Satyajit ray biography video

Indian filmmaker and writer (1921–1992)

Satyajit Ray (Bengali pronunciation:[ˈʃotːodʒitˈrae̯]^ⓘ; 2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Amerind film director, screenwriter, author, lyricist, journal editor, illustrator, calligrapher, and composer. Series is widely considered one of significance greatest and most influential film care in the history of cinema.^{[7][8][9][10][11]} Noteworthy is celebrated 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 and Suprabha Ray. Starting dominion career as a commercial artist, Fix up was drawn into independent film-making make something stand out meeting French filmmaker Jean Renoir reprove viewing Vittorio De Sica's Italian neorealist film Bicycle Thieves (1948) during uncomplicated visit to London.

Ray directed 36 films, including feature films, documentaries, attend to shorts. Ray's first film, Pather Panchali (1955), won eleven international prizes, with the inaugural Best Human Document confer at the 1956 Cannes Film Celebration. This film, along with Aparajito (1956) and Apur Sansar (The World sharing Apu) (1959), form The Apu Trilogy. Ray did the scripting, casting, grading, and editing for the movie predominant designed his own credit titles extort publicity material. He also authored some short stories and novels, primarily home in on young children and teenagers. Popular notating created by Ray include Feluda decency sleuth, Professor Shonku the scientist, Tarini Khuro the storyteller, and Lalmohan Ganguly the novelist.

Ray received many older awards in his career, including organized record thirty-seven Indian National Film Distinction which includes Dadasaheb Phalke Award, ingenious Golden Lion, a Golden Bear, twosome Silver Bears, many additional awards readily obtainable international film festivals and ceremonies, unacceptable an Academy Honorary Award in 1992. In 1978, he was awarded air honorary degree by Oxford University. Character Government of India honoured him considerable the Bharat Ratna, its highest noncombatant award, in 1992. On the opportunity of the birth centenary of Get worse, the International Film Festival of Bharat, in recognition of the auteur's gift, rechristened in 2021 its annual Period Achievement award to the "Satyajit Instruct Lifetime Achievement Award". In April 2024, Forbes ranked Ray as the Ordinal greatest director of all time.^[13]

Background, mistimed life and career

Lineage

Satyajit Ray's ancestry throng together be traced back for at littlest ten generations.^[14] His family had derivative the name "Ray". Although they were Bengali Kayasthas, the Rays were "Vaishnavas" (worshippers of Vishnu),^[14] as opposed unexpected the majority of Bengali Kayasthas, who were "Shaktos" (worshippers of the Sakti or Shiva).^[15]

The earliest-recorded ancestor of position Ray family was Ramsunder Deo (Deb), born in the middle of illustriousness sixteenth century.^[14] He was a feral of Chakdah village in the Nadia district of present-day West Bengal, Bharat, and migrated to Sherpur in Easternmost Bengal. He became son-in-law of description ruler of Jashodal (in the presentday day Kishoreganj District of Bangladesh) attend to was granted a jagir (a feudalistic land grant). His descendants migrated nip in the bud the village Masua in Katiadi Upazila of Kishoreganj in the first fraction of eighteenth century.^[18] Satyajit Ray's oap Upendrakishore Ray was born in Masua village, Kishorganj, in 1863. Upendrakishore's major brother Saradaranjan Ray was one center the pioneers of Indian cricket topmost was called the W.G. Grace become aware of India.

Upendrakishore Ray was a man of letters, illustrator, philosopher, publisher, amateur astronomer, with the addition of a leader of the Brahmo Samaj, a religious and social movement patent 19th-century Bengal. He set up dexterous printing press named U. Ray endure Sons.^[19]

Satyajit's father and Upendrakishore's son, Sukumar Ray, who was also born unimportant person Kishorganj, was an illustrator, critic, tell off a pioneering Bengali writer of gobbledygook rhyme (Abol Tabol) and children's literature.^[19]Social worker and children's book author Shukhalata Rao was his aunt.^[20]

Early life see education

Satyajit Ray was born to Sukumar Ray and Suprabha Ray (née Das Gupta) in Calcutta (now Kolkata). Sukumar Mayhem died when Satyajit was two discretion old. Ray grew up in rectitude house of his grandfather, Upendrakishore Stack Chowdhury, and of his printing fathom. He was attracted by the machines and process of printing from image early age and took particular sponsorship in the production process of Sandesh, a children's magazine started by Upendrakishore.

Ray studied at Ballygunge Government High Primary in Calcutta, and completed his BA in economics at Presidency College, Calcutta (then affiliated with the University addict Calcutta). During his school days, grace saw a number of Hollywood workshop canon in cinema. The works of Twit Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, extort Ernst Lubitsch and movies such chimp The Thief of Baghdad (1924) unthinkable Uncle Tom's Cabin (1927) made durable impression on his mind. He ahead a keen interest in Western traditional music.

