Original film posters, props and costumes to be part of Satyajit Ray's centenary exhibition

KOLKATA: The original ‘Pather Panchali’ poster in English, the nagras that Chhabi Biswas wore in ‘Jalsaghar’ and the original lobby cards from ‘Kanchenjunga’ designed by Satyajit Ray are among the 200 artefacts on display at a forthcoming exhibition on the legend’s centenary.


The exhibition titled ‘The Satyajit

Ray

Centenary Show (Volume I)’ will be held from February 13 to March 14 at the Kolkata Centre for Creativity in collaboration with Gallery Rasa.

English poster of Ray's Pather Panchali
On display will also be booklets, posters and book cover designs, along with props and costumes used in the films, and 38 original bromide prints by Nemai Ghosh. “It has been an enormous task to even try to encompass the range of his sheer genius and we intend to showcase as many aspects of his work and personality as possible within the ambit of two exhibitions,” said

Richa Agarwal

, chairperson of Kolkata Centre for Creativity.

Nagra worn by Chhabi Biswas in 'Jalsaghar'

Collecting the items has been a “joyous experience” for Rakesh Sahni, the director of Gallery Rasa. In the late 90s,

Sahni

would regularly meet film distributors to understand what went behind the making of Ray’s posters, lobby cards and synopses. “Some of them were kept in a disdainful fashion. In those days, few were interested in archiving them. But I felt it was important to preserve this history. Besides, the ephemeral quality of certain things makes them important, more so when they give a window to the soul of an iconic film-maker. That’s what Gallery Rasa archives have been doing for art, film, crafts and architecture for 25 years,” Sahni said.

The woodblock designed by Ray for 'Ekkhon'
Before the turn of the century, Sahni met a unit member of Ray’s who directed him to shops that dotted NSC Bose Road. The ‘Jalsaghar’ nagras were kept in a corner of a shop on that road. The exhibition will also display the marble tumbler and lid used by Ray in the same film.

The lobby card for 'Kanchenjunga'
Lobby cards from 11 Ray movies, from ‘Jalsaghar’ to ‘Hirak Rajar Deshe’, will be on display. While the smaller ones for ‘Kanchenjungha’ were bromide prints, the larger ones were designed by Ray. “Soumen Paul, a Ray aficionado, told me he had a woodblock Ray designed for printing the cover of ‘Ekkhon’ journal. We requested him to share it for the show,” Sahni said.


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