Satyajit Ray

At 70 years old, Satyajit Ray has this physical status:

Satyajit Ray (born in Calcutta) was born in a Bengali family that was influential in the field of arts and literature.

During a visit to London, Ray, who began his career as a commercial artist, was drawn to independent filmmaking after meeting French filmmaker Jean Renoir and watching Vittorio De Sica's Italian neorealist film Bicycle Thieves (1948). Ray produced 36 films, including feature films, documentaries, and shorts.

He was also a fiction writer, illustrator, calligraph, musician, music arranger, and film critic.

He wrote several short stories and novels targeted at young children and teens.

Professor Shonku, the scientist in his science fiction stories, and Feluda, the sleuth, are two common fictional characters created by him.

Oxford University has given him an honorary degree. Pather Panchali (1955), Ray's first film, received eleven international awards, including the inaugural Best Human Document award at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival.

The Apu Trilogy, along with Aparajito (1956) and Apur Sansar (1959), together with Aparajito (1956) and Apu (1959), tells The World of Apu.

Ray did the scripting, casting, scoring, and editing, as well as creating his own credit cards and publicity material.

Ray received numerous prestigious awards in his career, including 32 Indian National Film Awards, a Golden Lion, a Golden Bear, 2 Silver Bears, a slew of additional awards at international film festivals and award ceremonies, as well as an Academy Honorary Award in 1992.

In 1992, the Government of India awarded him the Bharat Ratna, the country's highest civilian award.

Ray had received many prestigious awards over his lifetime and was in a coveted position throughout his life. In 2004, Ray was ranked 13 in BBC's poll of the Greatest Bengali of all time.

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Career

Ray was moved by Pather Panchali's 1928 classic Bildungsroman of Bengali literature, and wanted to adapt it for his first film. Pather Panchali is a semi-autobiographical book about Apu's growth as a young boy in a Bengal village.

Ray brought an inexperienced crew together, but Subrata Mitra's cameraman and art director Bansi Chandragupta went on to achieve acclaim. The cast was mainly amateur actors. Ray began shooting in late 1952 with his personal savings and hoped to raise more money after unsuccessful attempts to convince many producers to fund the project, but did not succeed on his terms. As a result, Ray shot Pather Panchali for two and a half years, an unusually long time, based on when he or his production manager Anil Chowdhury could raise additional funds. He refused to accept funds from sites that wanted to change the script or exercise oversight over production. He also ignored the Indian government's call to have a happy ending, but the film did not get funded to finish.

Ray filmed an early film passage to American director John Huston, who was in India scouting locations for The Man Who Would Be King. Huston, who was emaciated by what he saw, informed Monroe Wheeler at the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) that a major talent was on the horizon.

Ray finally completed the film on a loan from the West Bengal government; it was released in 1955 to critical acclaim. It has received many accolades and had long-running theatre performances in India and abroad. "It is ridiculous to compare it to any other Indian cinema," the Times of India said. Pather Panchali is pure cinema. Lindsay Anderson wrote a glowing review of the film in the United Kingdom. However, the film received critical feedback; François Truffaut was reportedly "I don't want to see a film of peasants eating with their hands." The film's loosening had been criticized by Bosley Crowther, the film's most influential critic, who confessed that it "takes patience to be enjoyed." Edward Harrison, an American distributor, was worried that Crowther's analysis would offend audiences, but the film ran for eight months in the United States.

In The Family of Man, a MoMA exhibition that was seen by 9 million visitors, a film of Apu having his hair brushed by his sister Durga and mother Sarbojaya was still on display. It was the only one depicting India on display in the museum, and it was the only one taken by an Indian photographer. Curator Edward Steichen credited it to Ray, but Subrata Mitra, the film's cinematographer, most likely took it to Ray.

Ray's international career began in earnest after the success of his next film, Aparagu (1956). (The Unvanquished) This film depicts the constant struggle between a young man's aspirations and the mother who adores him. Aparajito received the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival on its first day, earning Ray acclaim. Edward Guthmann of the San Francisco Chronicle praised Ray for his ability to capture emotions and blend music with storytelling to create a "flawless" image. Mrinal Sen and Ritwik Ghatak, among other critics, place the film higher than Ray's first film.

