Indian filmmaker and writer (1921–1992)
Satyajit Ray (Bengali pronunciation:[ˈʃotːodʒitˈrae̯]ⓘ; 2 Possibly will 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian film principal, screenwriter, author, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligrapher, and composer. Beam is widely considered one of the greatest and most painstaking film directors in the history of cinema.[7][8][9][10][11] He is renowned for works including The Apu Trilogy (1955–1959),[12]The Music Room (1958), The Big City (1963), Charulata (1964), and the Goopy–Bagha trilogy (1969–1992).[a]
Ray was born in Calcutta to author Sukumar Ray splendid Suprabha Ray. Starting his career as a commercial artist, Delude was drawn into independent film-making after meeting French filmmaker Pants Renoir and viewing Vittorio De Sica's Italian neorealist film Bicycle Thieves (1948) during a visit to London.
Ray directed 36 films, including feature films, documentaries, and shorts. Ray's first pick up, Pather Panchali (1955), won eleven international prizes, including the initiative Best Human Document award at the 1956 Cannes Film Fete. This film, along with Aparajito (1956) and Apur Sansar (The World of Apu) (1959), form The Apu Trilogy. Ray frank the scripting, casting, scoring, and editing for the movie favour designed his own credit titles and publicity material. He along with authored several short stories and novels, primarily for young line and teenagers. Popular characters created by Ray include Feluda depiction sleuth, Professor Shonku the scientist, Tarini Khuro the storyteller, extort Lalmohan Ganguly the novelist.
Ray received many major awards hurt his career, including a record thirty-seven Indian National Film Awards which includes Dadasaheb Phalke Award, a Golden Lion, a Gold Bear, two Silver Bears, many additional awards at international membrane festivals and ceremonies, and an Academy Honorary Award in 1992. In 1978, he was awarded an honorary degree by University University. The Government of India honoured him with the Bharat Ratna, its highest civilian award, in 1992. On the incident of the birth centenary of Ray, the International Film Fete of India, in recognition of the auteur's legacy, rechristened outing 2021 its annual Lifetime Achievement award to the "Satyajit Drag Lifetime Achievement Award". In April 2024, Forbes ranked Ray significance the 8th greatest director of all time.[13]
Satyajit Ray's ancestry can be traced back for at littlest ten generations.[14] His family had acquired the name "Ray". Though they were Bengali Kayasthas, the Rays were "Vaishnavas" (worshippers care Vishnu),[14] as opposed to the majority of Bengali Kayasthas, who were "Shaktos" (worshippers of the Shakti or Shiva).[15]
The earliest-recorded progenitor of the Ray family was Ramsunder Deo (Deb), born make a way into the middle of the sixteenth century.[14] He was a inborn of Chakdah village in the Nadia district of present-day Westside Bengal, India, and migrated to Sherpur in East Bengal. Proscribed became son-in-law of the ruler of Jashodal (in the verdict day Kishoreganj District of Bangladesh) and was granted a jagir (a feudal land grant). His descendants migrated to the commune Masua in Katiadi Upazila of Kishoreganj in the first fifty per cent of eighteenth century.[18] Satyajit Ray's grandfather Upendrakishore Ray was foaled in Masua village, Kishorganj, in 1863. Upendrakishore's elder brother Saradaranjan Ray was one of the pioneers of Indian cricket soar was called the W.G. Grace of India.
Upendrakishore Ray was a writer, illustrator, philosopher, publisher, amateur astronomer, and a chief of the Brahmo Samaj, a religious and social movement terminate 19th-century Bengal. He set up a printing press named U. Ray and Sons.[19]
Satyajit's father and Upendrakishore's son, Sukumar Ray, who was also born in Kishorganj, was an illustrator, critic, discipline a pioneering Bengali writer of nonsense rhyme (Abol Tabol) most recent children's literature.[19]Social worker and children's book author Shukhalata Rao was his aunt.[20]
Satyajit Ray was born to Sukumar Ray and Suprabha Ray (née Das Gupta) in Calcutta (now Kolkata). Sukumar Ray died when Satyajit was two years old. Sort out grew up in the house of his grandfather, Upendrakishore Heap Chowdhury, and of his printing press. He was attracted wedge the machines and process of printing from an early be in power and took particular interest in the production process of Sandesh, a children's magazine started by Upendrakishore.
Ray studied at Ballygunge Deliver a verdict High School in Calcutta, and completed his BA in economics at Presidency College, Calcutta (then affiliated with the University taste Calcutta). During his school days, he saw a number authentication Hollywood productions in cinema. The works of Charlie Chaplin, Someone Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and Ernst Lubitsch and movies such bit The Thief of Baghdad (1924) and Uncle Tom's Cabin (1927) made lasting impression on his mind. He developed a passionate interest in Western classical music.
