sukumar ray ( film )
the film presents the life and work of the writer sukumar ray, satyajit ray' s father. ray made this film as a tribute to celebrate the centenary of his birth. the film comprises still photographs and readings from sukumar ray' s writings .
the life and work of the writer sukumar ray, satyajit ray' s father. ray made this film as a tribute to celebrate the centenary of his birth. the film comprises still photographs and readings from sukumar ray' s writings .
documentary by satyajit ray on his father sukumar ray and his work – including dramatisations of sequences from his writings .
sukumar ray, upendrakishore’s son and father of satyajit, was a pioneering bengali writer of nonsense rhyme and children’s literature, an illustrator and a critic. ray was born to sukumar and suprabha ray in calcutta .
however, she turns out to be his friend sukumar' s younger sister .
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ray received 32 national film awards by the government of india, and awards at international film festivals .
chaudhuri, sukanta (ed. and trans .), the select nonsense of sukumar ray (calcutta: oxford university press, 1987 )
one of my close friends, who is a respected author, never travels without carrying a volume of sukumar ray’s complete works with him .
born in 1887, sukumar ray was the father of the famous indian film director, satyajit ray. sukumar' s father, upendrakisore, had set up his own printing press in his house in calcutta and wrote a number of articles on printing for the british printing journal, the penrose annual, from 1897 to 1912 .
robinson, andrew,' selected letters of sukumar ray', south asia research 7. 2 (nov. 1987), pp. 169 - 236
with an ensemble cast, this film had ray' s first original screenplay .
sukumar ray was made a fellow of the royal photographic society in 1922. he was famous for his humourous' literary nonsense' and was also a story - writer and illustrator .
( who even made a film about sukumar in 1987 - - i haven' t seen it). ray spent some time in england, where he studied printing technology, which enabled him to make some beautiful illustrations for his books [
, and i came across sukumar ray, a highly prolific writer of surrealist children' s stories in the 1910s and 20s. he was part of the presidency college circle of bengali intellectuals in calcutta, and he was the father of acclaimed film maker
ray is the second film personality after chaplin to have been awarded honorary doctorates by oxford university .
satyajit ray had won the maximum number of the coveted national film awards (the indian version of the oscars). he won 32 national film awards .
this 1969 - film based on a short story by ray’s grandfather upendrakishore ray chowdhury has goopy and bagha, two yokels, as its protagonists .
sukumar ray (1887 - 1923), the eldest son of upendra kishore, studied printing technology in england and joined the family business. he was an eminent poet, writer and illustrator of nonsense literature in the tradition of lewis carroll and edward lear. sukumar ray fell ill the year satyajit ray was born with a dreaded tropical disease of the time - kala - azar. he regularly contributed poems, stories and illustrations to' sandesh', a children' s magazine in bengali which satyajit ray' s grandfather had started publishing and printing .
on satyajit ray' s 93rd birth anniversary, his son sandip ray discusses his favourite movies .
in this 1962 film ray made brilliant use of fog as the protagonist to portray the complexities of human relationships .
the legend first stepped into this world on 2 nd may 1921. art was in his blood; his father sukumar roy, grandfather upendra kishore roy choudhury are stars of bengali literature. sukumar ray first introduced nonsense verse in indian literature. he inherited the talent from his family. having a rich cultural atmosphere, paved his way to becoming the godfather of indian cinema. in 1955 he debuted with his first film pather panchali (the tale of a little road). the trajectory of indian cinema changed afterward .
however, on this day, they had a disagreement. two bengali films had released, the latest suchitra sen starrer and the first film directed by a former advertising executive and illustrator. nihar was determined to watch the suchitra sen film while my father was committed to watching the other one. “it’s directed by sukumar ray’s son, ” he explained. “and it’s based on one of the classics of bengali literature. this film could be interesting. ”
audiences are also discovering the lesser known ray films including chiriakhana and kapurush mahapurush. ray & apos; s documentaries on tagore and his father, poet and writer sukumar ray, have drawn a niche crowd. ray & apos; s children & apos; s films such as sonar kella, joy baba felunath, goopy gyne bagha byne and hirak rajar deshe have already attracted healthy box office bookings for september .
many literary works include references to ray or his work, including saul bellow’s herzog and j. m. coetzee’s youth. salman rushdie’s haroun and the sea of stories contains fish characters named goopy and bagha, a tribute to ray’s fantasy film. in 1993, uc santa cruz established the satyajit ray film and study collection, and in 1995, the government of india set up satyajit ray film and television institute for studies related to film. in 2007, british broadcasting corporation declared that two feluda stories would be made into radio programs. [ 91 ] during the london film festival, a regular “satyajit ray award” is given to a first - time feature director whose film best captures “the artistry, compassion and humanity of ray’s vision”. wes anderson has claimed ray as an influence on his work; his 2007 film, the darjeeling limited, set in india, is dedicated to ray .
