That Satyajit Ray was empathetic to the Naxalite cause comes out clearly in the dream sequence in Pratidwandi in which Siddhartha sees his brother being gunned down by the firing squad. But he was never loud and therefore his handling of such issues was more subtle than garish.
I once had the opportunity to do a news story about the auteur. I was a trainee journalist at the Press Trust of India news agency in Calcutta when I got a call from Ray’s home that he wished to talk to a wire service newsman. Ray had returned home after a bypass surgery in Houston earlier that day. I rushed to his Bishop Lefroy Road house, one of the city’s most prominent landmarks; he was resting.
A close associate met me and a couple of other newsmen in the front room to release Ray’s statement, thanking everyone who had extended help during his treatment at Houston. “Will the news on PTI wire travel all over?” the man asked, explaining that the doctors at Houston and others who had taken care of the director, needed to know of his gratitude. “Of course,” I reassured him and left, disappointed that I could not have a glimpse of the…
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