‘Ray’s women characters were non-stereotypical’

N Manu Chakravarthy said that Ray anticipated the nature of capitalist globalisation in many of his films such as ‘Mahanagar’, ‘Nayak’, ‘Pratidwani’, ‘Seemabadh’

The master filmmaker Satyajit Ray was prophetic about the problems arising out of certain kinds of globalisation and captured the ‘existentialist struggles’ of middle classes in many of his films, said National Golden Lotus award winner film critic Prof N Manu Chakravarthy.

He was delivering a commemorative address on ‘Satyajit Ray - In Our Times’, a virtual talk organised as a part of the film master’s birth centenary by Gandhian Centre for Philosophical Arts and Sciences (GCPAS), Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Manipal.

Chakravarthy said that Ray anticipated the nature of capitalist globalisation in many of his films such as ‘Mahanagar’, ‘Nayak’, ‘Pratidwani’, ‘Seemabadh’ and others.

Citing a dialogue from one of Ray’s films, he said that Ray believed that a sense of justice and equality were better achievements of modern age than man landing on the moon. Ray’s women characters are very strong and non-stereotypical ones. They, in fact, provide a counterpoint to the dominant masculinist narrative, he added.

Imbibing the intellectual heritage of Rajaram Mohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidya Sagar and of course Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi, Ray formed his views about colonialism, nationalism, women, education, modernity, war and peace and others which also reflected in his films such as ‘Ghare Baire’ and ‘Shatranj Ke Khiladi’.

Critiquing those who are becoming willing partners in the process of dehumanised mindless globalisation and related areas, Chakravarthy cited Ray’s opinion, coming through his films, that one shouldn’t become wealthy on the misery and suffering of the people.

GCPAS Head Prof Varadesh Hiregange said that Ray captured reality of his times in his cinematic mode of ‘realism,’ emerging as a class by himself, as a classicist producing classics and cutting across class barriers to be counted among masters of world cinema.

Prof Phaniraj said that Ray remains as a contemporary with his humanism and modernism.

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