This is the centenary year of Satyajit Ray, master filmmaker who is widely regarded as the last relic of Bengal Renaissance. To celebrate this remarkable man and his works, TV9 Bangla’s favourite news series brings ‘Manikdar Sange’ (With Manikda).

The programme will be telecast on Monday at 2pm.

Ray conjured up his characters from life and immortalised them on celluloid. The search and portrayal led him to seek out the likes of Karuna Bandyopadhyay for ‘Pather Panchali’, Sharmila Tagore and Soumitra Chatterjee for ‘Apur Sansar’ and Pradip Mukherjee for ‘Jana Aranya’. He also did not fail to spot the talent in men like Dhritiman Chatterjee, Dipankar De and Barun Chanda.

The Kolkata trilogy consisting of ‘Pratidwandi’, ‘Seemabaddha’ and ‘Jana Aranya’ was released in the tumultuous decades of the seventies. All three films carry the stamp of the political consciousness of Ray that was not possible to fathom within the familiar parameters of the Left thought process.

In the programme ‘Manikdar Sange’, according to a press statement from TV9 Bangla, Dhritiman Chatterjee who played Siddhartha in ‘Pratidwandi’, Barun Chanda who played Shyamal in ‘Seemabaddha’ and Pradip Mukherjee who put flesh and blood in the character of Somnath in ‘Jana Aranya’ bare their hearts and memory in front of the channel’s show.

Dipankar De, who used a small role in ‘Seemabaddha’ to tiptoe into Ray’s team, also relived his memories for TV9 Bangla. Siddhartha Chatterjee, who was Ray’s Topshe and Mamata Shankar, who had important roles in the last two films of the master, also spoke on camera.

What sort of relation did the director share with his unit? How was his chemistry with his actors? From Dhritiman Chatterjee to Mamata Shankar, everybody spoke in detail about all these aspects.

Ray was not only a father to son Sandip but also his teacher and they shared a very deep and intimate relation on both fronts. Sandip Ray spoke his heart on his family and life with his father’s film unit.

Veteran journalist Sankarlal Bhattacharya interacted with the master on a number of occasions for discharging his professional responsibilities. ‘Manikdar Sange’ has been strung together by Bhattacharya, who has his own memory and stories to recount adding depth, value and variety to the programme.