In 1958, Ray produced two other films: Parash Pathar (The Philosopher's Stone), and Jalsaghar (The Music Room), a film about the Zamindars' decadence, considered one of his most influential productions. Jalsaghar's timeout magazine gave him a glowing review, describing it as "slow, rapt, and hypnotic."

Ray did not plan a trilogy when making Aparagua, but it appealed to him after he was asked about the possibility in Venice. In 1959, he completed Apur Sansar (The World of Apu). In this film, Ray introduced Soumitra Chatterjee and Sharmila Tagore, two of his favorite actors. It starts with Apu living in a Calcutta house in near-poverty; he becomes embroiled in an unusual union with Aparna. "One of the cinema's most classic affirmative representations of married life" is displayed in their scenes together. Critics Robin Wood and Aparna Sen thought it was a major achievement to mark the end of the trilogy.

Ray wrote an article defending Apur Sansar after it was scathingly criticized by a Bengali scholar. During his filmmaking career, he rarely responded to critics, but he later defended his film Charulata, his personal favorite. Roger Ebert, a critic, summarized the trilogy as "it is about a time, place, and culture far removed from our own," and yet it connects directly and deeply with our human feelings." No matter how far we may go in our cynicism, it's like a prayer, insisting that this is what the theater should be.

Despite Ray's popularity, it had no effect on his personal life in the years to come. He and his wife and children lived in a rented house, as did his grandmother, uncle, and other relatives of his extended family.

Ray made films during this period, including a documentary about Tagore, a comedy film (Mahapurush), and his first film from an original screenplay ('Kanchenjungha'). He also produced a series of films that, taken together, are among the most realistic representations of Indian women on film.

Ray continued to Apur Sansar's Devi (The Goddess), a film in which he explored Hindu society's superstitions. Sharmila Tagore performed Doyamoyee, a young wife who is condemned by her father-in-law. Ray was worried that the Central Board of Film Certification might have blocked his film or at least make him re-cut it, but Devi was fortunately spared. The film's critic from Chicago Reader described it as "full of sensuality and ironic undertones" upon international release.

Ray was hired to make Rabindranath Tagore, based on the poet of the same name, in 1961, a tribute to Ray's most likely influence on him. Ray was particularly troubled by the fact that the film was mostly made with static content due to a small video of Tagore. It took as much effort as three feature films, according to the filmmaker.

Ray was able to revive Sandesh, the children's magazine that his grandfather had founded in the same year, as well as Subhas Mukhopadhyay and others. Ray had been saving money for years in order to make this happen. The magazine's tone (both educational and entertaining) was set by a duality in the name (Sandesh means both "news" in Bengali and also a popular dessert). Ray began making illustrations for it, as well as writing stories and essays for children. Writing eventually became a regular source of income.

Ray produced Kanchenjungha in 1962, as it was also his first original screenplay. It tells the tale of an upper-class family spending an afternoon in Darjeeling, West Bengal's picturesque hill town. They are trying to recruit their youngest daughter to a highly paid engineer who was educated in London.

Ray had first imagined shooting it in a large mansion but later decided to film it in the historic town. To reflect the drama, he used many shades of light and mist. Ray said that although his script allowed shooting under any lighting conditions, a commercial film crew in Darjeeling failed to film a single scene because they wanted to do so in sunshine. Bosley Crowther of the New York Times gave the film a mixed review; he praised Ray's "soft and relaxed" filmmaking but thought the characters were clichés.

