{"id":2873,"date":"2016-05-02T00:10:17","date_gmt":"2016-05-01T18:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/?p=2873"},"modified":"2023-08-09T13:17:53","modified_gmt":"2023-08-09T07:47:53","slug":"pather-panchali-sketchbook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/pather-panchali-sketchbook\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pather Panchali Sketchbook \u2013 An Intricately Delicate Entry into a Master\u2019s Creative Mind"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pather Panchali Sketchbook<\/em><\/strong> is available on<\/strong> Amazon<\/a><\/strong><\/span> and<\/strong> Flipkart<\/a>.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Buy<\/a>

Rain sequence<\/strong>
a. Top: Rain sequence \u2013 Ray\u2019s illustration from Aam Antir Bhenpu (Pic courtesy: Internet)
b. Middle: Rain sequence from Ray\u2019s Sketchbook (Pic Courtesy: The Pather Panchali Sketchbook<\/em>, Harper Collins India, 2016<\/a>)
c. Bottom: Rain sequence from Ray\u2019s first feature film Pather Panchali (Pic Courtesy: Internet)<\/p><\/div>\n

Arguably India\u2019s greatest filmmaker Satyajit Ray prepared the script of his first film Pather Panchali <\/em>in the form of a sketch book in lieu of a traditional screenplay. The sketches were a visual guide to the film maker and one can\u2019t but be astonished to see that there is indeed a very close resemblance between the sketches and the actual film. The resemblance is not only in the narrative progression of the film but also in the composition of its frames.<\/p>\n

It so transpires that in the early ’60s, Ray had handed over his Pather Panchali<\/em> sketch book to the Cinematheque Francaise in Paris (commonly the Paris Cine Museum) on their request. During his final days, Ray wanted to have another look at this sketches and it was then found to be missing from the museum along with the shooting script of Apur Sansar<\/em>, the final part of the Apu Trilogy.<\/p>\n

It was recently taken up by the \u2018Society for Preservation of Satyajit Ray Archives’ (popular as ‘Satyajit Ray Society’) in a bid to restore and publish the sketchbook of Ray\u2019s first. This is a highly commendable effort and the society needs a lot of praise for being painstakingly diligent in this achievement. They followed up with Cinematheque Francaise for long and finally obtained a scanned copy of the entire sketch.<\/p>\n

Alongside a lot of missing pieces were collected from across the world and meshed together into a lovely memorabilia that not only includes the 58 page sketchbook (which is no doubt the highlight of the collection) but also reviews, posters, illustrations, memoirs, quotes from the likes of Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson, M F Hussein, Francois Truffaut, Jim Jarmusch, Salman Rushdie and some more.<\/p>\n

In the preface, Sandip Ray rightly mentions \u2014 “The admirers of Satyajit Ray around the world will get an opportunity to have a look at the entire sketch book, which formed the very foundation on which father made his maiden film.” The book also has scanned copies of letters to Ray from Jean Renoir, Monroe Wheeler, J B Nicholson and Ray Bradbury.<\/p>\n

The added attraction of the collectible is the rare and a few unpublished articles on the film and the experience working in it from wife Bijoya Ray, Cinematographer Subrata Mitra, Art Director Bansi Chandragupta, Assistant Cinematographer Soumendu Roy and Editor Dulal Dutta. In addition there are narrations from Uma Dasgupta (Durga) and Subir Banerjee (Apu).<\/p>\n

\"Buy<\/a>

Indir Thakrun threading a needle from Ray\u2019s Sketchbook \u2013 Look at the composition including the preference for light in the frame as a guide to his cinematographer Subrata Mitra
(Pic Courtesy: Buy The Pather Panchali Sketchbook, Harper Collins India, 2016 from Amazon<\/a>)<\/p><\/div>\n

