Satyajit Ray

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{{Infobox Biography |subject_name=Satyajit Ray |image_name=Ray2.jpg|300px |image_caption=Satyajit Ray. |date_of_birth=2 May, 1921 |place_of_birth=Kolkata, India |date_of_death=23 April, 1992 |place_of_death=Kolkata, India }}

Template:Audio (Bangla:সত্যজিত্‍ রায়) (May 2 1921 - April 23 1992) was an Academy Award winning Indian film director whose films are perhaps the greatest testament to Bengali and Indian cinema. He is mostly known for his Apu trilogy - the films Pather Panchali (Song of the Road), Aparajito (The Unvanquished), and Apur Sansar (The World of Apu). - but has a large collection of works that are widely acclaimed. A Bharat Ratna, he was also noted for his literary works in Bengali.

Ray is widely regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers in the history of cinema and has been called one of the four greatest directors of cinema in the world. Akira Kurosawa famously remarked of Ray:<ref>Andrew Robinson. "Satayajit Ray: A Vision of Cinema". URL accessed on 26 March 2006</ref>

"Not to have seen the cinema of Ray means existing in the world without seeing the sun or the moon."

Early life

Image:AamAntirBhepu.jpg Though Satyajit Ray's ancestry can be traced back at least ten generations,<ref>Template:Harv</ref> the family history took a decisive turn with his grandfather, Upendrakishore Raychowdhury. A writer, illustrator, philosopher, publisher and amatuer astronomer, Raychowdhury was a leader of the Brahmo Samaj, a religious and social movement in 19th century Bengal. Sukumar Ray, his son, was arguably the greatest Bangla writer of "nonsense rhyme" and children's literature, an able illustrator and crtic.

Satyajit Ray was born to Sukumar and Suprabha Ray on May 2, 1921 in Kolkata. After the completion of his education in Kolkata, his mother insisted that he go and study at Rabindranath Tagore's university, the Vishwabharati at Santiniketan, away from the bustle of the city. Ray was reluctant, due to his love of Calcutta, and general low impression about the intelluctual life at Santiniketan.<ref>Template:Harv</ref> Some persuasion on his mother's part and his respect for Tagore finally convinced him to give it a try. In Santiniketan, Ray came to appreciate oriental art, and he would later admit he learnt a lot from both Nandalal Bose<ref>Template:Harv</ref> and specially Benode Behari Mukherjee, for whom Ray had great admiration and would later make a documentary on. His visits to Ajanta, Elora and Elephanta during this period were also eye-openers; he would start admiring Indian art perhaps for the first time.<ref>Template:Harv</ref>

Satyajit left Santiniketan in 1943, returned to Kolkata, and took a job with a British advertising agency named D.J. Keymer. He joined as a "junior visulaizer", earning eighty rupees a month. This was a mixed experience. On one hand, visual design was something close to his heart and he was treated well for the most part, on the other, there was palpable tension between the British and Indian employees of the firm (the former much better paid), and Satyajit's complain that "the clients were generally stupid".<ref>Template:Harv</ref> Around 1943, Ray became involved with Signet Press, a new publishing house started up by D. K. Gupta. Gupta asked Ray to cover designs for books published from Signet Press and gave him complete artistic freedom. Ray designed covers for many books, including Jim Corbett's Maneaters of Kumayun, Nehru's Discovery of India and poetry books by many contemporary poets. Most important of these was his work on a children's version of Pather Panchali by Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay, renamed as Am Antir Bhepu (The mango-seed whistle). Ray immensely appreciated the work which would later furnish the subject matter of his first film. In addition to designing the cover, he also illustrated the book, and many of his illustrations ultimately found their place as shots in his groundbreaking film.<ref>Template:Harv</ref>

Throughout this time, Satyajit Ray continued to watch and study films seriously. He befriended the American GIs stationed in Kolkata during world war II, who would inform him of latest american films showing in the city. He also became friends with Norman Clare, who worked with RAF and shared Ray's passion of films, chess and western classical music.<ref>Template:Harv</ref> In 1949, Satyajit married Bijoya, his distant cousin and longtime sweetheart. The couple would have a son, Sandip, who is now a film director of some repute in his own right. Another important event took place in this year. Jean Renoir came to Calcutta to shoot his film The River. Ray met him, and also helped him find locations in the country side. Subrata Mitra, Ray's friend and a young photographer, spent even more time with the unit. Mitra would later become Ray's cinematograpgher. Ray also told Renoir about his idea to film Pather Panchali, which he had been harboring for some time now, and Renoir encouraged him.<ref>Template:Harv</ref>

In 1950, Ray was sent to London by D.J. Keymer to work at its head office. In his 3 months in London, Ray watched exactly 99 films. Among this was the neorealist masterpiece, The Bicycle Thieves. This film had a profound impact on Satyajit. Ray would later say that came out of the theater determined to become a filmmaker.

