How Satyajit Ray made one of the greatest documentaries on the life and work of Rabindranath Tagore
7 years, 1 month ago

How Satyajit Ray made one of the greatest documentaries on the life and work of Rabindranath Tagore

Firstpost  

Satyjit Ray made as many as five films based on the short stories, novellas and novels written by Rabindranath Tagore — that’s the most number of times he has ever adapted any one writer’s work | #FirstCulture Editor’s note: In a prolific career spanning nearly four decades, Satyajit Ray directed 36 films, including feature films, documentaries and shorts. Ray made as many as five films based on the short stories, novellas and novels written by Tagore — that’s the most number of times he has ever adapted any one writer’s work. Although he never spoke about it in as many words, it would perhaps be safe to assume that Satyajit Ray’s mind was ignited by the fire that Rabindranath Tagore had stoked. Despite this complete absence of Tagore’s poetry in his film, Satyajit Ray’s film is able to capture the true essence of the poet’s teachings and philosophy, and remains, to date, one of the greatest documentaries on the life and work of Rabindranath Tagore.

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History of this topic

Ray-esque | A look at Satyajit Ray's fascinating domestic life
1 year, 7 months ago

Ray-esque | A look at Satyajit Ray's fascinating domestic life

Firstpost  

Movie legend Satyajit Ray’s life at home was chock-a-block from early morning to late night. But, if it happened to be important or formal, father would write out a draft and key into the typewriter,” informs Sandip, Ray’s son. In fact, one of the attractions for well-known writers to contribute to Sandesh is that they could use father’s illustrations when …

Review: The Cinema of Satyajit Ray by Bhaskar Chattopadhyay
2 years, 4 months ago

Review: The Cinema of Satyajit Ray by Bhaskar Chattopadhyay

Hindustan Times  

Bhaskar Chattopadhyay’s The Cinema of Satyajit Ray is divided into two parts - the first analyses all 39 of Ray’s films, including his feature films and the controversial documentaries Sikkim and Bala, that he made over 36 years while the second part comprises in-depth interviews with 17 personalities who have been deeply impressed by the auteur’s cinema. Satyajit Ray Vikramaditya …

Satyajit Ray's documentaries: A mixed bag
3 years, 5 months ago

Satyajit Ray's documentaries: A mixed bag

The Hindu  

Between 1961 and 1987, Satyajit Ray directed five documentaries and six short films. In 1961, Ray observed the birth centenary of Rabindranath Tagore by making a documentary on the poet for the Films Division of the Government of India, and an omnibus feature film called Teen Kanya, which brought together three short films adapted from well-known Tagore short stories— Monihara, …

‘His eyes spoke everything’: Raghu Rai remembers Satyajit Ray
3 years, 5 months ago

‘His eyes spoke everything’: Raghu Rai remembers Satyajit Ray

The Hindu  

The first time Raghu Rai came up witha book, he did not pen it. So, here it is, ladies and gentleman, Raghu Rai’s Satyajit Ray, a book with a couple of insightful essays and photographs that speak a million words. Published by Raghu Rai Foundation for Art and Photography, the book comes in the centenary year of Ray, a man …

‘We need criticism, not hagiography’: Dhritiman Chaterji on Satyajit Ray's relevance in today's world
3 years, 5 months ago

‘We need criticism, not hagiography’: Dhritiman Chaterji on Satyajit Ray's relevance in today's world

The Hindu  

Dhritiman Chaterjiburst uponthe screen as the iconic young Siddhartha Chaudhuri in Satyajit Ray’s Pratidwandi, the first of the Calcutta trilogy. Excerpts: When the Calcutta trilogy happened 50 years ago, a lot of people were saying that Satyajit Ray had become overtly political; but what is often overlooked is that Ray had just entered what is called the middle age in …

How Satyajit Ray foregrounded modernity and enlightenment throughout his career
3 years, 5 months ago