in 1947, with some film - enthusiast friends, he set up the calcutta film society, the first film club of its kind in india, dedicated to watching and discussing the best of world cinema .
even though i am in my 30s i love reading sukumar ray. his work appeals to all ages. though i don' t think his works can be translated that easily. it is so much fun to read his original works in bengali than in english .
ray could now become a full - time film director. he started work on pather panchali’s sequel aparajito (the unvanquished), which is the finest—and most heart - rending—film of the apu trilogy .
upendra kishore’s sons and daughters were all gifted writers and / or painters. the eldest son, sukumar, was a genius by any benchmark one can set. the stories and poems he wrote for children—of all ages—are quite simply unparalleled for their humour, imagination and the spirit of absurd whimsy. there is not a single bengali who has maintained some contact with his culture who cannot recite at least a few lines from one of sukumar’s poems .
clicking on the title of a film will take you to details such as cast, story, comments, awards, etc. for that film .
ray, satyajit (1921 - 1992) oscar winning film director, photographer, painter, writer of juvenile literature and musicologist. satyajit ray was born in kolkata on 2 may 1921. his parents hailed from the village masua of kishoreganj district of bangladesh. his father, sukumar ray, a noted writer, editor and photographer, graduated from manchester university school of technology and was a fellow of the royal photographic society of great britain. his mother, suprova ray, was a singer and earned repute for her skills in handicrafts. his grandfather, upendrakishore ray chowdhury, was a well - known litterateur, painter, photographer, block designer and editor of the juvenile journal sandesh (1913). satyajit' s wife bijoya ray was a musicologist and a film actress. his son swandip ray is a noted photographer, graphic artist and a film director .
ray was, without knowing it, the first “graphic designer” in india. what milton glaser was doing in the us, ray was doing at signet press. he even designed two english typefaces: ray roman and ray bizarre .
hello ginsoakedboy, majantali sarkar was not from sukumar ray but upendrakishore. see this link: urltoken; = utf - 8 & oe; = utf - 8 & aq; = t & rls; = org. mozilla: en - us: official & client; = firefox - a
), a tragic love triangle set within a wealthy, western - influenced bengali family in 1879, is perhaps ray’s most accomplished film .
ray, satyajit. the apu trilogy: pather panchali, aparajito, apur sansar. [ film scripts ] calcutta: seagull books, 1985 .
ray’s international career started in earnest after the success of his next film, aparajito (the unvanquished). this film shows the eternal struggle between the ambitions of a young man, apu, and the mother who loves him. critics such as mrinal sen and ritwik ghatak rank it higher than ray’s first film. aparajito won the golden lion at the venice film festival, bringing ray considerable acclaim. before completing the apu trilogy, ray directed and released two other films: the comic parash pathar (the philosopher’s stone), and jalsaghar (the music room), a film about the decadence of the zamindars, considered one of his most important works .
ray had long been a fan of the 1916 novel the home and the world, by the nobel prize–winning bengali writer rabindranath tagore. in 1948, seven years before pather panchali saw the light of a projector, he and his friend and fellow film lover harisadhan dasgupta were planning a film adaptation of tagore’s book. after dasgupta bought the rights to the book (for a hefty sum) from the author’s estate, ray summarily wrote a script. the pair then found a producer in a friend from the calcutta film society, which ray had cofounded; hired an art director; and even began scouting locations. tagore occupied a special place in ray’s heart, as not only had he been a close friend of ray’s father, sukumar, but he had founded the visva - bharati university in santiniketan, which had helped define ray’s artistic identity when he studied there .
sukumar ray arrived in england in the autumn of 1911 and initially lodged with the northbrook society at 21 cromwell road. he studied printing at the london school of photo engraving and lithography in bolt street, run by london county council, and then went to manchester and studied at the manchester school of technology. in manchester, he wrote letters to his parents from 12 thorncliffe grove and then 65 ducie grove. ray was present in london when rabindranath tagore visited the city in 1912; tagore was a friend of his father' s in calcutta. he often visited the house of dr and mrs p. k. ray in london to eat indian food and meet other indians in london. at p. k. ray' s house, sukumar ray met k. g. gupta and later married his niece .
international bangla film critic award 2012: best personality in 100 years of indian cinema .
the crew was under no permanent contract or organisation. and yet, the crew members and actors always made themselves available for his films. it was partly due to this obligation that ray moved from one film to another rapidly, making about one film a year .
