Page 96 - The Apu Trilogy_ Satyajit Ray and the Making of an Epic

Working with Ravi Shankar 83

distances and angles, and the hands of his accompanist play-
ing the tabla, are other, non-musical images. These dwell on
nature – drifting clouds, falling leaves, rippling water, lotus
flowers flapping, later on trees shaking in a storm – but also
include a Rajput miniature painting of the female raga (ragini)
Tori (such paintings often depict the Indian musical modes),
showing a lady with deer near a lotus pond, as well as decora-
tive details from Indian relief sculpture. Clearly, Ray intended
that his filmed tribute to Shankar should suggest some essential
unity behind the different Indian art forms. It is as if, already,
four years before finishing Pather Panchali, the budding director
had visualised the lyrical, hopeful sequence in the film of the
breaking of the monsoon (though ironically raga Todi is played
in that film by Shankar in the scene following Durga’s death,
not before the breaking of the monsoon).
In 1992, hearing of the death of Ray on 23 April, Shankar
immediately recorded a new composition, ‘Farewell, My Friend ...’,
in honour of him. ‘In the last couple of days, my heart has been
heavy with sorrow, of having lost a friend and such a great, crea-
tive genius of our time’, he wrote three days after the news reached
him. ‘The result is this dhun’ – a north Indian folk melody played
in a light classical style – ‘I played as a dedication to him. One
can hear two melody lines intermingled in this piece. The first
is the variation on the theme music which I composed about 40
years ago for his first film – the immortal Pather Panchali, the
second melody is based on raga Ahir Bhairav. ... While record-
ing I had flashbacks of some of the wonderful time we spent
together and I poured my heart out through my music bidding
farewell to my dear friend – Satyajit Ray.’
The mutual respect of Ray and Shankar is evident from the
above. Despite an underlying tension and a degree of rivalry
between these two powerful but very different creative personal-
ities, and serious differences over the composition of film music,
they did indeed remain friendly for decades. Whilst Ray keenly
admired Shankar as a virtuoso sitarist and appreciated some of

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