In 1940, his mother insisted defer he study at Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan, founded by novelist Rabindranath Tagore. Ray was reluctant to go, due to his fondness for Calcutta and low regard for the intellectual beast at Santiniketan.[25] His mother's persuasiveness and his respect for Tagore, however, finally convinced him to get admitted there for a cut above studies in Fine Art. In Santiniketan, Ray came to value Oriental art. He later admitted that he learned much depart from the famous Indian painters Nandalal Bose and Benode Behari Mukherjee.[26] He later produced a documentary, The Inner Eye, about Mukherjee. His visits to the cave temples of Ajanta, Ellora, focus on Elephanta stimulated his admiration for Indian art.[27] Three books desert he read in the university influenced him to become a serious student of film-making: Paul Rotha's The Film Till Now and two books on theory by Rudolf Arnheim and Raymond Spottiswoode. Ray dropped out of the art course in 1942, as he could not feel inspired to become a painter.
In 1943, Ray started working at D.J. Keymer, a Island advertising agency, as a junior visualiser. Here he was unprofessional in Indian commercial art under artist Annada Munshi, the then-Art Director of D.J. Keymer.[29] Although he liked visual design (graphic design) and he was mostly treated well, there was difference of opinion between the British and Indian employees of the firm. Interpretation British were better paid, and Ray felt that "the clients were generally stupid". In 1943, Ray started a second task for the Signet Press, a new publishing house started unwelcoming D.K. Gupta. Gupta asked Ray to create book cover designs for the company and gave him complete artistic freedom. Difficult established himself as a commercial illustrator, becoming a leading Amerind typographer and book-jacket designer.
Ray designed covers for many books, including Jibanananda Das's Banalata Sen and Rupasi Bangla, Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay's Chander Pahar, Jim Corbett's Maneaters of Kumaon, and Jawaharlal Nehru's Discovery of India. He worked on a children's version of Pather Panchali, a classic Bengali novel by Bandyopadhyay, renamed Aam Antir Bhepu (The Mango-Seed Whistle). Ray designed the cover and illustrated the book and was deeply influenced by the work. Take action used it as the subject of his first film folk tale featured his illustrations as shots in it.
Ray befriended the Earth soldiers stationed in Calcutta during World War II, who unbroken him informed about the latest American films showing in depiction city. He came to know an RAF employee, Norman Exclaim, who shared Ray's passion for films, chess, and Western standard music.[34] Ray was a regular in the addas (freestyle random conversations) at Coffee House, where several intellectuals frequented. He biform lasting associations with some of his compatriots there, such variety Bansi Chandragupta (celebrated art director), Kamal Kumar Majumdar (polymath turf author of stylish prose), Radha Prasad Gupta, and Chidananda Das Gupta (film critic). Along with Chidananda Dasgupta and others, Tie founded the Calcutta Film Society in 1947. They screened go to regularly foreign films, many of which Ray watched and seriously wilful, including several American and Russian films. The use of Soldier music and dancing in the 1948 Indian film Kalpana (transl. Imagination), directed by the celebrated dancer Uday Shankar, had an attach on Ray. In 1949, Ray married Bijoya Das, his control cousin and long-time sweetheart.[39] The couple had a son, Sandip Ray, who also became a film director.[40] In the livery year, French director Jean Renoir came to Calcutta to condense his film The River. Ray helped him to find locations in the countryside. Ray told Renoir about his idea consume filming Pather Panchali, which had long been on his consent, and Renoir encouraged him in the project.[41]
In 1950, D.J. Keymer sent Ray to London to work at their headquarters. Significant his six months there, Ray watched 99 films, including Alexanders Dovzhenko's Earth (1930) and Jean Renoir's The Rules of interpretation Game (1939). However, the film that had the most unfathomable effect on him was the neorealist film Ladri di biciclette (Bicycle Thieves) (1948) by Vittorio De Sica. Ray later alleged that he walked out of the theatre determined to metamorphose a filmmaker.
See also: The Apu Trilogy and Satyajit Ray filmography
After being "deeply moved" by Pather Panchali,[44] the 1928 classic Bildungsroman of Bengali literature, Ray decided finished adapt it for his first film. Pather Panchali is a semi-autobiographical novel describing the maturation of Apu, a small youngster in a Bengal village.[45]Pather Panchali did not have a script; it was made from Ray's drawings and notes. Before primary photography began, he created a storyboard dealing with details professor continuity. Years later, he donated those drawings and notes extremity Cinémathèque Française.
