''Sukumar Ray'' is a 1987

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the ...

short

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

made by

Satyajit Ray Satyajit Ray (; 2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian director, screenwriter, documentary filmmaker, author, essayist, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligrapher, and music composer. One of the greatest auteurs o ...

on his father, Sukumar Ray. It was released during the birth centenary year of Sukumar Ray, who was born on 30 October 1887. The thirty minutes documentary features the life and some of the works by Sukumar Ray in the form of paintings, photographs and readings. This is the last documentary made by Satyajit Ray as a tribute to his father, before he died in 1992. The documentary used Sukumar Ray's photographs and paintings than video recording as the film was considerably a new medium in India when Sukumar Ray died in 1923.

Background

Sukumar Ray was a

humorous poet, story writer and playwright who mainly wrote for children. Born in a Bengali family on 30 October 1887 to Bidhumukhi and Upendrakishore Ray, Sukumar Ray is a second children of six and illustrator of

literary nonsense Literary nonsense (or nonsense literature) is a broad categorization of literature that balances elements that make sense with some that do not, with the effect of subverting language conventions or logical reasoning. Even though the most well-kn ...

and nonsense rhyme in Bengali literature. Graduated with Honours degree in Physics and Chemistry from the

Presidency College, Kolkata Presidency University, Kolkata (formerly known as Presidency College, Kolkata) is a second major public state aided research university located in College Street, Kolkata. Considered as one of best colleges when Presidency College was affilia ...

, Sukumar Ray got training in photography and printing technology in England at the School of Photo-Engraving and Lithography, London. He formed the "Nonsense Club" and the "Monday Club", the members of which included some of the young artists, writers, scholars and critics of that time. Ray was also associated with

Brahmo Samaj Brahmo Samaj ( bn, ব্রহ্ম সমাজ, Brahmô Sômaj, ) is the societal component of Brahmoism, which began as a monotheistic reformist movement of the Hindu religion that appeared during the Bengal Renaissance. It was one o ...

and wrote a poem called "Atiter Katha" for young readers. His works such as the collection of poems ''

Abol Tabol ''Abol tabol'' ( bn, আবোল তাবোল; ; 'The Weird and the Absurd') is a collection of Bengali children's poems and rhymes composed by Sukumar Ray, first published on 19th September 1923 by U. Ray and Sons publishers. It consists of ...

'' (Gibberish), novella ''

HaJaBaRaLa ''HaJaBaRaLa'' ( bn, হ য ব র ল), or ''HJBRL: A Nonsense Story'', is a children's novella by Sukumar Ray. ''Ha Ja Ba Ra La'' is considered one of the best nonsense stories of Bengali literature. To highlight its genre, artistic merit and ...

'' (The Absurdity), short story collection '' Pagla Dashu'' (Crazy Dashu) and play ''Chalachitta Chanchari'' are considered nonsense masterpieces. Father of film-maker

, Sukumar Ray died of severe infectious fever,

Leishmaniasis Leishmaniasis is a wide array of clinical manifestations caused by parasites of the trypanosome genus '' Leishmania''. It is generally spread through the bite of phlebotomine sandflies, '' Phlebotomus'' and ''Lutzomyia'', and occurs most f ...

on 10 September 1923.

Synopsis

With

Soumitra Chatterjee Soumitra Chatterjee (also spelt as Chattopadhyay; 16 June 193515 November 2020) was an Indian film actor, play-director, playwright, writer, thespian and poet. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential actors in the history of ...

as a narrator, the documentary begins by showcasing some of the drawings by Sukumar Ray, drawn for the children books ''

'', ''

'' and a short story, ''Heshoram Hushiarer Diary'' (The Diary of Heshoram: The Clever). Explaining the lineage of Ray family starting from Hari Krishna Roy Chowdhury and Upendrakishore Ray, the documentary describes initial days of Sukumar Ray, his formation of the "Nonsense Group" in the college and publication of handwritten humorous magazine, "Thirty Two and a Half Fries".

