Satyajit Ray lives again in 'Sacred Evil'

Mumbai, June 17 (IANS) Fourteen years after his death, Satyajit Ray continues to impact on Indian and international cinema -- and in most unexpected ways.

Not too many people have noticed that Abhiyaan Rajhans and Abhigyan Jha's spook-nook "Sacred Evil" is strewn with references to and actors from Satyajit Ray's films.

Not only do we see the Ray regular Soumitra Chatterjee in a cameo, the lady who escorts the film's protagonist to Soumitra's office is the heroine of Satyajit Ray's "Kanchenjunga".

"That's right. My affinity to Ray's cinema goes back a long time. My film contains not only homage to Ray but also to my other idol Ismail Merchant," Rajhans told IANS.

"I was assisting Ismail in a film called 'Gaachh' ('The Tree') which was based on the life of Soumitra when I met Ivan Kozelka - the cinematographer of 'Sacred Evil'. Ismail thought very highly of him. And I decided that the day I make my first film Ivan will shoot it for me. I am glad he accepted my offer when the time came seven years later.

"Ismail had shot his first film 'Householder' in English and in Calcutta (now Kolkata). I obviously chose to do the same. 'Householder' was a black and white film, there is an entire portion of 'Sacred Evil' in which colours have been washed out, leaving only a single colour bright, a red, a yellow or a green but mostly it looks black and white."

That's how Rajhans arrived at Ray.

"Ismail's hero was Ray. And my favourite childhood author was Ray. I read 'Sonar Kella' 99 times. I stopped short of a century only out of superstition. I believe Ray was a far better writer than a director. That's not to say he is a lesser director than anyone else. The world is yet to discover the sci-fi and thrillers of Ray.

"I had the good luck to visit Ray's personal library while shooting 'Gaachh' and I wasn't surprised to find his shelves loaded with Isaac Asimov, Conan Doyle, Edgar Allan Poe and O. Henry. These are also my favourite authors, besides Stephen King."

Rajhans elaborates on his tribute to Ray.

"A lot of real time is slowed down in 'Sacred Evil', just the way Ray liked to in most of his movies. Soumitra, Ray's favourite actor, appears in a cameo as Dr. Guha. His character in the screenplay is even called Dr. Satyajit Guha. His house and office are situated in a building that was first popularised by Ray's films.

"Ismail referred to these as Tagorean houses. And as you noticed, Alaknanda Roy, heroine of Ray's 'Kanchenjunga', appears in another cameo as Mrs. Durham. Even Dr. Guha's maid is a Ray regular. Sorry, I can't recall her name right now.

"The two opening scenes reveal immediately the subject of the film and the pace in which we will be dealing with it and the mood of the film. This is a decidedly Ray influence."

And finally that utterly delighted and subverted use of the immortal Sachin Dev Burman melody 'O re majhi'.

"That's my tribute to Bimal Roy who was another Ray fan. 'Sacred Evil' discovers a completely different side of Calcutta than the one in Ray's films. Yet the boat scene where 'O re majhi' plays in the background is shot at the same ghat where Ray's 'Teen Kanya' was shot."

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Sacred Evil