Photos clicked by Satyajit Ray, his personal items, fly to Los Angeles for exhibition

KOLKATA: For a two-day Bengali film festival in Los Angeles, director Sandip Ray carried with him artefacts and sketches of Satyajit Ray’s works from ‘Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne’ and ‘Sonar Kella’. The other important attraction was a display of photos that Ray took during his career both in India and abroad.
“Due to the pandemic, the festival couldn’t be held in the past two years.Everything is back on track now that the situation has normalized,” said organizer Babli Chakraborty.

Actor Rituparna Sengupta flew out for the third LA Utsov. The festival also screened Ranjan Ghosh’s ‘Mahishasur Mardini’ starring Sengupta, Kaushik Ganguly’s ‘Kaberi Antardhan’, and Soumojit Majumdar’s ‘Homecoming’. That apart, Ray screened his latest Feluda film, ‘Hatyapuri’, with Indranil Sengupta in attendance. What stole the show was the Ray exhibition that was opened by Sengupta. “From Ray’s wallet, to his betel leaf box to his passport — Babu-da had taken all these, along with his photos and posters. Even copies of ‘Sandesh’ edited by him were on display,” Sengupta said.

The attendance of Yorba Linda mayor Gene Hernandez at the Ray show added gravitas to the festival. “It was a privilege to accompany him on a tour of the exhibition. We have grown up knowing about these things,” she said.
Sandip Ray said, “It was moving that the organizing team could bring so many artefacts from Kolkata to LA to host this exhibition. I also loved to see so many turning up for the exhibition.”
Rituparna Sengupta with Bedabrata Pain and Babli Chakraborty
‘Chittagong’ director Bedabrata Pain, who was present at the festival, told TOI, “I have always admired Ray’s sketches and his story-boarding. It was an exhilarating experience to see them. That afternoon’s session was so engaging that I went home and revisited Ray’s ‘Charulata’ and ‘Mahanagar’.”