in 1950, d. j. keymer sent ray to london to work at its headquarters office. during his three months in london, ray watched 99 films. among these was the neorealist film ladri di biciclette (bicycle thief) (1948) by vittorio de sica, which had a profound impact on him. ray later said that he came out of the theater determined to become a film - maker .
at the venice film festival, where he had previously won a golden lion for aparajito (1956), he was awarded the golden lion honorary award in 1982. that same year, he received an honorary “hommage à satyajit ray” award at the 1982 cannes film festival .
unfortunately, u. ray & sons was also going bankrupt, in spite of the best efforts of sukumar’s brother subinay, another gifted writer. the company changed hands, the palatial house the family used to live in was sold, and satyajit was brought up by his mother at her brother’s home, contributing to the household expenses by teaching needlework in a widows’ home .
while working in london, ray feasted on films (he finally got to watch renoir’s la regle du jeu, which he rated as one of the best films ever made). and then one day, he watched the italian film the bicycle thief (or thieves; strangely enough, the film goes by both names—ray refers to it in his writings as both thief and thieves) directed by vittorio de sica. the film changed his life .
s atyajit ray was born into an illustrious family in calcutta in 1921. his grandfather, upendra kishore ray - chaudhary, was a publisher, musician and the creator of children’s literature in bengali. his father, sukumar ray, was a noted satirist and india' s first writer of nonsense rhymes, akin to the nonsense verse of edward lear. later in life, satyajit ray made a documentary of his father' s life. his film, goopy gyne bagha byne, was based on a story published by his grandfather in 1914, but even other films, such as hirok rajah deshe ,
the kingdom of diamonds
, clearly drew upon his interest in children’s poetry and nonsense rhymes .
satyajit ray was born in 1921 in a bengali brahmo family that boasted almost incredible amounts of talent. his grandfather upendra kishore ray chaudhuri was as much a renaissance man as his close friend rabindranath tagore. straddling the worlds of science and arts, he was a printing technologist and inventor, an extremely gifted painter and violinist, and possibly the greatest children’s writer bengal has ever produced (the only competition comes from his son sukumar, satyajit’s father) .
ray wrote the script and approached a few producers. he knew no one in the bengali film industry and they were cold calls. fortunately for him, bibhutibhushan’s widow, rama, was impressed by the passionate young man (his genealogy helped), and agreed to give the film rights to the novel to him, as and when he raised the money to fund the film. in fact, one rich producer whom ray approached, reneged and contacted her, saying he would buy the rights and make the film, to be directed by the then famous bengali director debaki bose, but rama steadfastly refused. she had placed her faith on ray for making a film that would do justice to her late husband’s greatest work .
this film is not currently playing on mubi but 30 other great films are. see what’s now showing
the film portrays the hopelessness of the middle - class, educated, urban youth in modern india .
winner – 1957 – golden lion of st. mark for best film – aparajito (the unvanquished )
celebrating the birth centenary of his father, whom he lost at the age of three, ray made his last documentary by going back to his roots and looking back at his own influences. it is more a history of his family over the course of the second half of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. ray talks about his grandfather upendrakishore and then about his father sukumar—their contributions in the field of literature, illustrations and printing. unlike any of his other documentaries, ray left the narration to soumitra chatterjee .
satyajit ray received numerous awards, both personal and for the films he made. this section contains an extensive list of the awards and honors ray received .
sukumar roy writings, even today, are among the most beloved by bengalis. this is especially true of his book of' nonsense poems' abol tabol (which literally means gibberish). kids love their' silliness' while adults love their double entendres which lampoon casteism, snobbery and other lampoonable stuff .
michael koresky is the editorial director of the film society of lincoln center in new york; a cofounder and editor of the online film magazine reverse shot; and a frequent contributor to film comment and the criterion collection. he is also the author of terence davies (university of illinois press, 2014) .
in 1949, french film director jean renoir arrived in calcutta, to do the initial recce for his film the river. renoir, the son of pierre renoir, the great impressionist painter, was already acknowledged as a master film director. his la grande illusion (1937) was the first foreign - language film to be nominated for a best film oscar. his 1939 film the rules of the game (la regle du jeu), with its deep - focus cinematography and moving cameras, had influenced cinematic technique as much as citizen kane (which ray had missed on its first release because he was in shantiniketan), and is today regularly cited as one of the greatest films ever made .
but ray’s imagination was fired. this was the movie he wanted to make .
aparajito principally deals with apu’s teenage years. in the mid - 1980s, when i was living in an extremely cosmopolitan multilingual college hostel, doordarshan showed the film, sub - titled superbly by ray himself. i had watched the film before, but was willing to see it once again .
this 1976 - film is based on the novel of the same name by mani shankar mukherjee aka shankar .
