VERVEMAGAZINE.IN 117opportunity that granted him access to
world cinema. He would finally write the
script for Pather Panchali or Song of the
Little Road (1955), his ground-breaking
debut, at sea while he was on his way
back to India. And he later acknowledged
that his own artworks had helped him
greatly in the process.
His circle of influence extended
to stalwarts Kurosawa and Hitchcock
and, like them, Ray perfected the art
of storyboarding, at a time when the
technique wasn’t rampant in India. His
drawings of costumes were down to the
very last detail, and he even devised
props and furniture for some of his sets.
He designed award-winning Roman fonts
(Ray Roman and Ray Bizarre), and several
in Bengali as well, alongside publicity
material and logos (including those for
the Sahitya Akademi Award and Rupa
Publications). His years in advertising,
particularly his understanding of layout,
lettering and target audience, no doubt
came in handy.
The fitting end-credits sequence in
Sonar Kella or The Golden Fortress (1974),
supposedly depicting the young protagonist
Mukul’s child-like drawings and perspective,
were in fact sketched and coloured in
by him. It’s a well-known fact that Ray
enjoyed working with non-professionals,
especially children, who he would treat like
adults. Sharmila Tagore and Jaya Bhaduri
(now Bachchan) were in their early teens
when they debuted in Ray films at 13 and
15 respectively. In Alien too, a young boy
(Haba, meaning ‘dimwit’ in Bengali) was to
befriend the extraterrestrial. One of Ray’s
biographers described the titular character
Ray had been encouraged by fellow sci-fi
fan Arthur C. Clarke to develop: ‘a large
head, sunken cheeks.... It was supposed to
look like a ‘cross between a gnome and a
famished refugee child...spindly legs, a lean
torso’. The friendly alien (gender unknown)
could sprout flowers and heal wounds and
in Ray’s early sketches, it was devoid of ears,
just like E. T. What it did have was a whole
lot of heart.