How Satyajit Ray foregrounded modernity and enlightenment throughout his career

The Hindu  

Satyajit Ray was of the world, as were Chaplin and Bunuel and Renoir and Mizoguchi and Eisenstein and De Sica and Kurosawa and Godard and Pasolini, not to speak of other twentieth century masters, but he was of the breed who belonged to a particular developed culture and carried out the transfer of technology into a freshly evolved form. Children’s …

‘He lived life cinema’: Adoor Gopalakrishnan on Satyajit Ray
3 years, 5 months ago

‘He lived life cinema’: Adoor Gopalakrishnan on Satyajit Ray

The Hindu  

Adoor Gopalakrishnan, one of the most notable and renowned film-makers in India, pioneered the new wave in Malayalam cinema during the 1970s. Venkiteswaran on Satyajit Ray’s legacy: Satyajit Ray brought about a radical break in Indian cinema in terms of aesthetics, form, content and narrative style. Then came his comment, “Now I understand.” In the last three films of Ray, …

Ray review: Netflix India's attempted love affair with Satyajit Ray is painfully one-note, sans any nuance
3 years, 9 months ago

Ray review: Netflix India's attempted love affair with Satyajit Ray is painfully one-note, sans any nuance

Firstpost  

In an attempt to intellectualise Satyajit Ray through a contemporary lens, Netflix India’s Ray completely alienates his humanism and effortlessness in portraying people’s vulnerabilities “I’ve written all types of stories, but I usually like to write about lonely people and things happening to them.” ~ Satyajit Ray. And thus begins Netflix’s attempted love affair with the auteur’s short stories in …

'Went in with reverence, never held back what we wanted to express': Ray directors, cast on adapting Satyajit Ray's works
3 years, 9 months ago

'Went in with reverence, never held back what we wanted to express': Ray directors, cast on adapting Satyajit Ray's works

Firstpost  

Directors Srijit Mukherji and Vasan Bala, and actors Kay Kay Menon, Harshvardhan Kapoor, and Akansha Ranjan Kapoor open up about their fears of adapting well-known texts, humanising their characters, and how they married style and substance. Ray, Netflix India’s upcoming Original anthology series, is filmmaker Srijit Mukherji, Vasan Bala, and Abhishek Chaubey’s ode to the legendary auteur’s short stories. Director …

Ray on Netflix on June 25. Which Satyajit Ray stories inspired the Manoj Bajpayee and Ali Fazal series?
3 years, 9 months ago

Ray on Netflix on June 25. Which Satyajit Ray stories inspired the Manoj Bajpayee and Ali Fazal series?

India Today  

Netflix dropped the trailer of Ray, an anthology series which is helmed by Abhishek Chaubey, Srijit Mukherji and Vasan Bala. The drama series is inspired by four of Satyajit Ray’s stories Spotlight, Bahurupi, Barin Bhowmik-er Byaram and Bipin Chowdhury'r Smritibhrom. FORGET ME NOT, INSPIRED BY BIPIN CHOWDHURY'R SMRITIBHROM If you have watched the trailer of Ray, you will be aware …

Agantuk: Through Utpal Dutt's character, Satyajit Ray articulated his views on civilisation's illusory nature
7 years ago

Agantuk: Through Utpal Dutt's character, Satyajit Ray articulated his views on civilisation's illusory nature

Firstpost  

Editor’s note: In a prolific career spanning nearly four decades, Satyajit Ray directed 36 films, including feature films, documentaries and shorts. In this column starting 25 June 2017, we discuss and dissect the films of Satyajit Ray, in a bid to understand what really makes him one of the greatest filmmakers of the 20th century. Utpal Dutt gives one of …

Nayak: Easily one of Satyajit Ray’s most incisive and detailed studies of human nature
7 years, 2 months ago

Nayak: Easily one of Satyajit Ray’s most incisive and detailed studies of human nature

Firstpost  

Editor’s note: In a prolific career spanning nearly four decades, Satyajit Ray directed 36 films, including feature films, documentaries and shorts. Told in free style, punctuated with the occasional humour and smart wit, running back and forth thanks to flashbacks and dream sequences, and taking its time to denude the protagonist of his external garb of casual indifference, Nayak is …