Career in film

Image:Apu Pather1.jpg Image:Patherpanchaliscreenshot.jpg

Pather panchali

Shooting started in early 1953. In retrospect, the technical team was immensely talented, even apart from Ray; both Subrata Mitra (cinematographer) and Bansi Chandragupta (art director) would later be considered undisputed masters of their craft. However, at that point, Ray had never directed anything and Mitra had never operated a movie camera, though Chandragupta was a young prfoessional.

Partway through filming he ran out of funds; the Government of West Bengal loaned him the rest, allowing him to finish the film. The money was loaned on record for 'roads improvement' (Pather Panchali translates as 'song of the road'). The film was successful both artistically and commercially, winning kudos (Best Human Document) at the 1955 Cannes film festival and heralded a new era in the Indian film industry. After a Cannes screening, François Truffaut is reported to have said: "I don’t want to see a movie of peasants eating with their hands."<ref>The Telegraph article. URL accessed on 26 March 2006</ref>

Most of Ray's work, especially his early work including the Apu Trilogy or the three films entitled Pather Panchali (1955), Aparajito (1957) and The World of Apu (Apur Sansar) (1959), seems to have been influenced by the Italian Neorealist movement in Italian post-war cinema. In fact, the one film which moved Ray the most before he started scripting Pather Panchali was Italian Neorealist film-maker Vittorio De Sica’s The Bicycle Thief, which he reportedly saw 55 times.<ref>The Telegraph article. URL accessed on 26 March 2006</ref> Two of the actors from the Apu Trilogy, Soumitra Chatterjee and Sharmila Tagore (the great-granddaughter of Rabindranath Tagore) would appear in a number of his other films.

The next decade

Ray's work tends to be both realistic and subdued; his early work is compassionate and touching; his later work, while more political, is also at times cynical, but still infused with his typical humour. Ray's first film outside of the Apu trilogy was the comic Parash Pathar (The Philosopher's Stone), in 1958. It was soon followed by Jalsaghar (The Music Room), which generated critical praise in the U.S. and Europe.

As the Apu trilogy was completed, it was followed by a creative period that won Ray continued acclaim at home and internationally - several of his most popular films (Charulata, Mahanagar/ The Big City, Devi, and Teen Kanya/ Three Daughters) were made at this time. In 1962, Ray directed Kanchenjungha, which was his first original screenplay and colour film. Kanchenjungha is notable as one of the few films to be shot in real time. Beginning with Teen Kanya, Ray also took over responsibility for musical composition within his films.

Later work

Image:DeviPoster.jpg Image:Ben seemabaddha.jpg Other notable works in Ray's career include Nayak (1965), Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne (The Adventures Of Goopy And Bagha), a children's film from 1969 featuring Ray's own songs based on a novella by his grandfather Upendrakishore Ray, and 1970's Aranyer Dinratri (Days And Nights In The Forest). During the 1970s Ray completed the Calcutta trilogy : Seemabaddha (Company Limited), Pratidwandi (The Adversary) and Jana Aranya (The Middleman), three films which were conceived separately, but whose thematic connections form a loose trilogy. Each generated further acclaim, with Jana Aranya winning additional awards.

In 1977, Ray completed Shatranj Ke Khiladi (The Chess Players), an Urdu/Hindi movie about chess players of Lucknow. This film starred Sanjeev Kumar, Saeed Jaffrey, Amjad Khan, Shabana Azmi, Victor Bannerjee and Richard Attenborough. Apart from a later short film in Hindi, Sadgati, starring Om Puri and the late Smita Patil, this was his only feature film in a language other than Bengali. Both these films were based on original stories by Munshi Premchand, the giant of Hindi literature.

