{"id":7847,"date":"2023-07-13T00:00:03","date_gmt":"2023-07-12T18:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/?p=7847"},"modified":"2026-03-23T18:47:02","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T13:17:02","slug":"satyajit-ray-from-frame-to-frame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/satyajit-ray-from-frame-to-frame\/","title":{"rendered":"Satyajit Ray: From Frame To Frame"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Satyajit

Satyajit Ray: From Frame To Frame – By Shoma Chatterji<\/p><\/div>\n

Satyajit Ray: From Frame To Frame<\/strong><\/em>
\nBy Shoma A Chatterji<\/strong>
\nPublished by<\/strong>: Vitasta
\nPages<\/strong>: 225
\nPrice<\/strong>: Rs. 495
\nAvailable on<\/strong>: Flipkart<\/a>, Vitasta<\/a><\/p>\n

Published by Vitasta in 2022, Shoma Chatterji\u2019s book Satyajit Ray: From Frame to Frame <\/em>is an interesting addition to the oeuvre of literature on Ray\u2019s cinema. This is by no means Chatterji\u2019s first work on Ray\u2019s cinema, but this book is more contemplative, more intertextual and has more cross references than her earlier work, perhaps because the lockdown gave her the leisure to contemplate.<\/p>\n

In Satyajit Ray: From Frame to Frame, <\/em>Chatterji examines patterns emerging from Ray\u2019s body of work and groups his films under broad categories like hunger, masculinity, femininity. According to this categorization, the \u2018hunger trilogy consists of Pather Panchali, Ashani Sanket <\/em>and Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne. <\/em>In all the three films we witness hunger and remission from hunger either through wily tactics or resourcefulness or redefining the idea of \u2018edible and inedible\u2019 by Ghost\u2019s grace.<\/p>\n

Chatterji writes, \u201cAffluent cultures show food beautified in the form of still life paintings and sculpture. Indeed, the still life paintings of Jan van Kessel, Luis Melendez, Cezanne and others ooze with bounty. In Ray\u2019s films too, scenes of eating and mealtimes are recurrent motifs fight from Pather Panchali<\/em> to Agantuk<\/em> \u2013 not in a gastropornographic sense, but as an element that brings the family together, that brings out a power hierarchy within the family or underlines secret bonding between two individuals. Pather Panchali<\/em> is replete with scenes of eating. Chatterji writes, \u201cPather Panchali<\/em> is scattered with items of food. Little Durga hides a stolen guava under a bunch of bananas in an earthen pot. Before going to school, Apu drinks milk from a big bowl. As he finishes it, some milk trails down the corners of his mouth. We never see Durga drinking milk.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Satyajit

Back cover of Satyajit Ray: From Frame To Frame<\/p><\/div>\n

This brings us to the ideas of masculinity and femininity in Ray\u2019s cinema. What are the Indian ideas of masculinity? Five Pandavas in the Mahabharata<\/em> represent five avatars of Indian masculinity, from the sacrificing, gentle, dependable, truthful elder brother to the brutish Bheema to valiant Arjuna. Anand Patwardhan, in his seminal documentary Fathers Sons and Holy War<\/em>, examines how ideas of masculinity and virility are propagated in Indian popular culture. Shoma Chatterji examines Parash<\/em> Pathar, Pratidwandi, Nayak<\/em> and Sadgati<\/em> to give her readers an idea about different facets of masculinity that steer clear of cliched ideas.<\/p>\n

Parash Pathar<\/em> shows how a Bengali male cannot handle sudden change in his socio-economic status, Pratidwandi<\/em> shows a male who is essentially a fence sitter but who, towards the end of the film explodes with rage in a typical Bengali fashion and takes a major decision in his life; Nayak<\/em> is, of course, \u2018a slice of a hero\u2019s life\u2019. Chatterji posits the film Sadgati <\/em>in the perspective of Dalit politics and how in the span of 75 years \u2018dalits\u2019 have been represented in Indian cinema. In the process she lashes out at Lagaan<\/em> for \u2018giving a token nod to the dalit\u2019. The chapter on Sadgati, <\/em>replete with quotes from other critics and scholars, is a very rich treatise on \u2018dalits\u2019 that many researchers will find useful. Interestingly, Chatterjee does not include Feluda or the muscleman in Joy Baba Felunath<\/em> in her discourse on masculinity in Ray\u2019s films. This is because she devotes one whole chapter on Feluda in the last section of the book.<\/p>\n

The section on femininity, as expected, revolves around Devi, Mahanagar<\/em> and Charulata<\/em>. Just as there is a psychoanalytical reading of Devi,<\/em> there is Marxist, sociological and feminist reading of Mahanagar.<\/em> The chapter on Charulata<\/em>, on the other hand, deals with the importance of literature in the narrative \u2013 how literature binds and separates all the three protagonists in the film.<\/p>\n

Chatterji\u2019s book addresses the uninitiated reader. That is why she takes pains to sketch out the backstories of the films and the original literary works and posits every film discussed in its socio political context. Satyajit Ray: From Frame to Frame <\/em>will be a valuable resource book for students of cinema and cinephiles who want to dig deep into Ray\u2019s oeuvre.<\/p>\n

More Must Reads in Silhouette<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rituparno Ghosh: On\/And Film \u2014 Book Review<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Jyotiprasad, Joymoti, Indramalati and Beyond: History of Assamese Cinema: Parthajit Baruah\u2019s New Book<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Murmurs: Silent Steals with Soumitra Chatterjee \u2013 Two Reviews<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Woman at the Window<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Satyajit Ray: From Frame to Frame, <\/em>Shoma Chatterji examines patterns emerging from Satyajit Ray\u2019s body of work and groups his films under broad categories like hunger, masculinity, femininity. Subha Das Mollick reviews the book.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":603,"featured_media":7853,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[424],"tags":[196,150,28],"class_list":["post-7847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indian-cinema-retrospectives","tag-cinema-of-satyajit-ray","tag-feluda-by-satyajit-ray","tag-satyajit-ray"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7847","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\/603"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7847"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10609,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7847\/revisions\/10609"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}