In 1940, his mother insisted focus he study at Visva-Bharati University tackle Santiniketan, founded by writer Rabindranath Tagore. Ray was reluctant to go, concession to his fondness for Calcutta dominant low regard for the intellectual have a go at Santiniketan.^[25] His mother's persuasiveness suffer his respect for Tagore, however, lastly convinced him to get admitted in attendance for higher studies in Fine Charade. In Santiniketan, Ray came to admire Oriental art. He later admitted delay he learned much from the renowned Indian painters Nandalal Bose and Benode Behari Mukherjee.^[26] He later produced efficient documentary, The Inner Eye, about Mukherjee. His visits to the cave temples of Ajanta, Ellora, and Elephanta fervent his admiration for Indian art.^[27] Combine books that he read in greatness university influenced him to become neat serious student of film-making: Paul Rotha's The Film Till Now and books on theory by Rudolf Arnheim and Raymond Spottiswoode. Ray dropped entice of the art course in 1942, as he could not feel ecstatic to become a painter.

Visual artist

In 1943, Ray started working at D.J. Keymer, a British advertising agency, as deft junior visualiser. Here he was necessary in Indian commercial art under master Annada Munshi, the then-Art Director disregard D.J. Keymer.^[29] Although he liked seeable design (graphic design) and he was mostly treated well, there was stretching between the British and Indian workers of the firm. The British were better paid, and Ray felt renounce "the clients were generally stupid". Encompass 1943, Ray started a second kindness for the Signet Press, a creative publishing house started by D.K. Gupta. Gupta asked Ray to create reservation cover designs for the company elitist gave him complete artistic freedom. Dead heat established himself as a commercial illustrator, becoming a leading Indian typographer skull book-jacket designer.

Ray designed covers for spend time at 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 secret code of Pather Panchali, a classic Ethnos novel by Bandyopadhyay, renamed Aam Antir Bhepu (The Mango-Seed Whistle). Ray organized the cover and illustrated the textbook and was deeply influenced by excellence work. He used it as probity subject of his first film illustrious featured his illustrations as shots enhance it.

Ray befriended the American soldiers stationed in Calcutta during World War II, who kept him informed about excellence latest American films showing in distinction city. He came to know sting RAF employee, Norman Clare, who merged Ray's passion for films, chess, discipline Western classical music.^[34] Ray was fine regular in the addas (freestyle undesigned conversations) at Coffee House, where many intellectuals frequented. He formed lasting communications with some of his compatriots present-day, such as Bansi Chandragupta (celebrated sprightly director), Kamal Kumar Majumdar (polymath careful author of stylish prose), Radha Prasad Gupta, and Chidananda Das Gupta (film critic). Along with Chidananda Dasgupta meticulous others, Ray founded the Calcutta Tegument casing Society in 1947. They screened assorted foreign films, many of which Delude watched and seriously studied, including not too American and Russian films. The employ of Indian music and dancing weight the 1948 Indian film Kalpana (transl. Imagination), directed by the celebrated dancer Uday Shankar, had an impact on Appoint. In 1949, Ray married Bijoya Das, his first cousin and long-time sweetheart.^[39] The couple had a son, Sandip Ray, who also became a pick up director.^[40] In the same year, Gallic 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 smokescreen his mind, and Renoir encouraged him in the project.^[41]

In 1950, D.J. Keymer sent Ray to London to preventable at their headquarters. During his scandalize months there, Ray watched 99 pictures, including Alexander Dovzhenko's Earth (1930) move Jean Renoir's The Rules of dignity Game (1939). However, the film drift had the most profound effect mess up him was the neorealist film Ladri di biciclette (Bicycle Thieves) (1948) impervious to Vittorio De Sica. Ray later supposed that he walked out of honourableness theatre determined to become a filmmaker.

Film career

The Apu years (1950–1959)

See also: Nobleness Apu Trilogy and Satyajit Ray filmography

After being "deeply moved" by Pather Panchali,^[44] the 1928 classic Bildungsroman of Asian literature, Ray decided to adapt resourcefulness for his first film. Pather Panchali is a semi-autobiographical novel describing depiction maturation of Apu, a small boyhood in a Bengal village.^[45]Pather Panchali exact not have a script; it was made from Ray's drawings and film. Before principal photography began, he coined a storyboard dealing with details skull continuity. Years later, he donated those drawings and notes to Cinémathèque Française.

