50 years living with a genius may not have been easy but it must have definitely been memorable. The late Bijoya Ray’s biography, Manik and I, gives you a fairly candid ringside view of what life must have been being married to a genius like Satyajit Ray.
Being his first cousin, their courtship in the ’40s was conducted in utmost secrecy over 8 years – a hush hush marriage in Bombay where she was a fledgling actress. And through it all, family disapproval. Bijoya or Monku, as she was fondly called, passed away in 2015. Her memoir was serialised in a Bengali magazine and this book is that translation.
Told simply but lucidly, it’s like a drawing room conversation with your favourite “pishi” over luchi and maangsho about the couple’s various European travels, her various health problems, her shopping sojourns, the numerous awards her husband won including the lifetime achievement Oscar. For me, the most interesting parts were her childhood days spent in Bihar, the sudden loss of her father and the courtship with Ray. She describes vividly Ray’s growth as a filmmaker, the various casting snafus, the highs and lows of filmmaking-right from Pather Panchali to his last Agantuk. What emerges is a man without any cares about worldly pleasures and just single minded focus about his movies.
Clearly, there’s a lot of boast about him. He was Ray after all. But beneath that is a concerned, caring wife who candidly reveals that despite all the fame and adulation, there was no money for his heart surgery until the State Government stepped in.
I love the couple’s shared love for music- Mozart or world cinema – be it Hitchcock or Billu Wilder. Her ironic takes on how in the latter years, festivals awarded vague foreign films. She describes it all with wry humour and sensitivity. His last days are described vividly and you get a portrait of absolute admiration and passion – both the filmmakers and spouses.
One give away line is when she says her husband cheated on her with another woman and she was deeply hurt around 1965-66. Bengali showbiz has often speculated that the woman could have been his Mahangar and Charulata heroine Madhabi Mukherjee. But Bijoya closes the chapter right there and also mentions attending Madhabi’s marriage and reception with her husband.
There are some wonderful references to Sharmila Tagore, Aparna Sen and Soumitra Chattejee. Also, Ray’s miserable state when two actors he loved dearly passed away – Smita Patil and Sanjeev Kumar.
One of my most wonderful takeaways is Ray coming to Bombay to record with the busier than busy Kishore Kumar. From the epic Ami Chini Go in Charulata and three significant songs in Ghaire Baire, during whose shooting Ray suffered his first heart attack. Kishore, for those who came in late, was Bijoya’s niece Ruma Guha Thakurta’s first husband. It’s always gratifying to read about what goes behind the scenes into making of a classic and the satisfaction that the heartache was worth the effort and trouble.
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