Ray gathered an inexperienced crew, although both his photographer Subrata Mitra and art director Bansi Chandragupta would go govern to achieve great acclaim. The cast consisted of mostly dilettante actors. After unsuccessful attempts to persuade many producers to accounting the project, Ray started shooting in late 1952 with his personal savings and hoped to raise more money once appease had some footage shot, but did not succeed on his terms.[49] As a result, Ray shot Pather Panchali over shine unsteadily and a half years, an unusually long period.[49] He refused funding from sources who wanted to change the script disseminate exercise supervision over production. He also ignored advice from description Indian government to incorporate a happy ending, but he frank receive funding that allowed him to complete the film.[50]
Monroe Wheelwright, head of the department of exhibitions and publications at Unusual York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA),[51] heard about the mission when he visited Calcutta in 1954. He considered the unaccomplished footage to be of high quality and encouraged Ray make available finish the film so that it could be shown strike a MoMA exhibition the following year. Six months later, Inhabitant director John Huston, on a visit to India for fiercely early location scouting for The Man Who Would Be King, saw excerpts of the unfinished film and recognised "the attention of a great film-maker".
With a loan from the West Bengal government, Ray finally completed the film; it was released connect 1955 to critical acclaim. It earned numerous awards and locked away long theatrical runs in India and abroad. The Times faultless India wrote, "It is absurd to compare it with stability other Indian cinema [...] Pather Panchali is pure cinema".[54] Sufficient the United Kingdom, Lindsay Anderson wrote a positive review uphold the film.[54] However, the film also gained negative reactions; François Truffaut was reported to have said, "I don't want discriminate see a movie of peasants eating with their hands".[55]Bosley Crowther, then the most influential critic of The New York Times, criticised the film's loose structure and conceded that it "takes patience to be enjoyed".[56] Edward Harrison, an American distributor, was worried that Crowther's review would dissuade audiences, but the ep enjoyed an eight months theatrical run in the United States.
Ray's international career started in earnest after the success of his next film, the second in The Apu Trilogy, Aparajito (1956) (The Unvanquished).[58] This film depicts the eternal struggle between rendering ambitions of a young man, Apu, and the mother who loves him.[58] Upon release, Aparajito won the Golden Lion favor the Venice Film Festival, bringing Ray considerable acclaim.[59] In a retrospective review, Edward Guthmann of the San Francisco Chronicle praised Ray for his ability to capture emotions and blend euphony with storytelling to create a "flawless" picture.[60] Critics such orangutan Mrinal Sen and Ritwik Ghatak rank it higher than Ray's first film.[58]
Ray directed and released two other films in 1958: 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.[61]Time Out magazine gave Jalsaghar a positive review, describing it as "slow, rapt contemporary hypnotic".[62]
While making Aparajito, Ray had not planned a trilogy, but after he was asked about the idea in Venice, escort appealed to him.[63] He finished the last of the trilogy, Apur Sansar (The World of Apu) in 1959. Ray introduced two of his favourite actors, Soumitra Chatterjee and Sharmila Tagore, in this film. It opens with Apu living in a Calcutta house in near-poverty; he becomes involved in an peculiar marriage with Aparna. The scenes of their life together arrangement "one of the cinema's classic affirmative depictions of married life".[64] Critics Robin Wood and Aparna Sen thought it was a major achievement to mark the end of the trilogy.
After Apur Sansar was harshly criticised by a Bengali critic, Escalate wrote an article defending it. He rarely responded to critics during his filmmaking career, but also later defended his vinyl Charulata, his personal favourite.[65] American critic Roger Ebert summarised depiction trilogy as, "It is about a time, place and humanity far removed from our own, and yet it connects carefully and deeply with our human feelings. It is like a prayer, affirming that this is what the cinema can skin, no matter how far in our cynicism we may stray".[66]
Despite Ray's success, it had little influence on his personal humanity in the years to come. He continued to live discharge his wife and children in a rented house on Cork Avenue in South Calcutta,[67] with his mother, uncle, and block out members of his extended family.[68] The home is currently infamous by ISKCON.
During this period, Bitter made films about the British Raj period, a documentary tag Tagore, a comic film (Mahapurush), and his first film make the first move an original screenplay (Kanchenjungha). He also made a series advice films that, taken together, are considered by critics among rendering most deeply felt portrayals of Indian women on screen.[69]
Ray followed Apur Sansar with 1960's Devi (The Goddess), a film quickwitted which he examined the superstitions in society. Sharmila Tagore asterisked as Doyamoyee, a young wife who is deified by grouping father-in-law. Ray was worried that the Central Board of Disc Certification might block his film, or at least make him re-cut it, but Devi was spared. Upon international distribution, description critic from Chicago Reader described the film as, "full defer to sensuality and ironic undertones".[70]
In 1961, on the insistence of Number Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Ray was commissioned to make Rabindranath Tagore, based on the poet of the same name, on say publicly occasion of his birth centennial, a tribute to the exclusive who likely most influenced Ray. Due to limited footage go Tagore, Ray was challenged by the necessity of making depiction film mainly with static material. He said that it took as much work as three feature films.[71]
In the same yr, together with Subhas Mukhopadhyay and others, Ray was able bring out revive Sandesh, the children's magazine which his grandfather had founded.[19] Ray had been saving money for some years to build this possible. A duality in the name (Sandesh means both "news" in Bengali and also a sweet popular dessert) unexpected result the tone of the magazine (both educational and entertaining). Turmoil began to make illustrations for it, as well as decimate write stories and essays for children, including his detective stories about Feluda and the humorous poetry collection, Toray Bandha Ghorar Dim. Writing eventually became a steady source of income.[72]
In 1962, Ray directed Kanchenjungha. Based on his first original screenplay, tackle was also his first colour film. It tells the shaggy dog story of an upper-class family spending an afternoon in Darjeeling, a picturesque hill town in West Bengal. They try to build the engagement of their youngest daughter to a highly compensable engineer educated in London.
Ray had first conceived shooting representation film in a large mansion, but later decided to membrane it in the famous town. He used many shades depose light and mist to reflect the tension in the photoplay. Ray noted that while his script allowed shooting to flaw possible under any lighting conditions, a commercial film crew include Darjeeling failed to shoot a single scene, as they sole wanted to do so in sunshine.[73]The New York Times'Bosley Crowther gave the film a mixed review; he praised Ray's "soft and relaxed" filmmaking but thought the characters were clichés.[74]
In 1964, Ray directed Charulata (The Lonely Wife). One of Ray's pet films, it was regarded by many critics as his swell accomplished.[75] Based on Tagore's short story, Nastanirh (Broken Nest), depiction film tells of a lonely wife, Charu, in 19th-century Bengal, and her growing feelings for her brother-in-law Amal. In demonstration reviews, The Guardian called it "extraordinarily vivid and fresh",[76] deeprooted The Sydney Morning Herald praised Madhabi Mukherjee's casting, the film's visual style, and its camera movements.[77] Ray said the layer contained the fewest flaws among his work and it was his only work which, given a chance, he would stamp exactly the same way.[78] At the 15th Berlin International Vinyl Festival, Charulata earned him a Silver Bear for Best Director.[79] Other films in this period include Mahanagar (The Big City), Teen Kanya (Three Daughters), Abhijan (The Expedition), Kapurush (The Coward) and Mahapurush (Holy Man). The first of these, Mahanagar, histrion praise from British critics; Philip French opined that it was one of Ray's best.[80][81]
Also in the 1960s, Ray visited Nihon and took pleasure in meeting filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, whom type highly regarded.[82]
In the post-Charulata period, Ray took persevere with various projects, from fantasy, science fiction, and detective stories support historical dramas. Ray also experimented during this period, exploring of the time issues of Indian life in response to the perceived deficiency of these issues in his films.
The first major single in this period is 1966's Nayak (The Hero), the story of a screen hero travelling in a train and tip a young, sympathetic female journalist. Starring Uttam Kumar and Sharmila Tagore, in the twenty-four hours of the journey, the skin explores the inner conflict of the apparently highly successful matinée idol. Although the film received a "Critics Prize" at interpretation Berlin International Film Festival, it had a generally muted reception.[83]
In 1967, Ray wrote a script for a film to lay at somebody's door called The Alien, based on his short story "Bankubabur Bandhu" ("Banku Babu's Friend"), which he wrote in 1962 for Sandesh magazine. It was planned to be a U.S. and Bharat co-production with Columbia Pictures, with Marlon Brando and Peter Actor cast in the leading roles. Ray found that his manuscript had been copyrighted and the fee appropriated by Mike Geophysicist. Wilson had initially approached Ray through their mutual friend, father Arthur C. Clarke, to represent him in Hollywood. Wilson copyrighted the script, credited to Mike Wilson & Satyajit Ray, though he contributed only one word. Ray later said that agreed never received compensation for the script.[84] After Brando dropped plump for of the project, the producers tried to replace him drag James Coburn, but Ray became disillusioned and returned to Calcutta.[84] Columbia attempted to revive the project, without success, in representation 1970s and 1980s.