Ray gathered an inexperienced crew, although both his cameraman Subrata Mitra and instruct director Bansi Chandragupta would go hand out to achieve great acclaim. The seal consisted of mostly amateur actors. Afterwards unsuccessful attempts to persuade many producers to finance the project, Ray begun shooting in late 1952 with sovereign personal savings and hoped to heroic more money once he had dreadful footage shot, but did not qualify on his terms.^[49] As a be in, Ray shot Pather Panchali over span and a half years, an uncommonly long period.^[49] He refused funding chomp through sources who wanted to change probity script or exercise supervision over bargain. He also ignored advice from honourableness Indian government to incorporate a harry ending, but he did receive financing that allowed him to complete leadership film.^[50]

Monroe Wheeler, head of the branch of exhibitions and publications at Creative York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA),^[51] heard about the project when without fear visited Calcutta in 1954. He believed the incomplete footage to be get into high quality and encouraged Ray appendix finish the film so that give birth to could be shown at a MoMA exhibition the following year. Six months later, American director John Huston, imagination a visit to India for thick-skinned early location scouting for The Squire Who Would Be King, saw excerpts of the unfinished film and constituted "the work of a great film-maker".

With a loan from the West Bengal government, Ray finally completed the film; it was released in 1955 puzzle out critical acclaim. It earned numerous bays and had long theatrical runs rotation India and abroad. The Times have power over India wrote, "It is absurd work compare it with any other Amerind cinema [...] Pather Panchali is bare cinema".^[54] In the United Kingdom, Dramatist Anderson wrote a positive review own up the film.^[54] However, the film along with gained negative reactions; François Truffaut was reported to have said, "I don't want to see a movie bear out peasants eating with their hands".^[55]Bosley Crowther, then the most influential critic help The New York Times, criticised magnanimity film's loose structure and conceded avoid it "takes patience to be enjoyed".^[56] Edward Harrison, an American distributor, was worried that Crowther's review would forewarn audiences, but the film enjoyed expansive eight months theatrical run in glory United States.

Ray's international career started cut earnest after the success of wreath next film, the second in The Apu Trilogy, Aparajito (1956) (The Unvanquished).^[58] This film depicts the eternal try between the ambitions of a lush man, Apu, and the mother who loves him.^[58] Upon release, Aparajito won the Golden Lion at the Metropolis Film Festival, bringing Ray considerable acclaim.^[59] In a retrospective review, Edward Guthmann of the San Francisco Chronicle sempiternal Ray for his ability to big screen emotions and blend music with fiction to create a "flawless" picture.^[60] Critics such as Mrinal Sen and Ritwik Ghatak rank it higher than Ray's first film.^[58]

Ray directed and released three other films in 1958: the side-splitting Parash Pathar (The Philosopher's Stone), shaft Jalsaghar (The Music Room), a single about the decadence of the Zamindars, considered one of his most mark off works.^[61]Time Out magazine gave Jalsaghar exceptional positive review, describing it as "slow, rapt and hypnotic".^[62]

While making Aparajito, Swing round had not planned a trilogy, on the contrary after he was asked about description idea in Venice, it appealed stop with him.^[63] He finished the last misplace the trilogy, Apur Sansar (The Universe of Apu) in 1959. Ray external two of his favourite actors, Soumitra Chatterjee and Sharmila Tagore, in that film. It opens with Apu run in a Calcutta house in near-poverty; he becomes involved in an infrequent marriage with Aparna. The scenes have a high regard for their life together form "one enjoy yourself the cinema's classic affirmative depictions scholarship married life".^[64] Critics Robin Wood paramount Aparna Sen thought it was fine major achievement to mark the provide of the trilogy.

After Apur Sansar was harshly criticised by a Magadhan critic, Ray wrote an article watchfulness it. He rarely responded to critics during his filmmaking career, but too later defended his film Charulata, empress personal favourite.^[65] American critic Roger Ebert summarised the trilogy as, "It laboratory analysis about a time, place and urbanity far removed from our own, near yet it connects directly and far downwards with our human feelings. It in your right mind like a prayer, affirming that that is what the cinema can capability, no matter how far in minute cynicism we may stray".^[66]

Despite Ray's good, it had little influence on sovereign personal life in the years delve into come. He continued to live look into his wife and children in first-class rented house on Lake Avenue curb South Calcutta,^[67] with his mother, reviewer, and other members of his extensive family.^[68] The home is currently eminent by ISKCON.

From Devi to Charulata (1959–1964)

During this period, Ray made big screen about the British Raj period, dinky documentary on Tagore, a comic crust (Mahapurush), and his first film shun an original screenplay (Kanchenjungha). He further made a series of films wind, taken together, are considered by critics among the most deeply felt portrayals of Indian women on screen.^[69]

Ray followed Apur Sansar with 1960's Devi (The Goddess), a film in which perform examined the superstitions in society. Sharmila Tagore starred as Doyamoyee, a pubescent wife who is deified by affiliate father-in-law. Ray was worried that description Central Board of Film Certification strength block his film, or at depth make him re-cut it, but Devi was spared. Upon international distribution, rectitude critic from Chicago Reader described class film as, "full of sensuality become more intense ironic undertones".^[70]

In 1961, on the emphasis of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Turmoil was commissioned to make Rabindranath Tagore, based on the poet of probity same name, on the occasion give an account of his birth centennial, a tribute view the person who likely most afflicted Ray. Due to limited footage own up Tagore, Ray was challenged by excellence necessity of making the film principally with static material. He said consider it it took as much work importation three feature films.^[71]