Ray directed Charulata (The Lonely Wife) in 1964. Many commentators said it was one of Ray's favorite films. The film, based on Tagore's short story Nastanirh (Broken Nest), tells of a bleak wife, Charu, in 19th-century Bengal, and her growing concern for her brother-in-law Amal. The Guardian called Madhabi Mukherjee's casting, the film's artistic style, and its camera movements "extraordinarily vivid and fresh," in retrospective reviews, while The Sydney Morning Herald praised Madhabi Mukherjee's casting, film's graphic style, and camera movements. Ray said the film had the fewest flaws in his career, and that it was his only film in which if given the opportunity, he would make exactly the same way. Charulata received a Silver Bear for Best Director at the 15th Berlin International Film Festival. Mahanagar (The Big City), Teen Kanya (Three Daughters), Abhijan (The Expedition), Kapurush (The Coward), and Mahapurush (The Man) are among the many films from this period. Mahanagar's first of these, as well as British commentators, received laud; Philip French opined that it was one of Ray's finest.

Ray visited Japan in the 1960s and was taken pleasure in meeting filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, who was also highly regarded.

Ray worked on a variety of projects, from fantasy, science fiction, and detective tales to historical dramas during the post-Charulata period. During this period, Ray also experimented, investigating contemporary issues of Indian life in reaction to the apparent absence of such topics in his films.

The first big film to date in this period is 1966's Nayak (The Hero), the tale of a screen hero traveling in a train and meeting a young, sympathetic female journalist. In the twenty-four hours of the journey, starring Uttam Kumar and Sharmila Tagore, the film explores the inner turmoil of the seemingly triumphant matinée idol. Despite receiving a "Critics Prize" at the Berlin International Film Festival, the film had a muted reception.

Ray wrote a script for a film named The Alien in 1967, based on his short story "Bankubabur Bandhu" ("Banku Babu's Friend"), which he wrote in 1962 for Sandesh magazine. It was supposed to be a co-production between Columbia Pictures and the United States and India, starring Marlon Brando and Peter Sellers. Ray discovered that his script had been copyrighted and that Michael Wilson's fee had been appropriated. Wilson first approached Ray C. Clarke, a mutual friend, to represent him in Hollywood. Wilson copyrighted the script, but only one word was added. Ray later said he never received compensation for the script. The producers attempted to replace Brando Coburn with James Coburn, but Ray was disillusioned and returned to Calcutta. Columbia attempted to revive the program, which had no success in the 1970s and 1980s.

Ray produced one of his father's most commercially successful films, Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne's Adventures of Goopy and Bagha), in 1969. It's about Goopy, the singer, and Bagha the drummer, who were given three gifts by the King of Ghosts to prevent an escalating war between two kingdoms. The film was also one of his most expensive projects, but it was difficult to finance. Ray decided against shooting it in color after turning down an offer that would have forced him to audition a certain Hindi film actor as the lead. He also wrote the film's songs and music.

Sunil Gangopadhyay, a poet and writer, wrote a book, and Ray was next to direct the film adaptation. (Days and Nights in the Forest), four urban young men returning to the woods for a holiday are described as more complicated than Charulata, Aranyer Din Ratri (1970) (Days and Nights in the Forest). They try to get out of their daily lives, but one of them meets women, and it becomes a deep study of the Indian middle class. "Satyajit Ray's films can give rise to a more complex sense of happiness in me than that of any other filmmaker," critic Pauline Kael said at the New York Film Festival in 1970. "No artist has done more than Ray to make us reevaluate the commonplace." Jamie Russell, who was writing for the BBC in 2002, praised the script, pacing, and a mixture of emotions. "A single sequence [of the film] [of the film]... would provide material for a short essay," Robin Wood, a filmmaker.

Ray was interviewed about contemporary Bengali life after Aranyer Din Ratri. Pratidwandi (1970), Seemabaddha (1971), and Jana Aranya (1975), three films that were not conceived separately but had common themes, and he completed what became known as the Calcutta trilogy. The trilogy focuses on repression, with male protagonists encountering the forbidden. Pratidwandi (The Adversary) is about an idealist young graduate, who is disillusioned by the film's conclusion, but he is also uncorrupted. Seemabaddha (Company Limited) portrayed a vivacious man who gave up his morality in exchange for greater gains. Jana Aranya (The Middleman) portrayed a young man who gave in to the culture of graft to make a living. Ray's first film, Pratidwandi, introduces new storytelling techniques, such as scenes in negative, dream sequences, and flashbacks.

