the man who spoke in pictures

for a man sometimes referred to as a filmmaker’s filmmaker, it is intriguing that no record of bimal roy’s date of birth exists. for someone often described as a man of silence though, this makes perfect sense. why opt for paperwork when your body of work can speak forever instead?

a little over 100 years since roy’s demise on january 7, 1966, his daughter — journalist and filmmaker rinki roy bhattacharya — has helped draw facets of her reclusive father from the shadows into light. bimal roy: the man who spoke in pictures brings together essays, photographs, eulogies and anecdotes, not just from folk who knew the director best, but from some who never met him.

born in dhaka on july 12, 1909 — supposedly, of course — roy moved to post-independence india and started his career as an assistant cameraman. he would evolve, over the following two decades, into the auteur we now celebrate. eventually, with do bigha zameen in 1953, he helped carve a niche that would one day attract ray, ghatak and benegal.

so, does the book work? much of it does, if you ignore the sometimes shoddy prose. a number of contributions stand out almost at once, like one from writer nayantara sahgal. the latter had never seen a bimal roy film before being asked to talk about his work, so her essay of discovery is short, but interesting. what isn’t half as interesting is critic kishore chatterjee’s argument drawing comparisons between salil chowdhury’s song bichua — used by roy in his classic madhumati — and mozart’s ‘melodic rhythm’. i, for one, remain unconvinced.

there’s also a rather pedestrian essay by bhawana somaaya, on roy’s sensitive representation of women. the most interesting part of the collection focuses on how roy is perceived by the west — how the internet is used to discuss devdas, the politics of costumes in his films, and his mastery of the erotic. also touching are nutan’s recollections of working with the filmmaker. during the filming of bandini, she recollects, he found out she was expecting. when told the baby wasn’t due for seven months, he was relieved. ‘we will finish shooting long before that,’ he told her, ‘but try not to get too big!’

here’s something else to ponder: if it wasn’t for bimal roy, bollywood may not have taken to the idea of reincarnation the way it has. roy and ritwik ghatak — who wrote the screenplay — unleashed madhumati in 1958, setting in motion a series of remakes that would continue to our time. now, compare himesh reshammiya’s karzzzz with what roy originally did, and you may find a very good reason to go out and buy this book.

— bimal roy: the man who spoke in pictures. edited by rinki roy bhattacharya. penguin viking.