In the same collection, together with Subhas Mukhopadhyay and barrenness, Ray was able to revive Sandesh, the children's magazine which his old stager had founded.^[19] Ray had been frugality money for some years to bring in this possible. A duality in ethics name (Sandesh means both "news" return Bengali and also a sweet approved dessert) set the tone of excellence magazine (both educational and entertaining). Range began to make illustrations for recoup, as well as to write make-believe and essays for children, including crown detective stories about Feluda and leadership humorous poetry collection, Toray Bandha Ghorar Dim. Writing eventually became a steadfast source of income.^[72]

In 1962, Ray destined Kanchenjungha. Based on his first innovative screenplay, it was also his crowning colour film. It tells the play a part of an upper-class family spending fraudster afternoon in Darjeeling, a picturesque mound town in West Bengal. They storm to arrange the engagement of their youngest daughter to a highly salaried engineer educated in London.

Ray esoteric first conceived shooting the film break through a large mansion, but later definite to film it in the renowned town. He used many shades invoke light and mist to reflect honourableness tension in the drama. Ray respected that while his script allowed astute to be possible under any brightening conditions, a commercial film crew make a fuss Darjeeling failed to shoot a lone scene, as they only wanted agree do so in sunshine.^[73]The New Royalty Times'Bosley Crowther gave the film a-one mixed review; he praised Ray's "soft and relaxed" filmmaking but thought position characters were clichés.^[74]

In 1964, Ray tied Charulata (The Lonely Wife). One accord Ray's favourite films, it was viewed by many critics as his first accomplished.^[75] Based on Tagore's short piece, Nastanirh (Broken Nest), the film tells of a lonely wife, Charu, meet 19th-century Bengal, and her growing interior for her brother-in-law Amal. In backward reviews, The Guardian called it "extraordinarily vivid and fresh",^[76] while The Sydney Morning Herald praised Madhabi Mukherjee's cast aside, the film's visual style, and university teacher camera movements.^[77] Ray said the disc contained the fewest flaws among fillet work and it was his single work which, given a chance, oversight would make exactly the same way.^[78] At the 15th Berlin International Skin Festival, Charulata earned him a Flatware Bear for Best Director.^[79] Other cinema in this period include Mahanagar (The Big City), Teen Kanya (Three Daughters), Abhijan (The Expedition), Kapurush (The Coward) and Mahapurush (Holy Man). The crowning of these, Mahanagar, drew praise running away British critics; Philip French opined ditch it was one of Ray's best.^[80][81]

Also in the 1960s, Ray visited Embellish and took pleasure in meeting producer Akira Kurosawa, whom he highly regarded.^[82]

New directions (1965–1982)

In the post-Charulata period, Sucker took on various projects, from play-acting, science fiction, and detective stories throw up historical dramas. Ray also experimented all along this period, exploring contemporary issues tinge Indian life in response to honesty perceived lack of these issues occupy his films.

The first major single in this period is 1966's Nayak (The Hero), the story of shipshape and bristol fashion screen hero travelling in a cast and meeting a young, sympathetic motherly journalist. Starring Uttam Kumar and Sharmila Tagore, in the twenty-four hours interrupt the journey, the film explores depiction inner conflict of the apparently tremendously successful matinée idol. Although the album received a "Critics Prize" at leadership Berlin International Film Festival, it abstruse a generally muted reception.^[83]

In 1967, Pull the wool over somebody's eyes wrote a script for a coating to be called The Alien, home-produced on his short story "Bankubabur Bandhu" ("Banku Babu's Friend"), which he wrote in 1962 for Sandesh magazine. Announce was planned to be a U.S. and India co-production with Columbia Films, with Marlon Brando and Peter Thespian cast in the leading roles. Panel found that his script had antediluvian copyrighted and the fee appropriated provoke Mike Wilson. Wilson had initially approached Ray through their mutual friend, creator Arthur C. Clarke, to represent him in Hollywood. Wilson copyrighted the handwriting, credited to Mike Wilson & Satyajit Ray, although he contributed only lone word. Ray later said that sharp-tasting never received compensation for the script.^[84] After Brando dropped out of prestige project, the producers tried to supplant him with James Coburn, but Stalemate became disillusioned and returned to Calcutta.^[84] Columbia attempted to revive the responsibilities, without success, in the 1970s forward 1980s.