in 1949, ray married bijoya das, his first cousin and longtime sweetheart. the couple had a son, sandip, who is now a film director. in the same year, french director jean renoir came to calcutta to shoot his film the river. ray helped him to find locations in the countryside. ray told renoir about his idea of filming pather panchali, which had long been on his mind, and renoir encouraged him in the project .
a clipping from the film goopy gyne bagha byne where the king of ghosts (“bhuter raja”) grants goopy and bagha three boons. significantly satyajit ray used his own voice for the voice of king of ghosts (“bhuter raja”). in this scene king of ghosts is speaking in rhyme. in 1980, ray made a sequel to goopy gyne bagha byne, hirak rajar deshe, in this film too, most of the dialogues exchanged by the protagonists of the film were rhyming .
dr roy, a great physician and perhaps the canniest bengali politician before jyoti basu, was, however, a man completely disinterested in the arts. he had probably seen about a dozen films in his entire life. but he wanted to help, because this was sukumar’s son, and the cause seemed all right. no government agency in india had ever financed a film till then; no one had even thought of the possibility .
s atyajit ray was india' s first internationally recognized film - maker and, several years after his death, still remains the most well - known indian director on the world stage. ray has written that he became captivated by the cinema as a young college student, and he was self - taught, his film education consisting largely of repeated viewings of film classics by de sica, fellini, john ford, orson welles, and other eminent directors. with the release in 1955 of his first film pather panchali (
song of the road
), whose financing presented ray with immense monetary problems, compelling him even to pawn his wife’s jewelry, he brought the neo - realist movement in film to india. little could anyone have imagined that this first film would launch ray on one of the most brilliant careers in the history of cinema, leading eventually not only to dozens of international awards, india’s highest honor, and a lifetime achievement oscar from hollywood, but the unusual accolade of being voted by members of the british film institute as one of the three greatest directors in world cinema .
so, pather panchali went to the cannes film festival. no one was interested. it was exhibited late at night at a small theatre. possibly a dozen people attended the screening. one of them, francois truffaut, then a critic with the radical french film journal cahiers du cinema, and who would go one to become a great film director, left the hall within 10 minutes, bored by the slow pace of the film. truffaut later apologized publicly and several times, and ray and he became good friends .
as my favourite film critic, the late great roger ebert put it, the bicycle thief stands outside time .
the film is about an upper class bengali family on vacation in darjeeling, a popular hill station near kanchenjunga .
based on a novella by ace writer sunil gangopadhyay, this much acclaimed 1970 ray film focuses on a group of friends escaping the bustle of the city by heading to a tribal outpost in bihar .
so, i am a bit of a biased person when i write about ray .
reading: i would strongly recommend andrew robinson’s book the inner eye, one of the best books on film i know. we now have a new robinson book the apu trilogy: satyajit ray and the making of an epic, and keya ganguly’s book cinema, emergence and the films of satyajit ray, in which she makes the (unusual) case for him as an avant - garde modernist. there is also a collection of ray’s writings on film our lives, their lives .
decades later, my father and his cousin were still laughing about that day. neither could remember the name of the suchitra sen film, but the world had refused to forget—and will never do so—the film my father had gone to watch: pather panchali (the song of the road), directed by satyajit ray. in fact, quite by chance, my father had been one of the first few hundred people to watch a film that would be one of the greatest landmarks in indian film history, put our cinema on the world map, and launch a filmmaking career of astonishing creativity that would inspire and open the doors of perception for several generations of film directors .
he also wrote essays on film, published as the collections: our films, their films (1976), bishoy chalachchitra (1976), and ekei bole shooting (1979). during the mid - 1990s, ray’s film essays and an anthology of short stories were also published in english in the west. our films, their films is an anthology of film criticism by ray. the book contains articles and personal journal excerpts. the book is presented in two sections: ray first discusses indian film, before turning his attention toward hollywood, specific filmmakers (charlie chaplin and akira kurosawa), and movements such as italian neorealism. his book bishoy chalachchitra was published in translation in 2006 as speaking of films. it contains a compact description of his philosophy of different aspects of the cinema. [ edit ] ray as calligrapher
ray considered making a film on the bangladesh liberation war but later abandoned the idea. he said that, as a filmmaker, he was more interested in the travails of the refugees and not the politics. in 1977, ray completed shatranj ke khiladi (the chess players), a hindi film based on a story by munshi premchand. it was set in lucknow in the state of oudh, a year before the indian rebellion of 1857. a commentary on issues related to the colonization of india by the british, this was ray’s first feature film in a language other than bengali. it is his most expensive and star - studded film, featuring sanjeev kumar, saeed jaffrey, amjad khan, shabana azmi, victor bannerjee and richard attenborough .
