‘Aalochayar Chitrakar’, a documentary on Soumendu Ray

A film is exclusively the ‘director’s medium’, in which the director is undoubtedly the leader of a team of artists. Of them, a cinematographer (or a cameraman, as one is generally referred to) is one of those persons who contribute the most for that artistic venture to form a complete package. But in reality, we rarely speak about a cinematographer.
However, for a film to be aesthetically beautiful, besides the director, the cinematographer also has to be equally creative and innovative in his approach.

Such a person is Soumendu Ray, mostly known for his works in Satyajit Ray’s films. Recently, Kolkata Doordarshan produced a 50-minute documentary titled ‘Alochayar Chitrakar’ on this living legend who stood behind the lens in fifteen of Ray’s films that include masterpieces like ‘Abhijan’, ‘Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne’, ‘Ashani Sanket’, ‘Sonar Kella’, ‘Shatranj Ke Khiladi’.
Besides Ray, Soumendu Ray has delivered high-quality camera works in films of other accomplished directors like Tapan Sinha, Tarun Majumdar, Sridhar Rajan, M. S. Sathyu, Buddhadeb Dasgupta and Raja Sen.

The documentary sheds light on his journey from a mere camera-loving studio staff to an assistant cameraman to an internationally-acclaimed cinematographer, his admiration for his contemporaries and influence of Satyajit Ray on his work and career.