Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda And Me | Learning A Masterpiece | Editor's Pen

Friends,

Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda had a great influence in my early days. How old was I when I first saw this film on Doordarshan? 10 or may be 12 years. Watching Byomkesh Bakshi as a young man was a different feel altogether. Over the time, the memories faded but something was etched deep inside. The voice of Manek Mulla and haunting image of Satti.

Fifteen years later, I had my hand on a copy of this brilliant film. Must have seen two dozen times to compensate the lost time. On a personal level, the film worked largely due to little contradictions and subtle maneuvers of characters and story sub-plots and brilliant usage of narration. The idea of this being meta-fiction hardly mattered. Good performances and beautiful background score just amplified the impact. Music by Vanraj Bhatia was as important as any other element of the story. The epilogue sequence still plays in my ears.

Two good things happened in this exercise – I got a chance to talk to Rajit Kapoor for the interview and Nishaad. Talk with him will remain with me for long. He has some questions and I was struggling to find my voice. I was so awestruck. I have never being so overwhelmed by anything in my life. Talking to a childhood hero, I think only Sheldon Cooper can understand this. Nishaad was a little story I wrote and is being made into a short film. We will showcase it in our forthcoming editions. Nishaad is inspired from Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda. It’s a tribute.

I don’t know how I will feel about this movie twenty years down the line. I have seen better films but they never remained with my personality for more than a year or two. Tell us if you feel so strongly about any film. We would love to hear you.

Love

Sujoy Ghosh