Literary adaptations

Ray adapted some well-known Bengali books for films, for example, the Apu trilogy and Ashani Sanket (Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay); Kapurush (Premendra Mitra); Mahanagar (Narendranath Mitra); Mahapurush and Parash Pathar (Parashuram); Chiriyakhana (Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay); Charulata, Teen Kanya and Ghare Baire (Rabindranath Tagore); Jana Aranya and Seemabaddha (Shankar); Aranyer Dinratri and Pratidwandi (Sunil Gangopadhyay) etc. He had also adapted Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the People in his film Ganashatru.

Unfilmed

In 1967, Ray wrote a script for a movie to be entitled "The Alien," with Columbia Pictures as producer for this planned US/India co-production, and Peter Sellers and Marlon Brando as the leading actors. However Ray was surprised to find that the script he had co-written had already been copyrighted and the fee appropriated. Marlon Brando dropped out of the project and though an attempt was made to bring James Coburn in his place, Ray became disillusioned and returned to Calcutta.<ref>IMDb biography entry of Ray URL accessed on 21 March 2006</ref> Columbia expressed interest in reviving the project several times in the 70s and 80s but nothing came of it. When E.T. was released in 1982, many saw striking similarities in the movie to Ray's earlier script - Ray discussed the collapse of the project in a 1980 Sight & Sound feature, with further details revealed by Ray's biographer Andrew Robinson (in The Inner Eye, 1989). Ray believed that Spielberg's movie "would not have been possible without my script of The Alien being available throughout America in mimeographed copies." <ref>UC Santa Cruz Currents online article URL accessed on 21 March 2006</ref>

Reception

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Critical reaction

Pather Panchali was reviewed worldwide with great praise. Akira Kurosawa said, "I can never forget the excitement in my mind after seeing it (Pather Panchali). It is the kind of cinema that flows with the serenity and nobility of a big river."<ref>Critics on Ray URL acceseed on 3 April, 2006.</ref> Newsweek critic Jack Kroll reviwed the film as , "One of the most stunning first films in movie history. Ray is a welcome jolt of flesh, blood and spirit." Hazel-Dawn Dumpert of L.A. Weekly wrote that the film was "As deeply beautiful and plainly poetic as any movie ever made. Rare and exquisite".<ref>Critics on Pather Panchali URL accessed on 3 April, 2006</ref> "This tale, as crafted by Ray, touches the souls and minds of viewers, transcending cultural and linguistic barriers." was to write James Berardinelli.<ref>Colossus.net Online review URL accessed on 3 April, 2006</ref>

The Apu Trilogy curved out a niche in the world cinema. Later on, Ray moved on to make cinemas on varied themes that ranged from whodunit, children's fantasies, tales of adventure to the problems of contemporary urban youth and the Bengal famine of 1943. Ray himself said in 1975, "Critics have often accused me of a grasshopperish tendency to jump from theme to theme, from genre to genre... rather than pursue one dominant subject in an easily recognizable style that would help them to pigeonhole me, affix me with a label...All I can say in self-defense, if one is needed, is that this diversity faithfully reflects my own personality and that behind every film lies a cool decision."<ref>Biography of Satyajit Ray URL accessed on 3 April, 2006</ref>

Ray in media

Image:Domsat1.jpg The character Apu (Apu Nahasapeemapetilon) of the Simpsons is said to be named as a homage to the Apu trilogy. Satyajit Ray was a Tintin fan, and had shots of Tintin comics in some of his movies. Ray, along with Madhabi Mukherjee, was the first Indian film personality to feature in a foreign stamp (Dominica).

Awards

Template:Main Ray's debut film Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road) won several awards worldwide, including Best Human Document, Cannes (1956). This was followed by Golden Lion in Venice for Aparijito.

Other works

Satyajit Ray himself was the composer, writer and producer of many of his films.

Literature

Image:Ekerpithedui.jpg Image:Feluda.jpg Template:Main

Satyajit Ray was also a prolific writer in Bengali. He created two of the most famous characters in Bengali literature, namely Feluda, a sleuth, and Professor Shonku, a scientist. He also wrote quite a number of short stories which were published as volumes of 12 stories. He received France's Légion d'honneur for his short stories, in 1987.

Most of his writings have now been translated into English, and are finding an eager second generation of readers. Ray wrote his autobiography encompassing his childhood years, Jakhan Choto Chilam (1982) and essays on film: Our Films, Their Films (1976), along with Bishoy Chalachchitra (1976), Ekei Bole Shooting (1979). Most of his novels and stories in Bengali have been published by Ananda Publishers, Calcutta; and most of his screenplays have been published in Bengali in the literary journal Eksan edited by his close friend Nirmalya Acharya. During the mid-1990s, Ray's film essays and an anthology of short stories were also published in the West. Ironically, while certain writings are available in the West, few if any (depending on country) films are. Ray's son Sandip Ray, has made one full length feature film, Bombaiyer Bombete, and is making another one, Tintorettor Jishu - both are adventures of Feluda.