If one peeks into the sketches one will be mesmerized by the visual details of them which are excellent pieces in their own right. Also interesting to note are the illustrations he did for Aam Antir Bhenpu<\/em> which is the children\u2019s version of Bibhuti Bhusan Bandyopadhyay\u2019s epic novel Pather Panchali<\/em> published by Signet Press. It was at this time, while doing the illustrations when the idea of making a film on this narrative dawned on Ray. However one will not miss his artistic sensibilities which made him sketch differently for the children\u2019s book which was predominantly monochromatic in feel and the ones in sketchbook which have a definite depth of field which will help his camera-man not only with the camera angle but also with the light. In the famous rain shot where Durga drags Apu to her shelter the illustrations of sketch book and the children\u2019s book are uncannily similar in terms of viewing angle but they have difference in texture. And if one looks at the actual filmic representation the similarity looks absolutely stunning.<\/p>\n

Or the iconic \u2018kash-bon\u2019 sequence where Apu for the first time in his life gets a chance to watch a train \u2013 a rural innocent boy\u2019s first encounter with machine. In a series of deft sketches Ray provides the visual-scape that he looks for. His precision is riveting and the final execution in film equally captivating. And it does open up interesting questions. I, for example wanted to understand what prompted Ray to have the train enter the frame from right in the film when his sketch had it from the left.<\/p>\n

\"Buy<\/a>

\u2018Kash-bon\u2019 sequence<\/strong>
a. Top: \u2018Kash-bon\u2019 sequence from Ray\u2019s Sketchbook (Pic Courtesy: Buy The Pather Panchali Sketchbook, Harper Collins India, 2016 from Amazon<\/a>)
b. Bottom: \u2018Kash-bon\u2019 sequence from Ray\u2019s first feature film Pather Panchali (Pic Courtesy: Internet)<\/p><\/div>\n

Much later in his detective film Sonar Kella<\/em> there is indeed another train sequence in the deserts of Rajasthan. And like Apu, Felu-da also had to run towards the train but in this case in order to stop it. In that sequence Ray did consider the train to enter the frame from the left just like this sketch for Pather Panchali<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The Pather Panchali Sketchbook<\/em>\u00a0is published by Harper Collins Publishers India in association with the Satyajit Ray Society. It was launched on the eve of Satyajit Ray\u2019s 95th birth anniversary (on 1 May 2016) at the Satyajit Ray Auditorium, Rabindranath Tagore Centre, ICCR, Kolkata. The book release was followed by a panel discussion where some renowned actors discovered by Ray viz. Paromita, Barun Chanda, Dipankar De and Pradip Mukherjee reminisced about their association with the master director.<\/p>\n

\"Buy<\/a>

The cover of Buy The Pather Panchali Sketchbook, Harper Collins India, 2016 from Amazon<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

The Pather Panchali Sketchbook<\/em><\/strong> is available on<\/strong> Amazon<\/a><\/strong><\/span> and<\/strong> Flipkart<\/a>.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

More to read<\/strong><\/p>\n

60 Years of Pather Panchali and Some Questions on Indian Cinema<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018Illuminating Ray\u2019 A Critique on Gaston Roberge\u2019s Satyajit Ray: Essays (1970-2005)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Master and His Actor<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Beyond Apu \u2013 the Genius of Soumitra Chatterjee<\/a><\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This was no traditional screenplay. Satyajit Ray ‘drew’ the script of his first film Pather Panchali<\/em> in a sketch book, using the sketches as a visual guide when he started shooting eventually. The Pather Panchali Sketchbook<\/em> recently published by Harper Collins Publishers India in association with the Satyajit Ray Society was launched on the eve of Satyajit Ray\u2019s 95th birth anniversary (on 1 May 2016). The book also has added collectibles in the form of scanned copies of letters to Ray from Jean Renoir, Monroe Wheeler, J B Nicholson and Ray Bradbury and rare and a few unpublished articles from his illustrious crew members. A Silhouette review.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":374,"featured_media":2878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2470,2277],"tags":[1661,243,1664,155,28,1666,1663,1662,1665],"class_list":["post-2873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-review","category-ray100","tag-cinematheque-francaise","tag-pather-panchali","tag-pather-panchali-sketchbook","tag-sandip-ray","tag-satyajit-ray","tag-satyajit-ray-archives","tag-satyajit-ray-society","tag-society-for-preservation-of-satyajit-ray-archives","tag-the-pather-panchali-sketchbook"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/374"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2873"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7922,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2873\/revisions\/7922"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}