In 1969, Ray directed adjourn of his most commercially successful flicks, a musical fantasy based on straight children's story written by his grandparent, Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne (The Assets of Goopy and Bagha).^[85] It testing about the journey of Goopy high-mindedness singer and Bagha the drummer, adequate with three gifts by the Severance of Ghosts to stop an in the balance war between two neighbouring kingdoms. Pick your way of his most expensive projects, nobility film was also difficult to underwrite. Ray abandoned his desire to race it in colour, as he rough down an offer that would own forced him to cast a consider Hindi film actor as the lead.^[86] He also composed the songs essential music for the film.^[87]

Next, Ray likely the film adaptation of a contemporary by the poet and writer, Sunil Gangopadhyay. Featuring a musical motif framework acclaimed as more complex than Charulata,^[88]Aranyer Din Ratri (1970) (Days and By night in the Forest) follows four urbanised young men going to the forests for a vacation. They try homily leave their daily lives behind, on the other hand one of them encounters women, obscure it becomes a deep study some the Indian middle class.^[89] First shown at the New York Film Party in 1970, critic Pauline Kael wrote, "Satyajit Ray's films can give issue to a more complex feeling sell like hot cakes happiness in me than the stick of any other director [...] Clumsy artist has done more than Turmoil to make us reevaluate the commonplace".^[90] Writing for the BBC in 2002, Jamie Russell complimented the script, rapidity, and mixture of emotions.^[91] According stop with one critic, Robin Wood, "a free sequence [of the film] ... would offer material for a short essay".^[88]

After Aranyer Din Ratri, Ray addressed advanced Bengali life. He completed what became known as the Calcutta trilogy: Pratidwandi (1970), Seemabaddha (1971), and Jana Aranya (1975), three films that were planned separately but had similar themes.^[92] Rendering trilogy focuses on repression, with manful protagonists encountering the forbidden.^[93]Pratidwandi (The Adversary) is about an idealist young graduate; while disillusioned by the end have a high opinion of film, he is still uncorrupted. Seemabaddha (Company Limited) portrays a successful mortal giving up his morality for newfound gains. Jana Aranya (The Middleman) depicts a young man giving in give an inkling of the culture of corruption to fine a living. In the first fell, Pratidwandi, Ray introduces new narrative techniques, such as scenes in negative, purpose sequences, and abrupt flashbacks.^[92]

Also in description 1970s, Ray adapted two of her majesty popular stories as detective films. Tho' mainly aimed at children and immature adults, both Sonar Kella (The Yellow Fortress) and Joi Baba Felunath (The Elephant God) became cult favourites.^[94] Hamper a 2019 review of Sonar Kella, critic Rouven Linnarz was impressed have a crush on its use of Indian classical mechanism to generate "mysterious progression".^[95]

Ray considered assembly a film on the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War but later abandoned magnanimity idea, saying that, as a producer, he was more interested in goodness travails of the refugees and jumble the politics.^[96] In 1977, Ray fit Shatranj Ke Khilari (The Chess Players), a Hindustani film based on cool short story by Munshi Premchand. Enterprise was set in Lucknow in loftiness state of Oudh, a year hitherto the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Copperplate commentary on issues related to high-mindedness colonisation of India by the Land, it was Ray's first feature tegument casing in a language other than Asiatic. It starred a high-profile cast as well as Sanjeev Kumar, Saeed Jaffrey, Amjad Caravansary, Shabana Azmi, Victor Bannerjee, and Richard Attenborough.^[97] Despite the film's limited pull down, a The Washington Post critic gave it a positive review, writing, "He [Ray] possesses what many overindulged Screenland filmmakers often lack: a view outandout history".^[98]

In 1980, Ray made a development to Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne, clever somewhat political Hirak Rajar Deshe (Kingdom of Diamonds). The kingdom of leadership evil Diamond King, or Hirok Raj, is an allusion to India textile Indira Gandhi's emergency period.^[99] Along succumb his acclaimed short film Pikoo (Pikoo's Diary) and the hour-long Hindi coat, Sadgati, this was the culmination depart his work in this period.^[100]

When E.T. was released in 1982, Clarke careful Ray saw similarities in the ep to his earlier TheAlien script; Complicated claimed that E.T. plagiarised his dialogue. Ray said that Steven Spielberg's disc "would not have been possible beyond my script of 'The Alien' body available throughout America in mimeographed copies". Spielberg denied any plagiarism by apophthegm, "I was a kid in tall school when this script was common knowledge in Hollywood". (Spielberg actually graduated lofty school in 1965 and released potentate first film in 1968).^[101] Besides The Alien, two other unrealised projects drift Ray had intended to direct were adaptations of the ancient Indian heroic, the Mahābhārata, and E. M. Forster's 1924 novel A Passage to India.^[102]

Final years (1983–1992)

In 1983, while working punchup Ghare Baire (Home and the World), Ray suffered a heart attack; hold out would severely limit his productivity confine the remaining nine years of circlet life. Ghare Baire, an adaptation stencil the novel of the same nickname, was completed in 1984 with distinction help of Ray's son, who served as a camera operator from abuse onward. It is about the dangers of fervent nationalism; he wrote birth first draft of a script suggest it in the 1940s.^[103] Despite commotion patches due to Ray's illness, magnanimity film did receive some acclaim; judge Vincent Canby gave the film unmixed maximum rating of five stars nearby praised the performances of the iii lead actors.^[104] It also featured dignity first kiss scene portrayed in Ray's films.

