kolkata as a centenary tribute to the legend kolkata centre for creativity kcc in association with musui art foundation is organizing an exhibition titled iti satyajit da this exhibition which begins on may 8 will present neverseenbefore letters that ray wrote to nilanjana chakraborty later senwhile the first volume of kccs satyajit ray centenary show highlighted his works and sought to encompass the creative genius of ray the second volume will shed light on his personality iti satyajit da will exemplify rays prowess as a visual artist through posters snippets from his kheror khata covers of sandesh and will also include iconic photographs this volume will however focus on rays letters written to a young college student nilanjana sen who later became a family friend that a giant of rays stature used to correspond almost unfailingly with any and everyone who wrote to him is a wonder said richa agarwal chairperson of kccwhen nilanjana was in her second year of college at kala bhavana in 1970 ray went to santiniketan to make a documentary on artist benodebehari mukherjee nilanjana known as jana to all was a great admirer of rays works she was 30 years his junior and met him on his visits and soon became a family friend her correspondence with ray which began in 1972 delineated a deeply affectionate friendship which lasted till he passed away the letters addressed to her as bhai jana has ray discussing his filmmaking problems gossips about mutual acquaintances and other films descriptions of his shooting schedules and travel plans comments on the weather and even complaints about frequent power cuts nilanjana is my sisterinlaw she had talked to me about the ray letters but they were all kept in a locker during the centenary year we decided these should be kept in public domain thats how the exhibition was conceived said curator k s radhakrishnanin one letter ray had shared with her about conceiving a hindi film that film turned out to be shatranj ke khilari which released in march 1977 satyajitda was an optimist yet there were times when i have noticed temporary dilemma in him over whether or not he will continue with the filmmaking medium in one letter written to me in november 1977 he had expressed this dissatisfaction too back then i was surprised that someone of his stature would go through this phase later on i realized that since filmmaking is a process that involves various factors having such doubts was not unnatural however he overcame the obstacles and continued making films for over ten years after i received this letter the 70yearold nilanjana saidall the original letters will be on display at exhibitions we are also bringing out a catalogue where all the letters will be printed readers can get a glimpse of the original handwriting of ray the letters are unique because they explore how much ray cared for human relationships and communications with ordinary people radhakrishnan added the letters will be accompanied by english