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Satyajit Ray: Temptations of Voyeurism
| Article
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15598 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
Date : |
2 / 1989 |
3,153 Words |
| Author
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Paul Coates
Paul Coates is professor of literature at McGill University,
Montreal, Canada. |
The cinema of Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray is deeply preoccupied with the effects of watching people from a distance. It is thus in a sense self-referential, engaged in a scrupulous analysis of the mode of seeing made possible by cinema, which permits a close-up view of people who are simultaneously distant, wither in time or space or both. The temptations of voyeurism, Ray's work argues, must be overcome through identification with the viewed others. Appearances must be penetrated to reveal the world within them, supplementing the exteriority of the image with an interiority often manifest through music (hence, it is significant that Ray himself writes the music (hence, it is significant that Ray himself writes the music to his own films). Images of distant observers pervade his films, of which I will be considering two--Kangchenjunga and Days and Nights in the Forest--while also referring incidentally to relevant aspects of his other films.
Legion Observers
Distant observers are legion in Ray's films: Charulata viewing the street through her opera-glasses; Apu lying in bed and watching his bride (Bengali censorship prevented Ray from showing physical intimacy; his gaze is so intense, however, that the girl chastises him for staring at her); the two girls watching planes fly over in Distant Thunder; two other girls looking down at the city in Company Limited, the one remarking on its beauty, the other commenting that the apparent beauty is the result of the height of their vantage point; or the Brahmin watching the untouchable chop wood for him in Deliverance. In all these cases, the films present distance as something to be
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