What are the chances, that I schlep across half the planet, from Mumbai to Toronto, to introduce a Satyajit Ray retrospective last week, and run into Anuka Dasgupta, who introduces herself as the niece of Uma Dasgupta, who played Durga (of Apu and Durga fame) in Satyajit Ray’s first film Pather Panchali, Song of the Little Road, in 1955? This, after a screening of Anik Dutta’s Aparajito, on how Ray made his first film. Uff! This is what great cinema is all about. And this is what the film curator in me craves. Cinema so effortlessly transcends all boundaries, uniting people from all over the world, across cultures and ages and generations. It shows us our common humanity, and also why that humanity is also our greatness, our treasure. This is Satyajit Ray’s gift to us.

I’m Curator of the Satyajit Ray, His Contemporaries and Legacy for the Toronto International Film Festival’s TIFF Cinematheque, and was invited to introduce the retrospective last week at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, Toronto. I personally call the series Ray and Apres, and it’s a homecoming of sorts, as it is the fourth time I’m collaborating with TIFF Cinematheque as Curator/Consultant in 11 years. Cameron Bailey, TIFF CEO, graciously introduced me onstage when I introduced the series. I was thrilled that we had a very good house for the Ray retrospective, followed by addabazi with Ray fans. It is very challenging worldwide to draw audiences to theatres in the COVID/post-COVID era—so I was especially delighted that many of the film fans were youngsters. We showed Ray’s Charulata, Devi, Nayak and Shatranj ke Khilari; films by his contemporaries included Ritwik Ghatak’s Subarnarekha, Aparna Sen’s Mr and Mrs Iyer, AJ Kardar’s Jago Hua Savera (Day Shall Dawn, Pakistan) and Mani Kaul’s Siddheshwari; and films by the relatively younger generation directors included Amit Dutta’s Nainsukh and Anik Dutta’s Aparajito (The Undefeated).