Prof. Dr. Avinash Kolhe visits Faces and Facets: Satyajit Ray in Colour, a landmark DAG World exhibition at Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai, showcasing 125 rare colour photographs by Nemai Ghosh, revealing the legendary filmmaker’s intimate creative world. 

Faces and Facets: Satyajit Ray in Colour is a major archival exhibition presented by DAG World at the Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai, featuring 125 previously unseen colour photographs by celebrated photographer Nemai Ghosh. Captured between 1969 and 1991, the collection offers an intimate visual record of Satyajit Ray directing films, composing music, sketching, and interacting with collaborators, making it one of the most significant photographic retrospectives dedicated to the auteur.

What James Boswell was to Dr. Samuel Johnson in those days is what Nemai Ghosh was to Satyajit Ray in the twentieth century. The only difference is that while Boswell wielded a pen, Nemai Ghosh used a camera to document the life of the legendary filmmaker, Bharat Ratna Satyajit Ray.

A Rare Exhibition of an Icon

The exhibition Faces and Facets: Satyajit Ray in Colour, running at the DAG World in the Taj Mahal Hotel, Mumbai, must be visited to see many facets of the master at work, in various moods, and at home. These photographs are being displayed for the first time from the archives of the late Nemai Ghosh.

Here we see Satyajit Ray [Lembuda to his very near and dear ones. This term of endearment was due to his exceptional height of 6’5”] in various moods. He is sketching, supervising music for his films, talking to his heroines like the beautiful Aparna Sen, and revealing many more moments hitherto inaccessible to his admirers.

Through Nemai Ghosh’s Lens

While Nemai spent nearly a quarter of a century observing Satyajit, Lembuda spent a lifetime observing people and places around him. There are nearly 125 rare colour photographs taken by Nemai Ghosh between 1969 and 1991, capturing Ray at work and in his creative element. It is interesting to note that Nemai initially was an actor in the ‘Little Theatre’, a theatre company founded by none other than the late Utpal Dutt. Later, Nemai picked up a camera and stayed with this art, documenting Satyajit Ray’s life and times.

In this exhibition we see various moods of the master when he is at work and when he is relaxing. The photograph I liked the most is of Aparna Sen in discussion with Satyajit Ray. This was during the shooting of Pikoo, a short film Ray directed for French television Channel 3 based on a short story Ray himself wrote.

The Master’s Own Confession

In addition, what caught my attention are some confessional plaques in the exhibition. In one such plaque Satyajit Ray says, “I never imagined I could become a filmmaker, in command of situations, actually guiding people to do things this way or that. No, I was very reticent and shy as a schoolboy and I think it persisted through college. Even the fact of having to accept a prize gave me goosepimples. But from the time Pather Panchali I realized that I had it in me to take control of the situation and exert my personality over other people and so on—then it became a fairly quick process. Film after film, I got more and more confident.”

What an important confession! While reading this in the DAG gallery, I recalled reading a similar confession in Ingmar Bergman’s autobiography The Magic Lantern, published in 1987. Bergman too mentioned that in one moment he realized where to keep the camera, how to tell actors to emote, and so on. Great men not only think alike; they perhaps feel alike too!

This is one of those not-to-be-missed exhibitions, which will be on till October 31, from 11 am to 7 pm, at DAG, The Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai.