SATYAJIT RAJ

director, writer, illustrator, music composer and the person who brought Indian cinema to
the world!

Satyajit Ray is an Indian filmmaker and among the dozen or so great masters of world
cinema, a discussion on an individual being "the greatest of all time" are often full of
arguments and counter-arguments. If there's one debate that is above any discussion, that is
about Satyajit Ray being the greatest Indian director. He is known for his humanistic
approach to cinema. He made his films in Bengali and yet, his films are of universal interest.
They are about things that make up the human race – relationships, emotions, struggle,
conflicts, joys and sorrows. His movies have stood the test of time and are still considered a
mandatory watch for any person who wants a taste of good Indian cinema.

EARLY LIFE:
Satyajit Ray’s life was full of ups and downs. He was born on May 2, 1921,in Calcutta, India.
His family had many intellectual, artistic and affluent people. His grandfather,
Upendrakishore Ray (Roychowdhury) was a distinguished writer, painter, a violin player and
a composer. Even his father Sukumar Ray regularly contributed poems, stories and
illustrations to ‘Sandesh’, a children’s magazine.
He was interested in stuff which was related to arts since his childhood. Ray’s opinions and
thoughts were moulded and influenced by his family and many other great personalities of
world which can be seen expressed in his films through his portrayal of characters. But he
found the means to pursue his interest was at Rabindranath Tagore’s Shantiniketan. . He also
found books on cinema in the university library such as Paul Rotha’s ‘Film Till Now’ and
Raymond Spotiswoode’s ‘Grammar of the Film.
Despite his great love for films the thought of becoming a filmmaker struck him only after
the world war 2. The aftermath of the world war saw Calcutta filled with American GI’s. The
cinemas were showing the latest Hollywood productions. It provided Ray with a feast of
films. He also co-founded Calcutta’s first film society where he first expressed his opinions
and love for the cinema.

THE FIRST TATSTE OF RAY’S TALENT – APU TRILOGY:

Satyajit Ray has directed many films but he is still recognised for his first Pather Panchali
which truly brought Indian cinema to world. He also created india’s first trilogy with it.
Pather Panchali is an adaptation of semi-autobiographical novel of same name written by
Bildungsroman describing the maturation of Apu, a small boy in a Bengal village.
Ray shot Pather Panchali over two and a half years, an unusually long period as he faced a
lot of isusses to finance the film finally With a loan from the West Bengal government, Ray
finally completed the film; it was released in 1955 to critical acclaim. It earned numerous
awards and had long theatrical runs in India and abroad.

Ray's international career started in earnest after the success of his next film, the second
in The Apu Trilogy, Aparajito (1956) .This film depicts the eternal struggle between the
ambitions of a young man, Apu, and the mother who loves him.

While making Aparajito, Ray had not planned a trilogy, but after he was asked about the idea
in Venice, it appealed to him. He finished the last of the trilogy, Apur Sansar in 1959.

apu trilogy gained a lot of success and recognition to Ray but this didn’t change at all and
after the success he never stop. He gave the world gems like Devi, Charulatta and many
more.

WHY IS RAY CONSIDERED THE GREATEST?

 SATYAJIT RAY’S WORLD

One of biggest contribution of Ray to the world of cinema was his choice of subjects. He
explored a range of characters and situations. Many of these were alien to popular Indian
cinema, as they were not considered suitable film subjects in India. He brought real concerns
of real people to the screen – villagers, city middle-class, intellectuals, rich and famous,
detectives, kings.

Ray was deeply concerned with the social identity of his characters. He believed that
behaviour of people emerges from their existence in a particular place and time in a particular
social context and we can see this truly expressed in his films.

 SATYAJIT RAY’S STORIES & AWARNESS ABOUT CINEMA

Ray made 29 feature films but only six screenplays of these feature length films were entirely
original and more than half of these were based on short stories or novels written by him
earlier.

“When I write my own story, I use characters and milieus I am familiar with. I can deal with
something I do not know at first hand only with the help of someone who does” he said

After the Apu Trilogy, he moved away from such long-time-span stories and extended sagas.
He believed that ‘the long-short-story’ was most suited for a two-hour duration feature film
and he did exactly the same. This not only shows his love for cinema but also his awareness
about what will work and what not.
  A TRUE AUTEUR

Ray directly controlled many aspects of filmmaking. He wrote all the screenplays of his
films, many of which were based on his own stories.

He designed the sets and costumes, operated the camera since Charulata (1964), he composed
the music for all his films since 1961 and designed the publicity posters for his new releases.

In addition to filmmaking, Ray was a composer, a writer and a graphic designer. He even
designed a new typeface. In 1961, he revived and continued to publish the Bengali children’s
magazine “Sandesh”, which was founded by his grandfather Upendrakishore Ray .

ALL-ROUNDER SATYAJIT RAY

 LITERARY WORKS

Ray created two popular fictional characters in Bengali children's literature—Feluda, a

detective, and Professor Shonku, a scientist. The Feluda stories are narrated by Topesh
Ranjan Mitra aka Topse, his teenage cousin, something of a Watson to Feluda's Holmes. The
science fictions of Shonku are presented as a diary discovered after the scientist had
mysteriously disappeared.
Ray wrote an autobiography about his childhood years, Jakhan Choto Chilam (1982),
translated to English as Childhood Days. In 1994, Ray published his memoir, My Years with
Apu, about his experiences of making The Apu Trilogy.[84]
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.

 CALLIGRAPHY AND DESIGN

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.[86][87] Ray
Roman and Ray Bizarre won an international competition in 1971.[88] 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
SOME FACTS ABOUT RAY

  Ray designed book covers for Signet Press. Some of his notable covers include the
ones for Jim Corbett’s classic Man-Eaters of Kumaon and Jawaharlal
Nehru's Discovery of India.

 Ray worked in the Calcutta office of DJ Keymer (now Ogilvy) where he rose to the
rank of art director.

 He combined Indian motifs and calligraphy created four Roman fonts, with two
bearing his name, Ray Roman and Ray Bizarre. Others included Daphnis and Holiday
Script.

 With Pather Panchali, Ray, besides making his debut, was also the first person to use
a teaser advertising campaign before it hit the theatres.

 The West Bengal government, which was financing Pather Panchali, wanted changes
to the ending to make it more positive. The film could make it to the Cannes Film
Festival only due to the intervention of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

 In 1961, he revived and published the Bengali children’s magazine Sandesh, which

was founded by his grandfather Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury.

 Ray received an honorary doctorate from Oxford—only the second film director to be
so honoured so, at the time, after his hero Chaplin.
 At the Berlin International Film Festival, he was one of only four filmmakers to win
the Silver Bear for Best Director more than once and holds the record for the most
number of Golden Bear nominations, with seven.

 He is the only Indian who has received an Honorary award at Oscars.

Today, Indian cinema has lost its legacy of a great personality like SATYAJIT RAY. Young
aspiring directors should study the work of him and not movies but his books, music and also
his study and opinions about the art in general, India and around the world.