect of life, not just hole up in their as he told others later, that some modern Indian art was studios to paint or sculpt, he certainly found highly truly strong and virile. He enrolled to study painting encouraging. although he never meant to become a painter. Circumstances did not permit Satyajit to complete his Rabindranath was still there during his initial year and novitiate in Santiniketan. He was perhaps getting too half; though the few contacts he may have had with him restless to get back to the city and its air of excitement. could not have been anymore than formal and distant, And had realized at one point, like his friend Prithwish considering Rabindranath’s age and ill health and his youth Neogy had too, that he did not have a vocation to be a and natural reserve. But the old man’s presence was still painter or sculptor; what would suit him better was to put felt everywhere. As things turned out Satyajit grew close his existing talents to use and start earning a livelihood. to Mastermosai (Nandalal), Benodebehari and Ramkinkar, His career as a graphic artist started with his joining particularly the former two. He recalled his experience in D.J. Keymer’s, a reputed advertising agency of that time. Santiniketan with great sense of gratitude. ‘It was there’, With his many-sided talent, smartness and wealth of he said, ‘that I learnt to look at nature, how to respond to interests he was easily accepted. He started as an nature and how to feel the rhythm of nature’. He was apprentice on a low pay, but it did not take him long to happy he came to Santiniketan in spite of his early get to the position of an art Director. Once so established misgivings. “Santiniketan and Nandalal made me a he also went and worked in their London office for a few convert in no time. And I am happy they did. Only an months. This visit provided him the incentive to change incomparable man and artist like Nandalal who could his boats in no distant future, from graphic design to film feel so sincerely and deeply about objects could impart making. this feeling to a pupil; especially a pupil who came to him with more than a small measure of scepticism like The contours of graphic design were those days very he”. different from today’s. It was largely geared to the promotion of a few consumer products and reached out The Santiniketan experience was enriching to Satyajit to a smaller, and largely literate public. It relied a lot on in more ways than one. A city-bred youngman, he had an manual skills for making the visualization or producing the exposure there to the ambience of the countryside. There finished art work. This put a premium on technical

208 SCIENCE AND CULTURE, MAY-JUNE, 2021 proficiency and aesthetic sensibility and went further to a pronounced interest in educating the sensibilities of give the message and its context a special cultural focus. youth from his father and grandfather, by leading them It even encouraged creative artists to lend their talents to into teasing encounters with ideas and situations. So he this process: for instance the London Transport System revived his grandfather’s children’s magazine, Sandesh, in commissioned many established artists to do posters they 1961 and spent a lot of his later years writing delightful could carry. In those days close monitoring of market fiction for young people. No wonder that he extended expectation and market response had not assumed as much this into pepping up and educating their visual responses prominence as it has today. as well. In the circumstances, the agency was happy to permit But all these works were not directly related to the Satyajit and some of his colleagues to give their work an work in the agency, which he found progressively indigenous image and flavor. Whether they were all distasteful. “I was fed up with client interference when motivated by the same intentions is hard to tell. To Pather Panchali gave me a good reason to leave Satyajit it went beyond the selling points to the exploration advertisements in the fifties. This interference was an of a visual language that would appeal to the newly culture affront to individuality”, he told some of his interviewers. conscious nationalist middle class. His days in Santiniketan A lot of these were done for the newly started Signet had changed him considerably. The focus of his interests, Press which made a big impact on the publishing scene in now, was less on commodity promotion than on fashioning its early years. As already mentioned he continued such a language of communication with cultural resonance. He designing even after he had left the field of advertising. refers to this in a latter-day lecture. “If Santiniketan did Taken as a whole these works have great variety. In some nothing else it induced contemplation and a sense of of his early illustrations to the novel Pather Panchali wonder in the most prosaic and earth-bound of minds. (which exercise led him to think of doing a film based on In the two and half years I had time to think and the the story) one can see certain similarities to the Sahajpat time to realize that, almost without my being aware of it, illustrations of Mastermosai. In some of his book jackets the place had opened windows for me. More than one sees the impact of Mastermosai’s costume cut–outs anything else it had brought me an awareness of our for Tasher Desh. He also tried a hand, now and then, at tradition which I knew would serve as the foundation for brushwork illustrations reminiscent of Benodbehari’s or any branch of art that I wished to pursue”. Mastermosai’s work. But his scribbled visuals for the film True, the work-scene in the agency had its own Pather Panchali are of another kind; their chiaroscuro is limitations. No talented or motivated designer could have dramatic, even photographic. His illustrations for Sandesh a free run there without being intercepted by various kinds also show him foraying into various visual styles or idioms, of advice, suggestion or objection from both clients and medieval woodcuts, Japanese line drawings, caricature, the executives. This irritated Satyajit. So he slowly comic strip. This versatility kept Satyajit’s indigenising diverted his talents to areas where such intrusions were effort from lapsing into over-decoration like those of some few, if not entirely absent. The high point of Satyajit’s of his more zealous confreres. He was more inventive. graphic work is here – in his book jackets, in his innovative He had a better sense of abstract balances. His play around typography, in the posters and hoardings he designed for with Bengali type units on the Ekhon covers make a noval his own films and the scribbled visuals he made to help in statement every time and are highly distinctive. And some the shooting of Pather Panchali. These show flare, taste, of his posters for his films show great conceptual subtlety. originality, playfulness and power of invention hitherto rare For instance the one for Ghare Baire, where the sharp in the Indian design scene. shadow of Vimala slants out of the doorway and a red swirl of flame caps the caption, loading it with various The part of the impetus came from his tutelage in innuendoes. May be there are various other examples Santiniketan is patent. For instance his designs often recall one can cite, like the publicity material for Devi or its Nandalal’s designs – of logos, book jackets and stylized logo, or the deceptively simple poster for Tin illustrations for the Santiniketan publications, integrating Kanya. function and aesthetic appeal with impeccable taste and economy. And contain within them a succinct intention In his later years Satyajit was very guarded in his to enrich the sensibilities of the viewer and arouse his references to his graphic work; he only considered it a interest in the visual environment. Satyajit had inherited kind of passage that, through a series of accidents, led

