Satyajit Ray, Apu Trilogy, and Nargis Dutt
Partha Banerjee
and the Apu Trilogy and the messy affair around them because of censoring
attempts by the "celebrated" film star Nargis Dutt (who with her husband
Sunil Dutt, another "noted" Bollywood star, have represented the
"Gandhian" side of the Indian political arena) and right-wing/centrist
Congress Party governments in India, I am posting some information here so
that those who don't know about this mess, do.
So, here we go. This is from Andrew Robinson's book on Satyajit Ray
(Satyajit Ray, the Inner Eye. University of California Press).
__________
Ray's position in the political debate over his films is much clearer cut,
involving no ... delicate scruples (Robinson's remarks, not mine :-). But
others have been chewing it over ever since the time when the West Bengal
government demanded changes in the ending of Pather Panchali to make it
more positive. It was, as we know, only through Nehru's personal
intervention (Nehru was a socialist by the way, and was much despised by
both the Indian and American capitalists alike -PB), that Pather Panchali
reached the Cannes Film Festival in 1956. About twenty-five years later,
the very same objections to it were raised in the Indian parliament, this
time by the late Nargis Dutt MP, heroine of the 1957 blockbuster Mother
India (Bombay's answer to Pather Panchali)...She accused Ray of distorting
India's image abroad (do we hear the same old garbage from the Indian
rulers and their monkeys even now -PB) during a parliamentary debate and
later in an interview symptomatic of Ray's long-running difficulties with
audiences outside Bengal.
Interviewer: What does Ray portray in the Apu Trilogy and why do you
object to it?
Nargis Dutt: He protrays a region of West Bengal which is so poor that it
does not represent India's poverty in its true form (yes, you are hearing
it from an Indian superstar and member of the parliament, so please do not
laugh -PB). Tell me something. What part of India are you from?
Interv: U.P. (Uttar Pradesh).
Nargis: Now tell me, would you leave your eighty year-old grandmother to
die in a cremation ground, unattended?
Int: No.
Nargis: Well, people in West Bengal do. And that is what he portrays in
these films. It is not a correct image of India.
Int: Do people in West Bengal do such a thing?
Nargis: I don't know. But when I go abroad, foreigners ask me embarrassing
questions like "Do you have schools in India?" I feel so ashamed, my eyes
are lowered before them. If a foreigner asks me, "What kind of houses do
you live in?" I feel like answering, "We live on treetops." Why do you
think films like Pather Panchali become so popular abroad?
Int: You tell me.
Nargis: Because people there want to see India in an abject condition.
That is the image they have of our country and film that confirms that
image seems to them authentic.
Int: But why should a renowned director like Ray do such a thing?
Nargis: To win awards. His films are not commercially successful. They
only win awards.
Int: What do you expect Ray to do? (Note the 'expect' word. Good word
choice. -PB)
Nargis: What I want is that if Mr. Ray projects Indian poverty abroad, he
should also show "Modern India".
Int: But if the theme and plot of Pather Panchali are complete within the
realm of a poor village, how can he deliberately fit Modern India in it?
Nargis: But Mr. Ray can make separate films on Modern India.
Int: What is Modern India?
Nargis: Dams (I somehow feel she meant "damm", but well... :-) -PB)
Int: Can you give me one example of a film that portrays Modern India?
Nargis: Well...I can't give you an example offhand...
Ray did not bother to refute such stuff, but others jumped to his defence
including Utpal Dutta, who joked that "this holy cow should have stuck to
her Mother India role", and the Forum for Better Cinema -- a group of
respected film-makers and writers -- who wrote to Nargis Dutt:
"The Modern India you speak of is the India of dams, of scientists, steel
plants and agricultural reforms. Do you honestly believe that it is this
India that is portrayed in the so-called commercial films in Bombay? In
fact, the world of commercial Hindi films (add Tamil films of
MGR-Jayalalitha or Telugu films of NTR genre also -PB) is peopled of
thugs, smugglers, dacoits, veyeurs, murderers, cabaret dancers, perverts,
degenerates, delinquents, and rapists, which can hardly be called
representatives of Modern India."
It was soon after this exchange that the government (of India) informed
Ray that it could not grant him permision to make a film about child
labour.