A cosy little café in BE Block, New Town, hosted what may be described as a knowledge exchange meet-up on a man who had lent his surname to the cafe — Satyajit Ray. On his birthday-eve, L’Ray Treat invited fans of the multi-faceted genius to gather and get their Ray quotient tested at the event titled Sidhu Jyathar Sondhyay Sobdojobde Satyajit.
Not just the quiz questions, even the conversation was laced with Rayisms. One of the two masters of the ceremony was delayed. "Perhaps he got waylaid by a 'durdharsh dushman',” quipped Ayon Mandal, a resident of Alaktika Housing Complex in Action Area IID, in a double throwback to Sonar Kella, where Lalmohan Ganguly introduces himself and his alliterating novel title in atrocious Hindi and the villain tries to hold up Feluda en route to Jaisalmer by hook or crook.
Mandal invited an audience member to read a passage from Gosaipur Sargaram, where ?? Ganguly describes his teacher at Athenaeum Institution, Tulsicharan Dasgupta, as living in Raja Dinendra Street and learning how to wrestle from Gobor Guho. He went on to ask the audience about the identity of the legendary wrestler. “He was our first world champion in any kind of sport. He has both a statue and a road to his name,” he added, as clue. A descendant of Guho stays in Alaktika, it was revealed.
Jatindra Charan Guho was then named as the wrestler and Goa Bagan Street mentioned as having the rechristened identity of Gobar Guho Sarani.
The conversation veered towards Kamu Mukherjee, one of the two villains in Sonar Kella. Those present shared accounts from Ray’s Ekei Bole Shooting — how Kamu complained to Bijoya Ray of a silencer being installed in a biscuit on being served one that had lost its crunch in the Ray house.
Another recounted the story of Kamu hiding the nagrai shoes bought by fellow actor Rajkumar Lahiri during their Rajasthan trip for Goopi Gyne Bagha Byne. Lahiri had bought so many that he had to tie the pile in a blanket. Kamu had quietly hung that from a ceiling joist of his room, which escaped his eye. So after a frantic search he went and complained to Ray of what he thought was a theft. So Kamu had to disclose the hiding spot but he did so with a cryptic coment that had he known he would complain to Ray, he would have made him lie on the bed underneath the pile of shoes and shown him nagra Falls, referring to the famous waterfall in north America.
Susmita Mukherjee of Alaktika asked others to name Kamu’s work in other Ray films. Haroon, the juggler, in Sandip Ray's Fatikchand was a popular choice as one of his best roles.
Ishani, the resident baker at the cafe, asked which country’s make the suitcase used by Lalmohan Ganguly was. “Japanese,” Aindri pounced with the answer.
Macneil Chowdhury, a resident of New Town Heights, asked for the name of the fairy tale which is Ray's only work for small children. “Kanai,” his seven-year-old daughter Nandana responded. “The story was indeed called Kanai-er Katha, one of the four stories in the book. I want the name of the fairy tale,” he paused. On seeing others fumble, he gave a clue — a man who could imitate bird calls. “Harbola, Sujan harbola,” came the answer in a chorus.
He read out from a small book, quoting the person who had written the forward: “'Till such time, he met Manik-da, incredulous as it may sound, he had no knowledge of professional photography. Despite that, Manik-da decreed that' this person 'would be the official still photographer for Aranyer Dinratri'. 'Naturally,' the person wrote, 'like many others, I too had my doubts, but of course no one dared to oppose Manik-da.' The person goes on to describe him as “the visual Boswell to Ray's Johnson”. After a few false steps, the answer was arrived at - Nemai Ghosh, who had clicked Ray for 25 years. But Chowdhury had to give the other half of the answer, pointing out that Sharmila Tagore wrote the forward to Ghosh's memoir, titled Manikda.
Other posers were also presented. If sandhya shashi bondhu is Pradosh Chandra Mitra (Feluda’s formal name), what is suksho shaal soshyo? Think of atoms, was the only clue given by Anita Mukherjee of Uttara Dwitiya. The answer to the riddle from Gosaipur Sargaram was anusondhan, anu meaning atom.
Chandrabali Mukherjee of BA Block asked for the identity of Sidhu Jyatha, on whom Ray had based the all-knowing character. The answer was Bimal Chatterjee (who also played Raxit in Jai Baba Felunath).
From a book taken from the showcase at the café, a font was shown for identification. “Ray Roman, which he had designed himself,” was the answer.
The oldest member of the audience Jyotibindu Chowdhury, 78, asked which brand of cigarette Apu used to smoke. “Scissors,” was the answer. “It was a no-filter brand and was brought out by the same tobacco company that produced Charminar,” he said, and followed it with a related question. “Which matchbox did Feluda use to light his Charminar?” Tekka, came the reply in chorus.
He also answered Action Area IID resident Poulami Sengupta's question seeking the name of the novel on which Ray's film Mahanagar was based. “It was a Narendranath Mitra novel (Abataranika),” he said.
Macneil showed a picture of Ray directing Lakshmaner Shaktishel and wanted to know the occasion. “The Sukumar Ray documentary,” Aindri triumphantly responded. “We staged that at our complex, so they all know it is by Sukumar Ray,” Susmita Dasgupta said, smiling at her young neighbour.
Sudeshna Banerjee