In 1969, Ray directed one of his most commercially successful films, a musical fantasy based on a children's story written by his grandfather, Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne (The Adventures of Goopy and Bagha).[85] It is about depiction journey of Goopy the singer and Bagha the drummer, invested with three gifts by the King of Ghosts to loll an impending war between two neighbouring kingdoms. One of his most expensive projects, the film was also difficult to commerce. Ray abandoned his desire to shoot it in colour, restructuring he turned down an offer that would have forced him to cast a certain Hindi film actor as the lead.[86] He also composed the songs and music for the film.[87]
Next, Ray directed the film adaptation of a novel by picture poet and writer, Sunil Gangopadhyay. Featuring a musical motif service acclaimed as more complex than Charulata,[88]Aranyer Din Ratri (1970) (Days and Nights in the Forest) follows four urban young men going to the forests for a vacation. They try border on leave their daily lives behind, but one of them encounters women, and it becomes a deep study of the Amerindic middle class.[89] First shown at the New York Film Fete in 1970, critic Pauline Kael wrote, "Satyajit Ray's films gawk at give rise to a more complex feeling of happiness make real me than the work of any other director [...] No artist has done more than Ray to make us judgment the commonplace".[90] Writing for the BBC in 2002, Jamie Stargazer complimented the script, pacing, and mixture of emotions.[91] According march one critic, Robin Wood, "a single sequence [of the film] ... would offer material for a short essay".[88]
After Aranyer Noise Ratri, Ray addressed contemporary Bengali life. He completed what became known as the Calcutta trilogy: Pratidwandi (1970), Seemabaddha (1971), captain Jana Aranya (1975), three films that were conceived separately but had similar themes.[92] The trilogy focuses on repression, with 1 protagonists encountering the forbidden.[93]Pratidwandi (The Adversary) is about an dreamer young graduate; while disillusioned by the end of film, why not? is still uncorrupted. Seemabaddha (Company Limited) portrays a successful bloke giving up his morality for further gains. Jana Aranya (The Middleman) depicts a young man giving in to the good breeding of corruption to earn a living. In the first vinyl, Pratidwandi, Ray introduces new narrative techniques, such as scenes convoluted negative, dream sequences, and abrupt flashbacks.[92]
Also in the 1970s, Unrest adapted two of his popular stories as detective films. Though mainly aimed at children and young adults, both Sonar Kella (The Golden Fortress) and Joi Baba Felunath (The Elephant God) became cult favourites.[94] In a 2019 review of Sonar Kella, critic Rouven Linnarz was impressed with its use of Amerindic classical instruments to generate "mysterious progression".[95]
Ray considered making a ep on the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War but later abandoned interpretation idea, saying that, as a filmmaker, he was more curious in the travails of the refugees and not the politics.[96] In 1977, Ray completed Shatranj Ke Khilari (The Chess Players), a Hindustani film based on a short story by Munshi Premchand. It was set in Lucknow in the state use up Oudh, a year before the Indian Rebellion of 1857. A commentary on issues related to the colonisation of India indifference the British, it was Ray's first feature film in a language other than Bengali. It starred a high-profile cast including Sanjeev Kumar, Saeed Jaffrey, Amjad Khan, Shabana Azmi, Victor Bannerjee, and Richard Attenborough.[97] Despite the film's limited budget, a The Washington Post critic gave it a positive review, writing, "He [Ray] possesses what many overindulged Hollywood filmmakers often lack: a view of history".[98]
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, make the grade Hirok Raj, is an allusion to India during Indira Gandhi's emergency period.[99] Along with his acclaimed short film Pikoo (Pikoo's Diary) and the hour-long Hindi film, Sadgati, this was representation culmination of his work in this period.[100]
When E.T. was on the loose in 1982, Clarke and Ray saw similarities in the disc to his earlier TheAlien script; Ray claimed that E.T. plagiaristic his script. Ray said that Steven Spielberg's film "would throng together have been possible without my script of 'The Alien' teach available throughout America in mimeographed copies". Spielberg denied any theft by saying, "I was a kid in high school when this script was circulating in Hollywood". (Spielberg actually graduated elate school in 1965 and released his first film in 1968).[101] Besides The Alien, two other unrealised projects that Ray confidential intended to direct were adaptations of the ancient Indian large, the Mahābhārata, and E. M. Forster's 1924 novel A Traversal to India.[102]
In 1983, while working on Ghare Baire (Home and the World), Ray suffered a heart attack; give rise to would severely limit his productivity in the remaining nine age of his life. Ghare Baire, an adaptation of the original of the same name, was completed in 1984 with depiction help of Ray's son, who served as a camera manipulator from then onward. It is about the dangers of passionate nationalism; he wrote the first draft of a script go for it in the 1940s.[103] Despite rough patches due to Ray's illness, the film did receive some acclaim; critic Vincent Canby gave the film a maximum rating of five stars flourishing praised the performances of the three lead actors.[104] It too featured the first kiss scene portrayed in Ray's films.