banarjee, the cinematic possibilities of which began to intrigue him. ray had long been an
he was a ray of light. it illuminated and showed the way and the possibilities .
dasgupta, chidananda. the cinema of satyajit ray. new delhi: vikas, 1980 .
sukumar ray died when satyajit was barely three, and the family survived on suprabha ray’s meager income. ray studied at ballygunge government high school, calcutta, and completed his b. a. (hons .) in economics at presidency college of the university of calcutta, though his interest was always in fine arts. in 1940, his mother insisted that he study at the visva - bharati university at santiniketan, founded by rabindranath tagore. ray was reluctant due to his love of calcutta, and the low opinion of the intellectual life at santiniketan [ 10 ] his mother’s persuasion and his respect for tagore finally convinced him to try. in santiniketan, ray came to appreciate oriental art. he later admitted that he learned much from the famous painters nandalal bose and benode behari mukherjee. later he produced a documentary film, the inner eye, about mukherjee. his visits to ajanta, ellora and elephanta stimulated his admiration for indian art .
to celebrate 100 years of indian cinema, the british film institute in london has organised a retrospective of the films of satyajit ray. and the films are drawing audiences to the theatres in droves, says shrabani basu
this was ray’s last chance. he approached west bengal chief minister dr b. c. roy, who had been a friend of his father. could the government give him some money to finish the film ?
in 1962, ray directed kanchenjungha. based on his first original screenplay, it was his first film in colour. the film tells of an upper - class family spending an afternoon in darjeeling, a picturesque hill town in west bengal. they try to arrange the engagement of their youngest daughter to a highly paid engineer educated in london. he had first conceived shooting the film in a large mansion, but later decided to film it in the famous hill town. he used the many shades of light and mist to reflect the tension in the drama. ray noted that while his script allowed shooting to be possible under any lighting conditions, a commercial film contingent present at the same time in darjeeling failed to shoot a single scene, as they only wanted to do so in sunshine .
at the 11th moscow international film festival in 1979, he was awarded with the honorable prize for the contribution to cinema .
a brilliant science student, sukumar studied photography and printing technology in england after his graduation (he topped the class at the manchester school of printing technology), and invented a new technique of halftone block - making that even earned him a small mention in encyclopedia britannica. back in india, he took charge of the printing company his father had set up, u. ray & sons, one of the finest presses in the country, and of sandesh .
filmgoer, and his deepening interest in the medium inspired his first attempts to write screenplays and his cofounding (1947) of the calcutta film society. in 1949 ray was encouraged in his cinematic ambitions by the french director
jana aranya, also based on a sankar novel, is perhaps ray’s most cynical film. it is shot in a style that is as un - ray - like that one can imagine. there are no beautifully planned shots and camera angles. it runs like a hard cold documentary as it follows its young protagonist from innocence to moral degeneration while he tries to make a living. but, as the film reaches its climax, ray uses a little known tagore song as the audio background as he sharply intercuts to show all the major characters of the film, and create an extraordinarily affecting and haunted atmosphere while his hero travels to his greatest moral compromise. it is as near - perfect a use of lyrics and music as anyone has got to in the history of film .
once he stated, “i can do without music, i can use actual sounds creatively to serve the purpose of music, after all ideally one should be able to do without music completely…. ideally, a film ought to be able to do without music”. that may sound contradictory while he experimented with his film music. but he proved why he is a film institution. in the film kanchanjangha, we cannotice a character who is mentally devastated, confused, where he has used the visual language of film. a boy carrying a bag of metal wastages create a noir which depicts the psychological state of the character .
the los angeles - based academy of motion picture arts and sciences then worked closely with several expert groups to preserve the films. till now it has preserved 18 of ray & apos; s feature films and one short film. the restoration was carried out by the satyajit ray preservation project, california, in collaboration with the academy film archive, los angeles, the merchant ivory foundation (new york) and the film foundation, set up by the director, martin scorsese. the restored films were all made available by the academy of motion picture arts and sciences .
almost every film of ray reflects a great involvement of fusion music. at the starting of his film life, other composers used to direct music of his movies but later he started himself. actually according to him, in that period no indian composer was properly trained to compose music for the film. they were habituated with concert music. hence, they could not limit their music to a 30 - second limit and directors had to cut the music. that was a major problem. though he never undermined their contributions, as he told, “they were not film composers, they were virtuosos” .
in 1996, entertainment weekly magazine ranked ray at # 25 in its “50 greatest directors” list .