Ray made two of his famous stories into detective films in the 1970s. Although mostly aimed at youth and young adults, Sonar Kella (The Golden Fortress) and Joi Baba Felunath (The Elephant God) became cult favourites. Rouven Linnarz, a critic of Sonar Kella in a 2019 review, was impressed with the use of Indian classical instruments to produce "mysterious progress."

Ray considered making a film about the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, but later decided that, as a filmmaker, he was more interested in the actual lives of the refugees than the politics. Ray produced Shatranj Ke Khilari (The Chess Players), a Hindustani film based on a short story by Munshi Premchand, in 1977. A year before the Indian Rebellion of 1857, it was held in Lucknow, in the state of Oudh. It was Ray's first feature film in a non-British language other than Bengali, and a commentary on issues related to India's colonization by the British. Sanjeev Kumar, Saeed Jaffrey, Amjad Khan, Shabana Azmi, Victor Bannerjee, and Richard Attenborough appeared in this film. Despite the film's modest budget, The Washington Post gave it a positive review; "He [Ray] has what many overindulged Hollywood filmmakers often lack: a perspective of history."

Ray produced a sequel to Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne in 1980, a more political Hirak Rajar Deshe (Kingdom of Diamonds). During Indira Gandhi's emergency period, the king of the evil Diamond King, or Hirok Raj, was an allusion to India. This was the culmination of his career in this period, as well as his critically acclaimed short film Pikoo (Pikoo's Diary) and hour-long Hindi film Sadgati.

When E.T. is a student at the University of On Monday, the company was named E.T. Clarke and Ray appeared in the film as similarities to his earlier The Alien script; Ray said that E.T. His script was plagiarized by the author. "The Alien" film by Steven Spielberg "would not have been possible without my script" The Alien" being available in mimeographed copies in every American market," Ray said. "I was a student in high school when this script was circulated in Hollywood," Spielberg denied any plagiarism by saying. (Spielberg started high school in 1965 and made his first film in 1968). Besides The Alien, two other unrealised projects that Ray had intended to produce were adaptations of the ancient Indian epic, the Mahbhrata, and E. M. Forster's 1924 novel A Passage to India.

Ray suffered a heart attack while working on Ghare Baire (Home and the World) in 1983, which would greatly reduce his output in the remaining nine years of his life. In 1984, Ghare Baire, a version of the book of the same name, was completed with the help of Ray's son, who worked as a camera operator from then onward. It's about the dangers of fervent nationalism; he wrote the first draft of a script for it in the 1940s. Despite rough patches due to Ray's illness, the film received some acclaim; critic Vincent Canby gave the film a maximum rating of five stars and praised the three lead actors' performances. It also included the first kiss scene in Ray's films.

Ray returned to an extent in 1987 to direct the 1990 film Shakha Proshakha (Branches of the Tree). It depicts an old man who has lived a life of integrity and discovers of three of his sons' crimes. The father is shown finding solace in the company of his fourth son, who is uncorrupted but physically ill as a result of a head injury while studying in England.

Agantuk (The Stranger), Ray's last film, is lighter in mood but not in theme; as a long-lost uncle visits his niece in Calcutta, he raises doubt about his motives. It sparks a wide variety of questions in the film about civilisation. Hal Hinson was impressed, and Agantuk possesses "total maturity" according to critic Hal Hinson.

Ray, a heavy smoker but non-drinker, treasured work more than anything else. He will work 12 hours a day and bed at two o'clock in the morning and go to bed at two o'clock in the morning. He also loved collecting antiques, manuscripts, rare gramophone recordings, paintings, and rare books.

Ray's health worsened as a result of heart disease in 1992. He was admitted to the hospital but never recovered. Ray was sent by video-link with an Honorary Academy Award from Audrey Hepburn; he was in serious illness, but he gave an acceptance address, describing it as the "best achievement of [his] film career" twenty-four days before his death. He died on April 23, 1992, 9 days before his 71st birthday.

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