In photos: Nemai Ghosh captures Satyajit Ray in colour, and in the autumn of his career

The photographer Nemai Ghosh first met Satyajit Ray in 1968, when Ray was making his fantasy adventure Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne. From then on until Ray’s final film Agantuk in 1991, Ghosh was Ray’s official photographer, capturing the master at work and at his home in Kolkata.

In Ghosh’s compendium Satyajit Ray at 70, Ray famously describes Ghosh as “a sort of Boswell working with a camera rather than a pen”. In Manik-Da: Memories of Satyajit Ray, Ghosh writes, “… wherever he went, I went. In other words, I started following him like his shadow. I was crazy about capturing him in my camera every moment.”

Ghosh died in 2020 in Kolkata at the age of 85. His treasure trove of black-and-white pictures have been widely exhibited and collected in book form. Ghosh shot images of Ray in colour too, which were acquired by the DAG art institution and published as the book Faces and Facets: Satyajit Ray in Colour in 2011.

DAG has organised an exhibition of the colour images from May 9 to July 4 in Delhi. The pictures were taken between 1969, when Ray was making the documentary Sikkim, and 1991.

In an essay in Faces and Facets, Andrew Robinson, Ray’s most well-known biographer, writes that the book is “one of the fruits of Ghosh’s magnificent obsession: a coruscating photo-portrait of an individual and film-maker – surely the most multifaceted of all film-makers, given that he wrote the scripts, designed the sets and costumes, operated the camera, composed the music and even drew the posters for most of his films – known to his friends and collaborators simply as Manik or Manikda, Bengali for ‘Jewel’.”

Ray’s first colour film was Kanchenjungha in 1962, shot by his regular collaborator, the brilliant Subrata Mitra. The Ray-Mitra partnership ended with Nayak in 1966.

Ray returned to colour for the documentary Sikkim (1971). From Ashani Sanket (1973) until Agantuk, completed before his death from heart disease in 1992, Ray, working mostly with Soumendu Roy, shot his films in colour.

The images in Faces and Facets depict Ray choosing locations, interacting with his actors and technicians, operating the camera or composing music. As a member of Ray’s inner circle, Ghosh also has several images of Ray at his home, writing, illustrating, playing the piano, or with his family.

The photographs capture Ray’s reputation for tireless industry. Because of his height, Ray often towers over others in the frame.

Ghosh has photos of Ray alone too, deep in thought or laughing over something. Ray would sign off on the final selection of photographs, Ghosh writes in Manik-Da.

The collection includes stills from such films as Joi Baba Felunath, Sadgati, Ghare Baire, Shakha Proshaka and Agantuk. There’s also a photo of the actor Smita Patil, herself an avid photographer, training her camera on Ray during the Sadgati shoot.

What the photos also reveal is Ray’s visible physical decline. Ray had a severe heart attack in 1983 during the making of Ghare Baire.

Ray’s cardiac problems restricted his mobility, necessitating the involvement of his son Sandip Ray in the shoots. Ghosh’s images show Satyajit Ray in the autumn of his life and career, doggedly making films that were considered relatively less accomplished than the previous masterpieces.

Ray died in 1992 at the age of 70. In Manik-Da, Ghosh pays tribute to Ray: “Standing in the sun, you are sure to shine in its light…My sincerity, my struggle for perfection are all thanks to the example set by him.”

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