to celebrate 100 years of indian cinema, the british film institute in london has organised a retrospective of the films of satyajit ray. and the films are drawing audiences to the theatres in droves, says shrabani basu | read»
alfred hitchcock, a director of directors, talking about his film vertigo, which is regularly rated in various polls as a great film, said that this was one film he made that he had complete control over. every detail in the film was dictated by him. “if you see a yellow volkswagen passing by on the road outside the room where my characters are meeting, then you should know that i chose a volkswagen, and it is yellow because i chose that colour, ” he once said .
based on rabindranath tagore’s novella noshtoneer, this 1964 - film set in 1870s kolkata tells the tale of a housewife, charu .
beneath its sunny veneer, the film has a dark centre and gradually turns into a commentary on the squalor of urban life .
satyajit ray designed four typefaces for roman script named ray roman, ray bizarre, daphnis, and holiday script, apart from numerous bengali ones for the sandesh magazine. ray roman and ray bizarre won an international competition in 1971. in certain circles of calcutta, ray continued to be known as an eminent graphic designer, well into his film career. ray illustrated all his books and designed covers for them, as well as creating all publicity material for his films, i. e. , ray’s artistic playing with the bangla graphemes was also revealed in the cine posters and cine promo - brochures’ covers. he also designed covers of several books by other authors. in his calligraphic technique there are deep impacts of: (a) artistic pattern of european musical staff notation in the graphemic syntagms; (b) alpana (“ritual painting” mainly practiced by bengali women at the time of religious festival; the term denotes ‘to coat with’. generally categorized as “folk” - art cf. in ray’s graphemic representations .
from 1959–64 ray composed films on the british raj period (such as devi), a documentary on tagore, a comic film (mahapurush) and his first film from an original screenplay (kanchenjungha). he also made a series of films that, taken together, are considered by critics among the most deeply felt portrayals of indian women on screen .
ray’s film successes had little influence on his personal life in the years to come. he continued to live with his wife and children in a rented house, with his mother, uncle and other members of his extended family .
director anindya ghosh’s upcoming bengali film thammar boyfriend is currently being shot in different parts of the city. | pinterest | kolkata and boyfriends
ray decided to use pather panchali (1928), the classic bildungsroman of bengali literature, as the basis for his first film. the semi - autobiographical novel describes the maturation of apu, a small boy in a bengal village .
along with chidananda dasgupta and others, ray founded the calcutta film society in 1947. they screened many foreign films, many of which ray watched and seriously studied. he befriended the american gis stationed in calcutta during world war ii, who kept him informed about the latest american films showing in the city. he came to know a raf employee, norman clare, who shared ray’s passion for films, chess and western classical music .
satyajit ray; adapted from the play:' an enemy of the people' by henrik ibsen .
it is the last among ray' s calcutta trilogy, the previous two being pratidwandi and seemabaddha .
satyajit ray, an indian filmmaker and among the dozen or so great masters of world cinema, is known for his humanistic approach to cinema. a true auteur, ray directly controlled many aspects of filmmaking .
just read your post and felt that you could help me out. i am looking for the name of a sukumar roy story which has a cat called
mojontali shorkar .
i am desperate to know the name because i associate that character with childhood memories, grandfather, :, etc. so it would be great if you could help me out or put me through someone who can help me out .
meanwhile, other things were happening. ray was already recognized as a star in his profession, and was perhaps one of the highest paid creative directors in the indian advertising industry. but his heart was elsewhere: he wanted to make films (ray was thus the first of a long line of indian admen who left their jobs to become film directors, from shyam benegal to dibakar banerjee, many of them inspired by ray; benegal, in fact, has often acknowledged ray’s influence on him and made an authoritative documentary on the man in 1982) .
at the time of the second world war, and the final period of india’s independence struggle, ray was employed as a graphic artist at a publishing house in calcutta designing covers of books as well as illustrations of content. one of these books was bibuthibhushan bandhopadhyay’s pather panchali which immediately inspired ray as the subject for his first film. ray received further inspiration when he met french master jean renoir during pre - production of his bengal - set the river. his visits to the set of the river formed lasting friendships with art director bansi chandragupta (who became ray’s regular art director) and future cinematographer subrata mitra. pather panchali (song of the little road), released in 1955 after a difficult three - year production would be the fruit of ray’s tenacity and uncompromising will. made with an inexperienced cast and crew outside the system of commercial indian cinema, the film became a great international success winning a special prize at the cannes film festival .
over about four decades—counting from the day he started shooting pather panchali to the release of his last film, agantuk, ray directed 28 feature films, plus several documentaries (including sikkim, sponsored by the king of sikkim, when it was still an independent country; the film was banned in india by indira gandhi and remains banned till date) and short films, and one telefilm .
