Satyajit Ray, who was popularly called as Manik da, was known for having the director's wonder, expressed a deep respect for women and portrayed them as having more moral strength than men in various roles other than the stereotyped idea of a woman belonging to the kitchen, say the filmmaker's leading ladies. To say more, actresses such as Sharmila Tagore, Aparna Sen and Madhabi Mukherjee still turn intensely happy while going back to their experiences of working with the Oscar-winning director, even more than 20 years after his death, something which came out vividly during a late evening session called Nayikar Bhumikay - Satyajiter Nari Charitra (Playing the Actress - Satyajit's Women Characters) which was held at the Kolkata Literary Meet Saturday.
Moreover, it was told by Aparna Sen that Satyajit Ray intended to show through his female characters in his films, the moral strength of women which he felt needs to be compared to the physical power of men. In fact, Aparna Sen had her debut as an actress in Mr Ray's 1961 film Teen Kanya (Three Daughters) which was based on three short stories by Rabindranath Tagore. A well-known director now, Aparna, 67, played Mrinmoyee in the story Samapti and the same expression was agreed by veteran actress Sharmila Tagore, who started her celluloid journey with Mr Ray's creation Apur Sansar - the final film in the Apu Trilogy - in 1959 at the age of thirteen. After that, Mr Ray cast Sharmila as Dayamoyee in Devi, before she went on to become a very successful actress in Hindi films. She returned to work in Ray's films - Nayak, Aranyer Din Ratri and Seemabaddha.
Now, coming to veteran Bengali actress Madhabi Mukherjee, who is best known for the title role in Satyajit Ray's masterpiece Charulata, says that Ray's films prescribed for women what should be done in response to the problems they faced in society in fact, she added that here was an idea that women belonged to the kitchen, but Mr Ray brought them out from there.
To conclude, Sharmila said he introduced her to cinema and that If it hadn't been for him, she wouldn't have become a film actor because she did not want to become one while Aparna said, without him she wouldn't be herself and Madhavi said that his films gave an idea about what should be done by a woman about the problems they faced in society.
The feelings and expressions delivered about the Legendary Ray by these veteran actresses undoubtedly gives a clear perspective that how great an artist can be and how much he could earn honour from the whole world.
A Legend is a Legend!
(AW:Samrat Biswas)
