Exactly fifty years ago, after the worldwide recognition of Apu Trilogy, the then Prime Minister, Nehru saw in Satyajit Ray a visionary artist and the only Indian, who can successfully cross-over to the west seamlessly. Nehru asked Ray to conceptualize the commemoration of Rabindranath Tagore's birth centenary and if possible give it a global outlook. At home, Ray was still in his early days, critics were accusing him of making movies, which are dogmatically derivatives of the western models. He did not look into the offer made by Nehru very kindly, initially. That, a man of such mighty erudition, Nehru, could not see the huge blob of intellectual integrity of Ray had upset the latter more. Ray was ready to look beyond all of this, as he himself was more than an ardent follower of Tagore's life and he decided to take it up, without getting into arguments. What accentuated the whole dilemma in his mind, (getting tagged for his loyalty to the western art forms) he was actually conceiving his next movie based on the super-sleuth Sherlock Holmes' A Study in Scarlet keeping Laurence Olivier as Holmes and Marlon Brando as his Watson. In his mind, it would be a product of the West, in collaboration with his good friends, James Ivory and Ismail Merchant to help him out on production. He planned out a recce for outside shooting at Minnesota, USA. The obvious alternative for location, was Salt Lake City, Utah; as the second half of the story is placed there, but Minnesota turned out to be a favorable choice due to its proximity to Chicago, and it would reduce the burden on finances.
Contacts were established from Ray's team with Eric G Hoyer, the then Mayor of Minneapolis, with the proposal to set up a gallery for Rabindranath Tagore in Walker Art Center. The idea was to take Tagore to places other than the known and obvious and therefore bigger metropolises of the world. Hoyer in his letter personally addressed to Ray, ratified the plans and welcomed him to the city. Brando and Olivier were also asked to join Ray alongwith Ivory and Merchant at Minneapolis to zero down the plans for the movie. Both Brando and Olivier conceded, with the meeting plans, but they aired their minor reservations about the project as a whole.
April 27th, 1960, middle of the week, Minneapolitans, fresh out of the spells of snowstorms of the season, greeted with open arms, the team of Brando, Olivier, Ray and his crew, Merchant and Ivory. Lou Torok, the manager of downtown Radisson arranged their stay. This is how, Ray had planned it out: will have two day-long meetings with Brando and Olivier and on the last day of the month he had scheduled a meeting with Hoyer. Come first week of May, he would do a recce for the movie and would travel to places within the state. The respectives were briefed accordingly.
Brando has a Kolkata connection, through his first wife, Anna Kashfi. He had provided his initial consent to Ray because of that overriding sentimental reason. But, then, cinematic instincts got the better of him, he could never convince himself that with his physique and an accent which is miles away from mainland Britain, he could ever in his dream essay the role of Watson. He conveyed the same to Ray on the morning of 28th , and Ray could not end up winning that argument. Laurence Olivier took the cue from Brando and related he hasn't gone beyond Shakespeare in celluloid, audience might
not take it very kindly of him portraying the role of Holmes, which is revered by fans in galore all over the world. Ray was caught in a spot, not that he was prepared for all of this, he thought through the details, when the thought of casting them, occurred to him. But, something happened with him on that day which never happened before and after. He literally got tongue-tied for the one and only time in his Life, listening to the two stalwarts of the world movie industry. Being true to himself, he realized he never had directed movie stars before and never got the chance to learn how to cut the deals through arguments. He conceded to his own awe for them. Brando and Olivier realizing that they were putting down an acclaimed film-director of repute, kept their options open for any future projects with him. Ray, shattered, with all of this, informed the rest of his crew, 29th is a free day and there won't be need for his planned recce. Ivory was kind enough to thank him, saying, dollars were saved. Torok, later on revealed on his interview to Star Tribune, that amongst all of them, it was he himself who was pierced the most, that downtown Radisson could not facilitate the greatest piece of film-history. “Maybe Brando was not served with the coffee with the right amount of sugar, maybe there was something wrong in the bed-sheets of Olivier, I am to be blamed for all of this.”
Did Ray take all of this as a premonition for his meeting with Hoyer, which was scheduled on 30th ?
Funnily enough, Hoyer, a patron of world arts was more than eager with his meeting with Ray and in the course of meeting Hoyer promised Ray that he would do everything he can to set up the gallery for Tagore in Walker Art Center. Ray added he has changed his mind a bit. Ray insisted, that gallery is not a permanent feature, he would like to have something permanent for Tagore instead; a separate land to set up an institutionalized archive housed in a building separate from Walker Art Center. Hoyer, was taken back with this plan, since he had no idea that such a thing would come up in the course of this meeting. However, he said, Minneapolis might not be a good idea to go about setting up legacy for Tagore. Chicago would be a better alternative, since Chicago has a history of involvement with South Asia, whereas there is little instutional activity here of such kind. Hoyer promised he can set up a call with Daley, mayor of Chicago, and a fellow Democrat to talk it out. Ray was not to be budged. He insisted it had to be in Minneapolis only and he has other plans for Chicago to set up a legacy for Tagore. Hoyer was not willing to let go this opportunity called up Freeman, Governor of Minnesota, during the ongoing meeting with Ray. Quite naturally, as Freeman was not briefed about all of this before, he left it to Hoyer to take the final call, without giving him any kind of assurance of support on this from the State. Ray saw that it was not working out as he thought. He would not go back to the earlier alternative of setting up a gallery, which won't be there for long. Hoyer, called upon his secretary and signed a memorandum of understanding, which in plain words would say, that Minneapolis is committed to set up a legacy for Rabindranath Tagore; and as and when reasonable project proposals come from the state of India they would honor it. CC-ed to Governor of Minnesota, Govt of India and Govt. of West Bengal.
Postscripts
One year later:-Ray completed the documentary on Rabindranath Tagore, which Nehru had commissioned him.
Three years later:-Merchant-Ivory came out with their first production,” The Householder” in assistance with Ray.
Five years later:-Ray penned down his own version of Sherlock Holmes, “Feluda” that appeared on Sandesh. He would later, go on to make movie versions of it.
Brando, throughout the phase of 1960 was venturing on experimental roles was delivering commercial failures one after the other, till Godfather happened to him in 1974.
Laurence Olivier did not sign movies for next couple of years and went back to Shakespeare, which he knows best and joined the Othello crew.
April 27t, 2001:-Buddhadev Bhattacharya, newly apppointed Chief Minister of Bengal, at his enthusiastic best, decided to reopen all the closed files, lying at the cabinets of Writer's Building. He came up on the Hoyer's file and called Rybak, reminded Minneapolis commitment to Tagore's legacy. Rybak confirmed that, and he promised that he would do whatever he can with this regard. He informed that a Light Rail project through the city is coming up and he would see if he can name a station in between Cedar Avenue and Franklin Avenue remembering Tagore.
(*):-References to Chicago and Minnesota's connection with Ray, came up on a personal email conversation with Professor Keya Ganguly, Professor of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature, University of Minnesota.
Disclaimer:-
Leap of faith need to be considered.
Vitamins in the usage of proper nouns need to be taken with a pinch of salt.