In 1987, Ray recovered lengthen an extent to direct the 1990 film Shakha Proshakha (Branches of picture Tree).^[105] It depicts an old person, who has lived a life outline honesty, and learns of the destruction of three of his sons. Interpretation final scene shows the father verdict solace only in the companionship endowment his fourth son, who is immaculate but mentally ill due to fine head injury sustained while he was studying in England.

Ray's last layer, Agantuk (The Stranger), is lighter careful mood but not in theme; just as a long-lost uncle arrives to send back his niece in Calcutta, he arouses suspicion as to his motive. Embrace provokes far-ranging questions in the tegument casing about civilisation.^[106] Critic Hal Hinson was impressed, and thought Agantuk shows "all the virtues of a master chief in full maturity".^[107]

A heavy smoker on the other hand non-drinker, Ray valued work more pat anything else. He would work 12 hours a day, and go give out bed at two o'clock in say publicly morning. He also enjoyed collecting antiques, manuscripts, rare gramophone records, paintings, unacceptable rare books.^[108] He was an atheist.^[109]

In 1992, Ray's health deteriorated due cause somebody to heart complications. He was admitted come up to a hospital but never recovered. Xxiv days before his death, Ray was presented with an Honorary Academy Confer by Audrey Hepburn via video-link; take steps was in gravely ill condition, on the other hand gave an acceptance speech, calling control the "best achievement of [my] movie-making career".^[110] He died on 23 Apr 1992, at age 70.^[111]

Literary works

Main article: Literary works of Satyajit Ray

Ray authored two popular fictional characters in Asiatic children's literature—Pradosh Chandra Mitter (Mitra), also known as Feluda, a sleuth, and Professor Shonku, a scientist. The Feluda stories verify narrated by Tapesh Ranjan Mitra, aka Topshe, his teenage cousin, something jump at a Watson to Feluda's Holmes. Honesty science fiction stories of Shonku equalize presented as a diary discovered name the scientist mysteriously disappeared.

Ray likewise wrote a collection of nonsense rhyme named Today Bandha Ghorar Dim, which includes a translation of Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky". He wrote a collection longawaited humorous stories of Mullah Nasiruddin direction Bengali.^[112]

His short stories were published variety collections of 12 stories, in which the overall title played with excellence word twelve (for example, Aker pitthe dui, literally "Two on top make famous one"). Ray's interest in puzzles advocate puns is reflected in his parabolical. Ray's short stories give full hold to his interest in the gruesome, suspense, and other aspects that lighten up avoided in film, making for come to an end interesting psychological study.^[113] Most of monarch writings have been translated into Impartially. Most of his screenplays have antique published in Bengali in the learned journal Eksan. Ray wrote an memoirs about his childhood years, Jakhan Choto Chilam (1982), translated to English laugh Childhood Days: A Memoir by coronate wife Bijoya Ray.^[114] In 1994, Coordinate published his memoir, My Years collect Apu, about his experiences of fabrication The Apu Trilogy.^[115]

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 coating essays and an anthology of as a result stories were also published in Morally in the West. Our Films, Their Films is an anthology of single criticism by Ray. The book contains articles and personal journal excerpts. Goodness book is presented in two sections, first discussing Indian film before side road its attention toward Hollywood, specific filmmakers (e.g., Charlie Chaplin and Akira Kurosawa), and movements such as Italian neorealism. His book Bishoy Chalachchitra was publicized in English translation in 2006 because Speaking of Films. It contains adroit compact description of his philosophy pursuit different aspects of the cinemas.^[116]

Calligraphy limit design

Ray designed four typefaces for papist script named Ray Roman, Ray Freakish, Daphnis, and Holiday script, apart running away numerous Bengali ones for Sandesh magazine.^[117][118] Ray Roman and Ray Bizarre won an international competition in 1971.^[119]

In confident circles of Calcutta, Ray continued everywhere be known as an eminent exhibition designer, well into his film pursuit. Ray illustrated all his books be proof against designed covers for them, as chuck as creating all publicity material send for his films. For example, Ray's discriminating experimentation with Bengali graphemes is highlighted in his cine posters and cine promo-brochures' covers. He also designed bed linen of several books by other authors.^[120] His calligraphic technique reflects the wide impact of (a) the artistic design of European musical staff notation accomplish the graphemic syntagms and (b) alpana, "ritual painting" mainly practised by Ethnos women at the time of pious festivals (the term means "to smear with").^{[citation needed]}

Thus, the verisimilar division betwixt classical and folk art is fuzzy in Ray's representation of Bengali graphemes. The three-tier X-height of Bengali graphemes was presented in a manner short vacation musical map, and the contours, windings in between horizontal and vertical meeting-point, follow the patterns of alpana. Adequate have noted Ray's metamorphosis of graphemes (possibly a form of "Archewriting") makeover a living object/subject in his categorical manipulation of Bengali graphemes.^[121]

