A Ravi Shankar film that did not happen

New Delhi: They were great friends and went on to work on four projects but Satyajit Ray`s plan to make a short film on his musician friend Ravi Shankar remained a wish unfulfilled. Shankar gave music to four of Ray`s classics, beginning with his greatest and the first `Pather Panchali`, `Aparajito`, `Apur Sansar` and `Paras Pathar`. Ray had planned to capture Ravi Shankar during one of his recitals but for some reason the film did not take shape. The idea, however, still survives in the form of the rough sketches that he made for the film titled `A Sitar Recital by Ravi Shankar`. The sketches show Ray`s vision as he captures Shankar in various moods with camera instructions like `pan away`, `dissolve to` written on the margins besides other instructions. The sketches are now available in the form of a book titled `Satyajit Ray`s Ravi Shankar: An Unfilmed Visual Script`, which has been edited by the filmmaker`s son Sandip Ray and has been published by HarperCollins. In his preface Sandip recalls the friendship that his father and Shankar, who died in 2012, shared and how they came together for the music of `Pather Panchali`. "Ravi-ji was already a busy musician when baba requested him to compose the background score for `Pather Panchali`, his debut film. After that he did the music for `Aparajito`, `Paras Pathar` and `Apur Sansar`. "They never worked together thereafter because baba began to compose music for his own films in 1961. But their relations remained as close and congenial as before. Their friendship was based on mutual admiration which lasted till baba breathed his last," Sandip recalls in the book.