Film criticism

Template:Expandsect Our Films, Their Films is an anthology of film criticism by Ray. The book contains collecting articles and personal journal excerpts. The book is presented in two sections — Ray first discusses Indian film, before turning his attention towards Hollywood and specific international filmmakers (Charlie Chaplin, Akira Kurosawa) and movements like Italian neorealism.

Visual arts

Satyajit Ray designed two typefaces named Ray Roman and Ray Bizzare. Ray Roman won an international competition in 1970. In fact, in certain circles of Kolkata, Ray was continued to be known as a eminent graphic designer, well into his film career.

Ray illustraded all his books and designed covers for them. He also continued to illustrate books and magazines well after his Signet days, most notably the children's magazine Sandesh. Template:Expandsect

Filmography

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See also

• Literary creations of Satyajit Ray

Citations

<references/>

References

Template:Col-begin Template:Col-2

| Surname1 = Robinson
| Given1 = A
| Year = 2003
| Title = Satyajit Ray: The Inner Eye: The Biography of a Master Film-Maker
| Publisher = I. B. Tauris
| ISBN = 1860649653

| Surname1 = Ray
| Given1 = S
| Year = 1993
| Edition = 3
| Title = Our films, ther films
| Publisher = Asia Book Corp of Amer
| ISBN = 0863113176

| Surname1 = Dasgupta
| Given1 = C
| Year = 1996
| Title = The cinema of Satyajit Ray
| Publisher = Penguin India
| ISBN = 0140247807

| Surname1 = Ganguly
| Given1 = S
| Year = 2001
| Title = Satyajit Ray: In search of the modern
| Publisher = Indialog 
| ISBN = 8187981040

| Surname1 = Seton
| Given1 = M
| Year = 1971
| Title = Satyajit Ray: Portrait of a director
| Publisher = Indiana University Press 
| ISBN = 0253168155

| Surname1 = Wood
| Given1 = R
| Year = 1972
| Title = The Apu trilogy
| Publisher = November Books Ltd
| ISBN = 0856310034

Template:Col-2

| Surname1 = Robinson
| Given1 = A
| Year = 2005
| Title = Satyajit Ray: A Vision of Cinema
| Publisher = I. B. Tauris
| ISBN = 1845110749

| Surname1 = Cooper
| Given1 = D
| Year = 2000
| Title = The Cinema of Satyajit Ray : Between Tradition and Modernity
| URL = http://assets.cambridge.org/052162/0260/sample/0521620260WSN01.pdf
| Publisher = Cambridge University Press
| ISBN = 0521629802

| Surname1 = Nyce
| Given1 = B
| Year = 1988
| Title = Satyajit Ray: A Study of His Films 
| Publisher = Praeger Publishers
| ISBN = 0275926664

| Surname1 = Nandy
| Given1 = A
| Year = 1995
| Chapter = Satyajit Ray's Secret Guide to Exquisite Murders
| Title = The Savage Freud and Other Essays on Possible and Retrievable Selves
| Publisher = Princeton University Press
| ISBN = 0691044104

| Surname1 = Ray
| Given1 = S
| Year = 2005
| Title = Speaking of films
| Publisher = Penguin India
| ISBN = 0144000261

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External links

• {{{2|{{{name|Satyajit Ray}}}}}} at The Internet Movie Database
• Satyajitray.org
• Satyajit Ray Film and Study Collection
• Complete List of Ray's movies
• Biography of Ray
• Amartya Sen: Satyajit Ray and the art of Universalism: Our Culture, Their Culture
• Satyajit Ray Section in Parabaas
• Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database
• Satyajit Ray: A Vision of Cinema article by Andrew Robinson
• Satyajit Ray's Masterpiece: The Apu Trilogy Article by John Nesbit at ToxicUniverse.combn:সত্যজিৎ রায়

ca:Satyajit Ray de:Satyajit Ray eo:Satyajit Ray fr:Satyajit Ray kn:ಸತ್ಯಜಿತ್ ರೇ ja:サタジット・レイ sa:सत्यजित राय sv:Satyajit Ray ta:சத்யஜித் ராய்