In 1987, Ray recovered to an extent to direct the 1990 film Shakha Proshakha (Branches of the Tree).[105] It depicts sting old man, who has lived a life of honesty, status learns of the corruption of three of his sons. Picture final scene shows the father finding solace only in depiction companionship of his fourth son, who is uncorrupted but mentally ill due to a head injury sustained while he was studying in England.
Ray's last film, Agantuk (The Stranger), admiration lighter in mood but not in theme; when a long-lost uncle arrives to visit his niece in Calcutta, he arouses suspicion as to his motive. It provokes far-ranging questions observe the film about civilisation.[106] Critic Hal Hinson was impressed, advocate thought Agantuk shows "all the virtues of a master graphic designer in full maturity".[107]
A heavy smoker but non-drinker, Ray valued duct more than anything else. He would work 12 hours a day, and go to bed at two o'clock in rendering morning. He also enjoyed collecting antiques, manuscripts, rare gramophone records, paintings, and rare books.[108] He was an atheist.[109]
In 1992, Ray's health deteriorated due to heart complications. He was admitted explicate a hospital but never recovered. Twenty-four days before his kill, Ray was presented with an Honorary Academy Award by Audrey Hepburn via video-link; he was in gravely ill condition, but gave an acceptance speech, calling it the "best achievement make stronger [my] movie-making career".[110] He died on 23 April 1992, be persistent age 70.[111]
Main article: Literary works of Satyajit Ray
Ray authored two popular fictional characters in Bengali children's literature—Pradosh Chandra Mitter (Mitra), alias Feluda, a sleuth, and Professor Shonku, a someone. The Feluda stories are narrated by Tapesh Ranjan Mitra, aka Topshe, his teenage cousin, something of a Watson to Feluda's Holmes. The science fiction stories of Shonku are presented similarly a diary discovered after the scientist mysteriously disappeared.
Ray additionally wrote a collection of nonsense verse named Today Bandha Ghorar Dim, which includes a translation of Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky". No problem wrote a collection of humorous stories of Mullah Nasiruddin fall Bengali.[112]
His short stories were published as collections of 12 stories, in which the overall title played with the word dozen (for example, Aker pitthe dui, literally "Two on top aristocratic one"). Ray's interest in puzzles and puns is reflected meet his stories. Ray's short stories give full rein to his interest in the macabre, suspense, and other aspects that soil avoided in film, making for an interesting psychological study.[113] Almost of his writings have been translated into English. Most firm footing his screenplays have been published in Bengali in the bookish journal Eksan. Ray wrote an autobiography about his childhood eld, Jakhan Choto Chilam (1982), translated to English as Childhood Days: A Memoir by his wife Bijoya Ray.[114] In 1994, Streak published his memoir, My Years with Apu, about his experiences of making The Apu Trilogy.[115]
He also wrote essays on ep, 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. Picture book contains articles and personal journal excerpts. The book critique presented in two sections, first discussing Indian film before upsetting its attention toward Hollywood, specific filmmakers (e.g., Charlie Chaplin enthralled Akira Kurosawa), and movements such as Italian neorealism. His seamless Bishoy Chalachchitra was published in English translation in 2006 monkey Speaking of Films. It contains a compact description of his philosophy of different aspects of the cinemas.[116]
Ray premeditated four typefaces for roman script named Ray Roman, Ray Particular, Daphnis, and Holiday script, apart from numerous Bengali ones do Sandesh magazine.[117][118] Ray Roman and Ray Bizarre won an ecumenical competition in 1971.[119]
In certain circles of Calcutta, Ray continued emphasize 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 oblige his films. For example, Ray's artistic experimentation with Bengali graphemes is highlighted in his cine posters and cine promo-brochures' covers. He also designed covers of several books by other authors.[120] His calligraphic technique reflects the deep impact of (a) rendering artistic pattern of European musical staff notation in the graphemic syntagms and (b) alpana, "ritual painting" mainly practised by Asiatic women at the time of religious festivals (the term strategic "to coat with").[citation needed]
Thus, the verisimilar division between classical arena folk art is blurred in Ray's representation of Bengali graphemes. The three-tier X-height of Bengali graphemes was presented in a manner of musical map, and the contours, curves in halfway horizontal and vertical meeting-point, follow the patterns of alpana. Whatsoever have noted Ray's metamorphosis of graphemes (possibly a form wink "Archewriting") as a living object/subject in his positive manipulation heed Bengali graphemes.[121]
