Following the huge success of his telefilms, Satyajit Ray Presents 1 and 2, Feluda-30 and Dr. Munshir Diary based on a bunch of Satyajit Ray’s widely-read short stories, Sandip Ray has now completed his new tele-film Satyajiter Gappo-2 will be telecast on DD-1 and 7 (National channel) as a tribute to the maestro’s 80th birth anniversary. The interesting feature of the current experiment lies in its freshness and novelty as it mostly concentrates on bizarre contours of everyday life, human values found in its natural splendour and conflicts and complex situations.

Sandip, hailed as "the spiritual Siamese twins" by the famous British critic Marie Seton, in the process, has culled ten best short stories from Ray’s repertory and transposed them into "twelve part" episodes, each part distinctive from the other in theme and treatment. Each part is of 30 minute duration. Th short stories on which the project is based are Bhakta, Chilaykotha, Bonkubabur Bondhu (two episodes), Anathbabur Bhoy, Bhuto, Spotlight, Badur Bibhishika, Mr.Shashmaler Sesh Ratri, Anukul and Tollywoday Tarinikhuro (two episodes). Says Sandip, "If you had ever seen my previous telefilms that caught up with the imagination of millions of tube viewers, you will know that I largely stay away from others when tackling themes of various hues and literary interest. Here the pattern followed is that of cinematic nuances than that of small-screen sensationalism." It may be mentioned that Satyajit Ray, after making Premchand’s Sagati for television in 1982, lamented about the shortcomings of the medium.

He used to say that long shots always "lose in the end and blur things". Sandip, however, contradicts it and adds "in course of time and with many an improvement of the video tape and powerful lenses of camera, the past orthodoxy is no more valid". An important aspect of Sandip’s new telefilms is its thematic deployment of "psychological impulse" that pervades the pores of each tale, highlighting "affinities between viewers and film theme". Building up of psychological tension, conflicting desire and memories is a vital ingredient in a tele-film, maintains Sandip. According to him, it is much more difficult to pin down a character in his psychological upheaval given the social milieu he lives in. To take the characters and his surrounding ambience into full focus, the characters caught up in critical psychological ordeals, Sandip reveals, "it requires quite a pack of punch". In the current telefilms, he adds, "such psychological moments and emotions play a pivotal role in projecting the dramatic quality." It may be mentioned that all the ten Ray-stories find its exact flavour even when transposed into visual language. Says Sandip, "Aberration I have not made. Nor I have sophisticated its originality, keeping in mind the inherent strength of short stories". Normally, the thumb-rule has it that telefilms and long-spun serials appear as too verbose and wordy and leave little room for silence.

In the present instance, silence instead of words plays an important role. Satyajit Ray once said, "the crucial moment in a film must be wordless." As a matter of fact Sandip does little more than what his father cautioned. In his work, silence fills large space in a situation where characters get stymied in inner conflict. Sandip maintains, "There is no scope for frivolity in telefilms, when conceived in serious mood. I personally feel, silence should take over when the function of words is over. I mean situations built up on emotional conflicts should be wordless. Thus you can achieve greater dramatic unity." Made on the best of betacam tape, Sandip’s twelve part work looks as much a part of cinema frame at least when seen in its thematic and structural cohesion. This is the first time Sandip has made his each episode "multidimensional" rather than a linear one. Says he, "Most of my previous telefilms were hinged on linear structure, quite often dishing up one man’s tale. In the past experiments mainly thriller elements, macabre stuff, whodunit motifs were manifest. Character of course was linear whichever manner you scan it. But in the present instance, the same has been replaced with a multi-dimensional feature where you occupy much larger space to move with the characters and situations arising out of complex chrysalis."

No doubt, we have a couple of episodes which show Sandip indulging in a little bit of "thriller-gaffe", a dollop of macabre but that’s all. Intones Sandip, "To instill as much credence in the thematic treatment and matching it with sufficient human sensibilities is my aim. At times you would also find the lying litotes, very relevant, very valid given our contemporary social and political situations". It is of special interest that music, a main prop to themes in use, is transferred from Ray’s stock of vintage composition strips. Besides, the most contrasting aspect of the tele-film is the near total absence of female characters. It is because Satyajit when penning his stories quite self-consciously discards women characters. Why he did so has never been explained. According to Sandip, "the themes as delineated in fabric of story lines are not in need of them and since the character portrayal is dictated by the demand of the situations, female figures are given a holiday." However, only Bhakta places three women characters with a certain purpose but they are kept only on an insignificant level. It is Ray’s speciality to write stories and hone it to a sharp perfection without the logical use of women characters and surprisingly they standout in its own right.

—Pradip Biswas