Utpal Dutt Utpal Dutta () (29 March 1929 – 19 August 1993) was an Indian actor, director, and writer-playwright. He was primarily an actor in Bengali theatre, where he became a pioneering figure in Modern Indian theatre, when he founded the "Little T ...

enacts as a teacher from Ray's first published poetical "nonsense"-play ''Jhala Pala'' (The Cacophony) and provides humorous explanation/translation of the sentence "I go up, we go down" in Bengali. Soumitra Chatterjee appears as

Rama Rama (; ), Ram, Raman or Ramar, also known as Ramachandra (; , ), is a major deity in Hinduism. He is the seventh and one of the most popular ''avatars'' of Vishnu. In Rama-centric traditions of Hinduism, he is considered the Supreme Being ...

, the

avatar Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appeara ...

of the Hindu god

Vishnu Vishnu ( ; , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism. Vishnu is known as "The Preserver" within ...

, in a spoof based on an Indian epic ''

Ramayana The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th to 4th centuries BCE, and later stages e ...

'', ''Lakshmaner Shaktishel'' (The magical spear of

Lakshmana Lakshmana ( sa, लक्ष्मण, lit=the fortunate one, translit=Lakṣmaṇa), also spelled as Laxmana, is the younger brother of Rama and his loyalist in the Hindu epic ''Ramayana''. He bears the epithets of Saumitra () and Ramanuja () ...

). The spoof is based on Rama's dream about the central antagonist of the ''Ramayana'', the demon-king

Ravana Ravana (; , , ) is a rakshasa king of the island of Lanka, and the chief antagonist of the Hindu epic ''Ramayana'' and its adaptations. In the ''Ramayana'', Ravana is described to be the eldest son of sage Vishrava and rakshasi Kaikesi. ...

and the spy ( Tapen Chatterjee) providing further information about it. The documentary also focusses on Ray's college days in London while studying photography, lithography and his meeting with Nobel Prize–winning littérateur,

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...

. While narrating his first poem ''Khichudi'' (The mixture) published in children's magazine, '' Sandesh'', launched by his father, the documentary explains how entire Ray family worked together for the growth of the magazine after the death of Upendrakishore Ray. Mentioning his association with

, the documentary ends with Sukumar Ray's terminal disease and his death on 10 September 1923.

Credits

Cast

as Village teacher (character of the play ''Jhala Pala'') *

(from the play ''Lakshmaner Shaktishel'' (The magical spear of

)) * Tapen Chatterjee as informer (from the play ''Lakshmaner Shaktishel'') * Chiranjeet as

(from the play ''Lakshmaner Shaktishel'') * Santosh Dutta * Nirmal Ghosh * Bimal Deb * Ramesh Mukhopadhyay * Sambarta Sarkar * Soumya Patra * Chinmay Chatterjee * Utpal Roy * Shamik Banerjee * Sougata Banerjee * Ankur Chatterjee * Soumendranath Das

Crew

* Narration: Soumitra Chatterjee * Editor: Dulal Dutta * Art direction: Ashoke Bose * Sound designer: Sujit Sarkar * Cinematographer: Barun Raha * Still photographer: Nemai Ghosh, Hirak Sen, Satyaki * Make up: Ananta Das

Music

* Music direction: Satyajit Ray * Assistant music director: Aloknath Dey * Singer: Anup Ghoshal * Chorus: Biswajeet Gupta, Debashish Roy Chowdhury, Arup Majumder, Prabuddha Raha, Shekhar Gupta, Aditya Narayan Biswas * Song recording: Sushanta Banerjee * Re-recording: Jyoti Chatterjee, Anup Mukhopadhyay

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sukumar Ray (Film) 1987 films 1987 documentary films 1987 short films 1980s Bengali-language films Documentary films about writers Films directed by Satyajit Ray Bengali-language Indian films Indian short documentary films 1980s short documentary films