Satyajit Ray Negatives - My Life with Manikda (2006)

• 81%
• 2006
• Documentary
• Bo Van Der Werf

Calcutta, 1950: Satyajit Ray directs his first film and, by opening his eyes on his country's realities, breaks every conventions of Indian cinema. During twenty-five years, Ray's personal photographer Nemai Gosh will be his shadow. This movie tells their parallel destinies, it ventures Satyajit Ray's extraordinary artistic journey through the obsessive lens of Nemai Gosh. It is the touching and mysterious story of a photographer's disproportionate fascination for his subject. Today, at sixty-five years old, Nemai Gosh has decided to fight to preserve his treasure from time and humidity. He is installing the air-conditioning in the two little rooms where he preciously keeps the prints and the 90,000 negatives of Ray. But Nemai Gosh is not receiving any help in his quest, not even a word of encouragement. He is alone, humble and gentle, and as yet to heal from the death of his only true friend. For Nemai Gosh this documentary also means his last act of faith, it will help convey to future generations the fruits of his lifetime spent for another. He finally says what he bears on his heart. Giving access for the first and the last time to the entirety of his archives, he tells us: "this is the last thing I do for Ray". Parallel destinies: this film also follows the magnificent path of a great humanist: Satyajit Ray. To tell his story, it is to share the crazy adventure of his first master piece, Pather Panchali, it is to be overwhelmed by the universality that comes out of his movies, it is to discover his own town Calcutta, and to feel strangely at ease in an extremely different society, it is to understand the cultural legacy that Ray left to the world, and it is finally to realize the love that he had for his friends, his actors, and his collaborators. "Manikda, my life with Satyajit Ray" pays tribute to a creative genius, and to his privileged witness: Nemai Gosh, the only one who still lives with him everyday. Because of him, Ray resists to the bites of time.