VOL. 87, NOS. 5–6 209 him to his chosen field, filmmaking, where he found himself jangha. In his later films the focus is more directly on and his well-deserved reputation as one of the masters of human drama than atmospheric details. Perhaps naturally modern cinema. So when an enterprising young lady so. For it is this drama that unrolls a message readily to compeered an exhibition of his graphic work in Delhi five the common viewer, while only sensitive connoisseurs get years ago he was very humble and apologetic. In a small thrilled by the atmospherics and graphic subtleties. But note in the catalogue he wrote ‘Since I consider myself his natural graphic sensibility surfaces in most of them primarily as a filmmaker and secondarily as a writer of here and there, from time to time. Possibly he may have stories for young people I have never taken my graphic felt that one can refine a viewer’s sensibilities only through work seriously and certainly considered it worthy of such a judicious interleaving, leading him slowly from being exposed to the public’. Considering their impact, be reading a story to responding to the visual tapestry that it indirect impact on the graphic design scene in Bengal, supports it; that over-refinement might inhibit him and especially in the field of book design and illustration, one perhaps muffle the message. may not take him fully at his word. There has been Adapted from – Satyajit Ray – An Intimate Master. considerable liveliness and sense of novelty in the field Ed. By Santi Das, Allied, 1997. of book design and illustration in Bengal since Satyajit’s early days and he is certainly one of the path-makers. Satyajit Ray in his last piece of English writing But his films, and their quality and appeal, are certainly a published just before his death in 1992 (Krishna Dutta class apart. and Andrew Robinson in Rabindranath Tagore – The Myriad-Minded Man -1996): ‘I consider the three years, It will be wrong to think that Satyajit’s graphic talent I spent in Santiniketan as the most fruitful of my life. This stops with his works on paper. His films too, at least some was not so much because of the proximity of of them, reveal it in ample measure in the tone and texture Rabindranath. It was just that Santiniketan opened my eyes of image or image detail, in the tone and texture of the for the first time to the splendours of Indian and Far general presentation, conjuring up an atmosphere charged Eastern art. Until then I was completely under the sway with various shades of emotion, all on the basis of various of western art, music and literature. Santiniketan made me kinds and grades of visual stimuli. Pather Panchali is the combined product of East and West that I am. As a replete with such details; so is Aparajita or Kanchan- film maker I owe as much to Santiniketan as I do to American and European cinema’. 

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