A NOVEL DIRECTION

It was while working at advertising firm D.J. Keymer in Kolkata that Satyajit Ray ran into Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay. The novelist had taken up a part-time job as an editor at Signet Press, a publishing house, in the late 1940s.

- RABI BANERJEE

The publishers had commissioned Ray to illustrate an abridged, children’s version of the novel Pather Panchali, called Aam, Antir, Bhepu (Mango, Seed and Horn).

Ray’s son, filmmaker Sandip Ray, recalled the encounter. Bandopadhyay had asked Ray whether he had read the novel. When Ray said no, Bandyopadhyay told him, “It is blasphemy that you have not read it.”

Ray then read it thoroughly and illustrated the cover for the Signet Press edition. He was moved by the novel as he could relate to the character of Apu. He could also relate to the village of Nischindipur, mentioned in the novel, as he had seen a similar hamlet during his time as a student in Santiniketan.

Bandyopadhyay died in 1950; Ray’s mission had just begun.