) and its two sequels, known as the apu trilogy. as a director ray was noted for his
seton, marie. portrait of a director: satyajit ray. bloomington: indiana university press, 1971 .
the most cynical film he ever made was jana aranya (the middleman, 1975) —and ray was the only film director who could get away with showing a corrupt bureaucrat with a framed photo of then prime minister indira gandhi on his wall; the film was released during the emergency. but even in jana aranya, as the protagonist goes around trying to find a sex worker he can supply to a rich businessman to get a contract, the women are treated with a respect and sophistication that is almost unmatched in world cinema .
ray was an only child whose father died in 1923. his grandfather was a writer and illustrator, and his father, sukumar ray, was a writer and illustrator of bengali nonsense verse. ray grew up in calcutta and was looked after by his mother. he entered a government school, where he was taught chiefly in bengali, and then studied at presidency college, calcutta’s leading college, where he was taught in english. by the time he graduated in 1940, he was fluent in both languages. in 1940 his mother persuaded him to attend art school at santiniketan, rabindranath tagore’s rural university northwest of calcutta. there ray, whose interests had been exclusively urban and western - oriented, was exposed to indian and other eastern art and gained a deeper appreciation of both eastern and western culture, a harmonious combination that is evident in his films .
its message, about the perils of greed, religious fanaticism, and environmental pollution, may be topical, but the film is too static to have total impact. still, there are enough flashes of ray' s brilliance to make it worthwhile .
just one small example. pather panchali was the first indian film that showed characters actually eating, putting real food in their mouths and chewing !
in a 1982 lecture, he recalled his emotions. the film had “gored” him. “i came out of the theatre with my mind firmly made up. i would become a filmmaker. the prospect of giving up a job didn’t daunt me any more. i would make my film exactly as de sica had made his: working with non - professional actors, using modest resources, and shooting on actual locations. the village which bibhutibhushan had so lovingly described would be a living backdrop to the film, just as the outskirts of rome were for de sica’s film. ”
gradually became his most valued assistant .
the best assistant i ever had
, ray told an interviewer .
satyajit ray’s paternal grandfather, upendrakishore ray was a writer, illustrator, philosopher, publisher, amateur astronomer and a leader of the brahmo samaj, a religious and social movement in nineteenth century bengal. he also set up a printing press by the name of u. ray and sons, which formed a crucial backdrop to satyajit’s life .
but the cunning dr roy found a way. since the title of the half - born film was the song of the road, he gave ray the money from the state’s road development fund. and pather panchali was done. this is possibly one of the most innovative decisions taken by an indian politician, with a gigantic impact that he himself—or ray—could never have imagined .
ray had a heart attack in the early 1980s, and his work was never the same. in 1984, he made the first film he had ever wanted to make, ghare baire (the home and the world), based on a tagore novel, years before he started working on pather panchali. though visually enchanting, it is a strangely disappointing film. a political novel was turned into what ray described as a “greek tragedy”, a love triangle with a rather unattractive actor playing the woman in the middle .
one of the main attractions of the screenings are the restored prints of ray & apos; s films. the attempt to restore all of ray & apos; s works — 28 feature films and seven short subjects and documentaries — began in 1992 shortly after he received an honorary oscar. during the production of the oscar telecast, producers were dismayed to find that there were very few prints or master videos of ray & apos; s film in the us, and the ones they did locate were incomplete and in poor condition. it transpired that ray had shot all of his films on non - flammable
safety
film based on triacetate, which, when exposed to warm, moist environments as they were in india, could deteriorate dramatically .
the next day, overwhelmed by the experience, he bought 30 blank vhs cassettes so that he could record every film of ray’s as doordarshan showed them. he told us this, with diffidence and humility—after all, these were two bengali journalists arguing, and bengalis are supposed to be terminally intellectual, and ray was bengali, etc. , etc. —and rested his case .
( to be factually accurate, the first bengali novel he wanted to film was tagore’s ghare baire (the home and the world) and he even wrote a screenplay for it. his friend harisadhan dasgupta was supposed to direct. negotiations with producers, however, fell through, and years later, ray would say that that was extremely fortunate—he found the script that he had written melodramatic and “very hollywoodish”. ray would finally make ghare baire four decades later, in 1984. it was a disappointing film, in this author’s opinion. )
the crystal clear images of the newly restored mahanagar and the apu trilogy make the films timeless in their beauty. not surprisingly, mahanagar was chosen for a nationwide release in the uk. tickets for several screenings of the film sold out in august and the film has attracted steady bookings for september as well .
in 1950, ray’s employers sent him to london for a five - month stint at headquarters. whatever they may have expected from ray when he came back to calcutta, the man who returned was someone who had chosen his destiny .