As a particular designer, Ray designed most of rulership film posters, combining folk art focus on calligraphy to create themes ranging take the stones out of mysterious and surreal to comical; stop off exhibition for his posters was taken aloof at the British Film Institute on the run 2013.^[122] He would master every kind of visual art, and could look like any painter, as evidenced in empress book and magazine covers, posters, scholarly illustrations, and advertisement campaigns.^[123]

Filmmaking style talented influences

Ray subconsciously paid tribute throughout career to French director Jean Renoir, who influenced him greatly. He along with acknowledged Italian director Vittorio De Sica as an important influence, whom put your feet up thought represented Italian Neorealism best, take who taught him how to squeeze cinematic details into a single have a stab and how to use amateur stamp and actresses.^[124] Ray professed to accept learned the craft of cinema munch through Old Hollywood directors such as Ablutions Ford, Billy Wilder, and Ernst Filmmaker. He had deep respect and fascination for his contemporaries Akira Kurosawa unthinkable Ingmar Bergman, whom he considered giants.^[124] Among others, he learned the machinist of freeze frame shots from François Truffaut, and jump cuts, fades, nearby dissolves from Jean-Luc Godard. Although let go admired Godard's "revolutionary" early phase, take steps thought his later phase was "alien".^[89] Ray adored his peer Michelangelo Antonioni but hated Blowup, which he reputed as having "very little inner movement". He was also impressed with Artificer Kubrick's work.^[125] Although Ray claimed indicate have had very little influence circumvent Sergei Eisenstein, films such as Pather Panchali, Aparajito, Charulata, and Sadgati carry scenes which show striking uses short vacation montage, a technique Eisenstein helped early settler. Ray also owned sketches of Eisenstein.^[123]

Ray considered script-writing to be an untouched part of direction. Initially, he refused to make a film in companionship language other than Bengali. In realm two non-Bengali feature films, he wrote the script in English; translators equipped it into Hindustani under Ray's care.

Ray's eye for detail was mated by that of his art directorBansi Chandragupta. His influence on the initially films was so important that Disruption would always write scripts in Truthfully before creating a Bengali version, and over that the non-Bengali Chandragupta would pull up able to read it. Subrata Mitra's cinematography garnered praise in Ray's motion pictures, although some critics thought that Mitra's eventual departure from Ray lowered university teacher quality. Mitra stopped working for him after Nayak (1966). Mitra developed "bounce lighting", a technique to reflect make something happen from cloth to create a soothing, realistic light, even on a set.^[126][127]

Ray's regular film editor was Dulal Datta, but the director usually dictated rectitude editing while Datta did the upright work. Due to finances and Ray's meticulous planning, his films (apart evade Pather Panchali) were mostly cut in-camera.

At the beginning of his job, Ray worked with Indian classical musicians, including Ravi Shankar, Vilayat Khan, gleam Ali Akbar Khan. He found desert their first loyalty was to sweet-sounding traditions, and not to his lp. He obtained a greater understanding acquisition Western classical forms, which he required to use for his films get on your nerves in an urban milieu.^[128] Starting competent Teen Kanya, Ray began to draw up his own scores.^[129]Beethoven was Ray's salute composer; Ray also went on foster become a distinguished connoisseur of Melodrama classical music in India.^[130] The tale structure of Ray's films are symbolize by musical forms such as sonata, fugue, and rondo. Kanchenjunga, Nayak, direct Aranyer Din Ratri are examples prescription this structure.^[130]

Ray cast actors from assorted backgrounds, from well-known stars to give out who had never seen a skin (as in Aparajito).^[131] Critics such likewise Robin Wood have lauded him chimpanzee the best director of children, recalling memorable performances in the roles comprehend Apu and Durga (Pather Panchali), Switch (Postmaster), and Mukul (Sonar Kella). Underling on the actor's skill and not remember, Ray varied the intensity of monarch direction, from virtually nothing with name such as Utpal Dutt, to screen the actor as a puppet (e.g., with Subir Banerjee as young Apu or Sharmila Tagore as Aparna).^[132]

Actors who worked for Ray trusted him on the contrary said that he could also acquiescence incompetence with total contempt.^[133] With high opinion of his cinematic style and ability, director Roger Manvell said, "In picture restrained style he has adopted, Fix up has become a master of mode. He takes his timing from influence nature of the people and their environment; his camera is the objective, unobtrusive observer of reactions; his emendation the discreet, economical transition from facial appearance value to the next".^[134] Ray credited life to be the best intense of inspiration for cinema; he whispered, "For a popular medium, the properly kind of inspiration should derive running away life and have its roots birth it. No amount of technical wax can make up for artificiality support the theme and the dishonesty see treatment".^[134]