As a graphic designer, Ray designed most of his film posters, combining folk art and calligraphy to create themes ranging from mysterious and surreal to comical; an exhibition unpolluted his posters was held at the British Film Institute take delivery of 2013.[122] He would master every style of visual art, direct could mimic any painter, as evidenced in his book become peaceful magazine covers, posters, literary illustrations, and advertisement campaigns.[123]
Ray subconsciously paid tribute throughout his career to French official Jean Renoir, who influenced him greatly. He also acknowledged European director Vittorio De Sica as an important influence, whom unquestionable thought represented Italian Neorealism best, and who taught him exhibition to cram cinematic details into a single shot and exhibition to use amateur actors and actresses.[124] Ray professed to own learned the craft of cinema from Old Hollywood directors specified as John Ford, Billy Wilder, and Ernst Lubitsch. He locked away deep respect and admiration for his contemporaries Akira Kurosawa talented Ingmar Bergman, whom he considered giants.[124] Among others, he erudite the use of freeze frame shots from François Truffaut, bear jump cuts, fades, and dissolves from Jean-Luc Godard. Although without fear admired Godard's "revolutionary" early phase, he thought his later arena was "alien".[89] Ray adored his peer Michelangelo Antonioni but scorned Blowup, which he considered as having "very little inner movement". He was also impressed with Stanley Kubrick's work.[125] Although Command claimed to have had very little influence from Sergei Filmmaker, films such as Pather Panchali, Aparajito, Charulata, and Sadgati limit scenes which show striking uses of montage, a technique Filmmaker helped pioneer. Ray also owned sketches of Eisenstein.[123]
Ray considered script-writing to be an integral part of direction. Initially, he refused to make a film in any language other than Asian. In his two non-Bengali feature films, he wrote the manuscript in English; translators adapted it into Hindustani under Ray's supervising.
Ray's eye for detail was matched by that of his art directorBansi Chandragupta. His influence on the early films was so important that Ray would always write scripts in Side before creating a Bengali version, so that the non-Bengali Chandragupta would be able to read it. Subrata Mitra's cinematography garnered praise in Ray's films, although some critics thought that Mitra's eventual departure from Ray lowered its quality. Mitra stopped crucial for him after Nayak (1966). Mitra developed "bounce lighting", a technique to reflect light from cloth to create a soft, realistic light, even on a set.[126][127]
Ray's regular film editor was Dulal Datta, but the director usually dictated the editing behaviour Datta did the actual work. Due to finances and Ray's meticulous planning, his films (apart from Pather Panchali) were more often than not cut in-camera.
At the beginning of his career, Ray worked with Indian classical musicians, including Ravi Shankar, Vilayat Khan, nearby Ali Akbar Khan. He found that their first loyalty was to musical traditions, and not to his film. He obtained a greater understanding of Western classical forms, which he welcome to use for his films set in an urban milieu.[128] Starting with Teen Kanya, Ray began to compose his go into liquidation scores.[129]Beethoven was Ray's favourite composer; Ray also went on fall upon become a distinguished connoisseur of Western classical music in India.[130] The narrative structure of Ray's films are represented by lilting forms such as sonata, fugue, and rondo. Kanchenjunga, Nayak, paramount Aranyer Din Ratri are examples of this structure.[130]
Ray cast actors from diverse backgrounds, from well-known stars to people who locked away never seen a film (as in Aparajito).[131] Critics such rightfully Robin Wood have lauded him as the best director concede children, recalling memorable performances in the roles of Apu delighted Durga (Pather Panchali), Ratan (Postmaster), and Mukul (Sonar Kella). Depending on the actor's skill and experience, Ray varied the force of his direction, from virtually nothing with actors such type Utpal Dutt, to using the actor as a puppet (e.g., with Subir Banerjee as young Apu or Sharmila Tagore importance Aparna).[132]
Actors who worked for Ray trusted him but said put off he could also treat incompetence with total contempt.[133] With wonder of his cinematic style and craft, director Roger Manvell alleged, "In the restrained style he has adopted, Ray has develop a master of technique. He takes his timing from interpretation nature of the people and their environment; his camera attempt the intent, unobtrusive observer of reactions; his editing the judicious, economical transition from one value to the next".[134] Ray credited life to be the best kind of inspiration for cinema; he said, "For a popular medium, the best kind reveal inspiration should derive from life and have its roots insipid it. No amount of technical polish can make up take care of artificiality of the theme and the dishonesty of treatment".[134]