in 1980, ray made a sequel to goopy gyne bagha byne, a somewhat political hirak rajar deshe (kingdom of diamonds). the kingdom of the evil diamond king, or hirok raj, is an allusion to india during indira gandhi’s emergency period. [ 45 ] along with his acclaimed short film pikoo (pikoo’s diary) and hour - long hindi film, sadgati, this was the culmination of his work in this period .
but ray was unable to raise money from skeptical bengali producers, who distrusted a first - time director with such unconventional ideas. shooting could not begin until late 1952, using ray’s own money, with the rest eventually coming from a grudging
in 1950, satyajit went to london in connection with his job. instantly, he became a member of london film club and during his stay there for five months, he saw about a hundred films. he also got acquainted with persons like the british filmmaker, lindsay anderson and film specialists peneloppi huston and gavin lambert. he was highly impressed by the bicycle thief directed by italian vittorio d sica and decided to make a film on bibhutibhushan bandyopadhyay' s novel pather panchali .
not to have seen the cinema of ray means existing in the world without seeing the sun or the moon
, said akira kurosawa, the great master of japanese cinema. a collection of excerpts and quotes by well - known film critics, filmmakers and others ...
back in calcutta, writing a review of the film in the journal that his film society published, ray wrote: “for a popular medium, the best kind of inspiration should derive from life and have its roots in it. no amount of technical polish can make up for artificiality of theme and dishonesty of treatment. the indian filmmaker must turn to life, to reality. de sica, and not demille, should be his ideal. ”
they ran out of money, and no one was willing to finance the film. meanwhile, ray had quit his job, spent all his savings on the film (his wife bijoya stood by him while his mother suprabha was extremely sceptical; widowed at a young age, she attached a lot of value to financial security). he even sold his unmatchable collection of music, and cleaned out his uncle subimal ray’s provident fund. but it was still not enough. in the meantime, the girl playing durga had reached puberty and was beginning to look different .
ray met e. b. havell in london, whom he had known as principal of the calcutta school of art, and visited rothenstein' s house. rothenstein suggested to ray that he make colour reproductions of the ajanta caves and indian architecture, influenced by his preoccupations with the india society. ray was good friends with rathindranath, the son of rabindranath tagore .
ray documents the on - stage movements of the famous bharatnatyam dancer balasaraswati and her off - stage life with her friends and family. avoiding much experimentation in filmmaking, ray lets the dancer do all the ‘talking’ through prolonged shots of her performances .
in college, he was suddenly exposed to the art and craft of the film director, as opposed to the charm of the stars, when he read two books on film theory by the great russian director vsevolod pudovkin, who, along with his contemporary sergei eisenstein, developed the technique of montage—using a series of connected images to express a powerful idea. he also chanced upon an issue of sight & sound, the journal published by the british film institute, and became a subscriber .
between 1965–82, ray took on projects of increasing variety, ranging from fantasy to science fiction to detective films to historical drama. ray also made considerable formal experimentation during this period. he expressed contemporary issues of indian life, responding to a perceived lack of these issues in his films. the first major film in this period is nayak (the hero), the story of a screen hero traveling in a train and meeting a young, sympathetic female journalist. starring uttam kumar and sharmila tagore, in the twenty - four hours of the journey, the film explores the inner conflict of the apparently highly successful matinée idol. in spite of the film’s receiving a “critics prize” at the berlin festival, it had a generally muted reception.
sukumar ray is a 1987 bengali short documentary film made by satyajit ray on his father , sukumar ray . it was released during the birth centenary year of sukumar ray , who was born on 30 october 1887 . the thirty minutes documentary features the life and some of the works by sukumar ray in the form of paintings , photographs and readings . this is the last documentary made by satyajit ray as a tribute to his father , before he died in 1992 . the documentary used sukumar ray 's photographs and paintings than video recording as the film was considerably a new medium in india when sukumar ray died in 1923 . 
sukumar ray is a 1987 bengali short documentary film made by satyajit ray on his father, sukumar ray. it was released during the birth centenary year of sukumar ray, who was born on 30 october 1887. the thirty minutes documentary features the life and some of the works by sukumar ray in the form of paintings, photographs and readings. this is the last documentary made by satyajit ray as a tribute to his father, before he died in 1992. the documentary used sukumar ray's photographs and paintings than video recording as the film was considerably a new medium in india when sukumar ray died in 1923.
sukumar ray is a 1987 bengali short documentary film made by satyajit ray on his father, sukumar ray. it was released during the birth centenary year of sukumar ray, who was born on 30 october 1887. the thirty minutes documentary features the life and some of the works by sukumar ray in the form of paintings, photographs and readings. this is the last documentary made by satyajit ray as a tribute to his father, before he died in 1992. the documentary used sukumar ray's photographs and paintings than video recording as the film was considerably a new medium in india when sukumar ray died in 1923.