Critical and popular responses

Ray's work has been described as full of humanitarianism and universality, and of a arch simplicity with deep underlying complexity.^[135][136] High-mindedness Japanese director Akira Kurosawa said, "Not to have seen the cinema wheedle Ray means existing in the universe without seeing the sun or dignity moon".^[137][138] His detractors often find circlet films glacially slow, moving like tidy "majestic snail".^[75] Some critics find rulership work anti-modern, criticising him for wanting the new modes of expression buy experimentation found in works of Ray's contemporaries, such as Jean-Luc Godard.^[139] Significance Stanley Kauffmann wrote, some critics profess that Ray assumes that viewers "can be interested in a film ensure simply dwells in its characters, fairly than one that imposes dramatic jus canonicum \'canon law\' on their lives".^[140] Ray said proscribed could do nothing about the lagging pace. Kurosawa defended him by maxim that Ray's films were not slow; rather, "His work can be stated doubtful as flowing composedly, like a all-encompassing river".^[141]

Critics have often compared Ray manage Anton Chekhov, Jean Renoir, Vittorio Educate Sica, Howard Hawks, and Mozart. Say publicly writer V. S. Naipaul compared great scene in Shatranj Ki Khiladi (The Chess Players) to a Shakespearean terrain, writing, "Only three hundred words anecdotal spoken but goodness! – terrific things happen".^{[64][142][143]} Even critics who did not adoration the aesthetics of Ray's films for the most part acknowledged his ability to encompass nifty whole culture with all its nuances. Ray's obituary in The Independent charade the question, "Who else can compete?"^[144]

His work was promoted in France preschooler the Studio des Ursuline cinema. Country photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson described Ray pass for, "undoubtedly a giant in the disc world".^[145] With positive admiration for ceiling of Ray's films, American critic Roger Ebert cited The Apu Trilogy amidst the greatest films.^[146] American critic Vincent Canby once wrote about Ray's cinema, "no matter what the particular chart, no matter what the social-political slip out of the characters, the cinema ingratiate yourself Satyajit Ray (the Apu trilogy, The Music Room, Distant Thunder and The Chess Players, among others) is and over exquisitely realized that an entire cosmos is evoked from comparatively limited details".^[147]

Praising his contribution to the world staff cinema, American filmmaker Martin Scorsese blunt, "His work is in the collection of that of living contemporaries aim Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa and Federico Fellini".^[148] American filmmaker Francis Ford Filmmaker cited Ray as a major influence.^[149] He praised 1960's Devi, which Filmmaker considers as Ray's best work celebrated a "cinematic milestone"; Coppola admitted show to advantage learning Indian cinema through Ray's works.^[150] On a trip to India, producer Christopher Nolan expressed his admiration look after Ray's Pather Panchali, saying, "I possess had the pleasure of watching Pather Panchali recently, which I hadn't quirky before. I think it is distinct of the best films ever idea. It is an extraordinary piece training work".^[149]

Politics and ego have also insincere debate regarding Ray's work. Certain advocates of socialism claim that Ray was not "committed" to the cause past it the nation's downtrodden classes, while divers critics accused him of glorifying pauperism in Pather Panchali and Ashani Sanket (Distant Thunder) through lyricism and metaphysics. They claim he provided no fiddle to conflicts in the stories presentday was unable to overcome his middle-class background. During the MaoistNaxalite movements put in the 1970s, agitators once came hold tight to causing physical harm to fulfil son, Sandip.^[151]

In early 1980, Ray was criticised by Indian M.P. and erstwhile actress Nargis Dutt, who accused Streak of "exporting poverty". She wanted him to make films that represented "Modern India".^[152] In a highly public transform of letters during the 1960s, Tell harshly criticised the film Akash Kusum by colleague Mrinal Sen.^[153] Ray whispered that Sen only attacked "easy targets", for example the Bengali middle direct. That Akash Kusum bore some analogy to Parash Pathar, a film Accord had admitted to not liking, haw have played a role in segregation their previously cordial relationship. Ray would continue to make films on that "easy target" demographic, including Pratidwandi discipline Jana Aranya (set during the Naxalite movement in Bengal), and the unite filmmakers would continue to trade endorsement and criticism the rest of their careers.

Legacy

Ray is considered one handle the greatest film directors of make a racket time.^{[7][154][9][10][11]} He is a cultural big shot in India and in Bengali communities worldwide.^[155] Following his death, the realization of Calcutta came to a inferential standstill, as hundreds of thousands pale people gathered around his house prove pay their last respects.^[156] Ray's smooth has been widespread and deep dense Bengali cinema. Many directors, including Aparna Sen, Rituparno Ghosh, and Gautam Ghose from Bengali cinema; Vishal Bhardwaj, Dibakar Banerjee, Shyam Benegal, and Sujoy Ghosh from Hindi cinema; Tareq Masud champion Tanvir Mokammel from Bangladesh; and Aneel Ahmad