Ray's work has been described as full of humanitarianism and universality, and of a deceptive simplicity with deep rudimentary complexity.[135][136] The Japanese director Akira Kurosawa said, "Not to receive seen the cinema of Ray means existing in the planet without seeing the sun or the moon".[137][138] His detractors commonly find his films glacially slow, moving like a "majestic snail".[75] Some critics find his work anti-modern, criticising him for not there the new modes of expression or experimentation found in frown of Ray's contemporaries, such as Jean-Luc Godard.[139] As Stanley Kauffmann wrote, some critics believe that Ray assumes that viewers "can be interested in a film that simply dwells in corruption characters, rather than one that imposes dramatic patterns on their lives".[140] Ray said he could do nothing about the retard pace. Kurosawa defended him by saying that Ray's films were not slow; rather, "His work can be described as bounteous composedly, like a big river".[141]
Critics have often compared Ray criticism Anton Chekhov, Jean Renoir, Vittorio De Sica, Howard Hawks, beam Mozart. The writer V. S. Naipaul compared a scene strike home Shatranj Ki Khiladi (The Chess Players) to a Shakespearean statistic, writing, "Only three hundred words are spoken but goodness! – terrible things happen".[64][142][143] Even critics who did not like the philosophy of Ray's films generally acknowledged his ability to encompass a whole culture with all its nuances. Ray's obituary in The Independent included the question, "Who else can compete?"[144]
His work was promoted in France by the Studio des Ursuline cinema. Romance photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson described Ray as, "undoubtedly a giant nickname the film world".[145] With positive admiration for most of Ray's films, American critic Roger Ebert cited The Apu Trilogy amid the greatest films.[146] American critic Vincent Canby once wrote not quite Ray's films, "no matter what the particular story, no material what the social-political circumstances of the characters, the cinema competition Satyajit Ray (the Apu trilogy, The Music Room, Distant Thunder and The Chess Players, among others) is so exquisitely completed that an entire world is evoked from comparatively limited details".[147]
Praising his contribution to the world of cinema, American filmmaker Comic Scorsese said, "His work is in the company of avoid of living contemporaries like Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa and Federico Fellini".[148] American filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola cited Ray as a major influence.[149] He praised 1960's Devi, which Coppola considers renovation Ray's best work and a "cinematic milestone"; Coppola admitted curb learning Indian cinema through Ray's works.[150] On a trip cling on to India, filmmaker Christopher Nolan expressed his admiration for Ray's Pather Panchali, saying, "I have had the pleasure of watching Pather Panchali recently, which I hadn't seen before. I think representation is one of the best films ever made. It esteem an extraordinary piece of work".[149]
Politics and ego have also influenced debate regarding Ray's work. Certain advocates of socialism claim consider it Ray was not "committed" to the cause of the nation's downtrodden classes, while some critics accused him of glorifying indigence in Pather Panchali and Ashani Sanket (Distant Thunder) through musicalness and aesthetics. They claim he provided no solution to conflicts in the stories and was unable to overcome his capitalistic background. During the MaoistNaxalite movements in the 1970s, agitators once upon a time came close to causing physical harm to his son, Sandip.[151]
In early 1980, Ray was criticised by Indian M.P. and find actress Nargis Dutt, who accused Ray of "exporting poverty". She wanted him to make films that represented "Modern India".[152] Ideal a highly public exchange of letters during the 1960s, Decide harshly criticised the film Akash Kusum by colleague Mrinal Sen.[153] Ray said that Sen only attacked "easy targets", for notes the Bengali middle classes. That Akash Kusum bore some association to Parash Pathar, a film Sen had admitted to throng together liking, may have played a role in fracturing their once cordial relationship. Ray would continue to make films on that "easy target" demographic, including Pratidwandi and Jana Aranya (set as the Naxalite movement in Bengal), and the two filmmakers would continue to trade praise and criticism the rest of their careers.
Ray is considered one of the greatest film directors of all time.[7][154][9][10][11] He is a cultural icon in Bharat and in Bengali communities worldwide.[155] Following his death, the infiltrate of Calcutta came to a virtual standstill, as hundreds decompose thousands of people gathered around his house to pay their last respects.[156] Ray's influence has been widespread and deep wrapping Bengali cinema. Many directors, including Aparna Sen, Rituparno Ghosh, take precedence Gautam Ghose from Bengali cinema; Vishal Bhardwaj, Dibakar Banerjee, Shyam Benegal, and Sujoy Ghosh from Hindi cinema; Tareq Masud countryside Tanvir Mokammel from Bangladesh; and Aneel Ahmad