No child's play

Even when deeply moralistic, Ray understood children better than all other Indian filmmakers

Partha Chatterjee Delhi
Children's cinema never really took off in India except for a few films by Satyajit Ray, who was anyway better known as a filmmaker for adults. Having said that, one must also say that Ray's commitment to children was as deeply felt as that of his late father Sukumar Ray (1889-1923), a superbly gifted writer of nonsense verse and stories for children and an unusual graphic artist, and grandfather Upendra Kishore Roy Choudhury (1863-1915), also an illustrator and writer of note, who founded Sandesh, the first magazine in Bengali for children, revived by his grandson in 1961 after a hiatus of thirty eight years.

The first film that Satyajit Ray made for children was Goupi Gayen Bagha Bayen in 1968. It was based on a story by his grandfather Upendra Kishore Roy Choudhury about the adventures of a tuneless singer, Goupi and a rhythmless drummer, Bagha, who find each other in the wilderness after being banished from their respective villages for their constant cacophony. They find happiness and music after many adventures and succeed in bringing about peace between two warring kingdoms. It is a pleasant film with serious anti-war undertones and some catchy music. The long-playing record of the music was a great hit. Ray's lightness of touch ensures that the film retains it sparkle. It does so even after all these years.

Memorable was the dance of the King Ghost filmed in negative and with enormous daring. This eight-and-a-half minute set-piece was made with the minimum of means as Ray, per force, had to work on a tight budget. Flickering images of a ghost and his cohorts dancing to rollicking music, and with a distorted voice brimming over with wit and mischief telling us about the boons that are going to be bestowed on Goupi and Bagha to change their fortunes for ever, create an aura of unalloyed fun and magic. There are hardly any such moments in cinema, Indian or international, where adults and children meet happily on common ground.

There has been nothing in Indian cinema before Goupi Gayen Bagha Bayen that could be called children's entertainment. What  was produced by the Children's Film Society of India (CFS), an organisation set up with all good intentions by India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, could at best be called dreary. Even a lyrical filmmaker like Kidar Sharma was thumped when he had to make films for the tots. His strict Arya Samaji upbringing precluded treating children as friends and the need to teach them vital lessons in morality and ethics through caring and sharing and, above all, through play. Instead of being creative and imaginative, which he was in several of his films for adults, Sharma was pretty dull addressing children. Jaldeep, made in the mid 1950s for the CFS is an example.

So is Hum Panchhi Ek Daal Ke.  Unlike other well-intentioned moralists, Satyajit Ray understood children and never patronised them.

Kunal Chakravarti, who played Mukul, the little boy who remembers his previous birth in Rajasthan in Sonar Kella (1974), found a friend and an ally in the towering 6 feet 4 inches Satyajit Ray, who patiently answers all his questions including one about why stars shine. The film was a thriller based on an already published story by Ray featuring the detective, Pradosh Mitter, also known as Feluda and his devoted young assistant Topshey. The duo was modelled on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson.