Page 97 - The Apu Trilogy_ Satyajit Ray and the Making of an Epic

84 The Apu Trilogy

his compositions for stage productions, Shankar felt a recipro-
cal admiration for many of Ray’s films, including some of the
music that Ray began composing for his films in 1962. ‘He made
such sublime films. Pather Panchali, Charulata, Kanchenjungha
and Jalsaghar will always stand out in my memory’, Shankar
wrote in 1997, in his autobiography Raga Mala; he selected
Pather Panchali as ‘the best film he made, and one of the best I
have come across by anyone’, for its ‘innocent simplicity, straight
from the heart without any ego.’ In 2009, long after Ray’s death,
Shankar remarked to an Indian newspaper interviewer: ‘Ray
understood Indian classical music as much as he knew western
classical music. ... Here was a director who would never compro-
mise nor allow me to go overboard. He was confident and rigid
about exactly what he required from me or any of his compos-
ers. Ray himself was an outstanding composer and music ses-
sions with him are still unforgettable. For the Apu Trilogy, he
extracted the true essence of rural Bengal from me musically.’
According to Shankar, the two of them first met in Bombay,
not Calcutta, at the end of 1944. ‘We became known to each
other, though not close friends.’ After Shankar gave his first
major concert in Calcutta in late 1945, attended by Ray, the two
of them began to meet periodically. In the late 1940s and early
50s, when performing in Calcutta, Shankar used to stay in a
hotel (the same hotel used by Renoir at this time), which was
near Ray’s office at Keymer’s. ‘Many times on his way there,
or at lunchtime,’ Shankar recalled, ‘we would meet for a short
while. We became quite friendly. That was about all, until he
approached me regarding his first film, Pather Panchali.’
This was in late 1954. Pather Panchali was still in production
when Ray wrote to Ravi Shankar in Delhi and requested him to
compose the music for the film. He admired Shankar’s music for
the ballet Discovery of India, composed in 1947; he was also famil-
iar with some of his compositions for films. Shankar immedi-
ately agreed. But by the time Ray needed him in very early 1955,
the sitarist was in the midst of a concert tour. Postponement of

9/16/2010 9:08:23 PM
Robinson_Ch04.indd 84
Robinson_Ch04.indd 84 9/16/2010 9:08:23 PM