The Inner Eye: Satyajit Ray's portrait of the great artist Benode Behari Mukherjee
7 years, 3 months ago

The Inner Eye: Satyajit Ray's portrait of the great artist Benode Behari Mukherjee

Firstpost  

Editor’s note: In a prolific career spanning nearly four decades, Satyajit Ray directed 36 films, including feature films, documentaries and shorts. It was at Shantiniketan that Ray met the eminent artist Benode Behari Mukherjee, who was a member of the faculty there. Benode Behari was severely myopic in one eye and blind in the other, but despite his physical handicap, …

Ghare Baire: A rare Satyajit Ray film which is not just weak, but also a tragic loss of opportunity
7 years, 4 months ago

Ghare Baire: A rare Satyajit Ray film which is not just weak, but also a tragic loss of opportunity

Firstpost  

Editor’s note: In a prolific career spanning nearly four decades, Satyajit Ray directed 36 films, including feature films, documentaries and shorts. And finally, there’s Nikhilesh’s friend Sandip Mukherjee — a charismatic revolutionary waging war against British rule in India through the Swadeshi movement. More than anything else, Ghare Baire is perhaps the first film in which Ray seemed to have …

Chiriyakhana: Satyajit Ray's take on detective Byomkesh Bakshi was possibly his worst film
7 years, 4 months ago

Chiriyakhana: Satyajit Ray's take on detective Byomkesh Bakshi was possibly his worst film

Firstpost  

Editor’s note: In a prolific career spanning nearly four decades, Satyajit Ray directed 36 films, including feature films, documentaries and shorts. But those unfamiliar with Ray’s filmography probably may not know that he had also made a film on the other popular sleuth of Bengal — detective Byomkesh Bakshi. While all the ingredients seemed to be in the right place …

Abhijan: Satyajit Ray's most ‘commercially inclined’ film is also among his best crafted
7 years, 5 months ago

Abhijan: Satyajit Ray's most ‘commercially inclined’ film is also among his best crafted

Firstpost  

Editor’s note: In a prolific career spanning nearly four decades, Satyajit Ray directed 36 films, including feature films, documentaries and shorts. That very year, Ray’s Abhijan released, and despite being one of the lesser known films of Satyajit Ray, it went on to become one of his biggest box-office successes. The film also marks the beginning of Satyajit Ray’s long-term …

Sadgati: Based on Premchand’s story, Satyajit Ray took a scathing look at the tragic lives of untouchables
7 years, 5 months ago

Sadgati: Based on Premchand’s story, Satyajit Ray took a scathing look at the tragic lives of untouchables

Firstpost  

Editor’s note: In a prolific career spanning nearly four decades, Satyajit Ray directed 36 films, including feature films, documentaries and shorts. In order to have the almanacs read and an auspicious date and time announced for the marriage, Dukhi goes to the village priest’s house and invites him back to his hut. When the brahmin priest reprimands him for not …

Devi: Satyajit Ray's commentary against blind belief, and the elevation of religion over reason, logic
7 years, 6 months ago

Devi: Satyajit Ray's commentary against blind belief, and the elevation of religion over reason, logic

Firstpost  

Editor’s note: In a prolific career spanning nearly four decades, Satyajit Ray directed 36 films, including feature films, documentaries and shorts. But since Tagore himself was a Brahmo, he consciously refrained from making a comment on the subject and instead asked one of his contemporaries, Prabhat Kumar Mukhopadhyay — a Hindu Brahmin, and a free-thinking individual at the same time …

Hirak Rajar Deshe: Satyajit Ray's satire against state oppression is one of Indian cinema's best
7 years, 6 months ago

Hirak Rajar Deshe: Satyajit Ray's satire against state oppression is one of Indian cinema's best

Firstpost  

Editor’s note: In a prolific career spanning nearly four decades, Satyajit Ray directed 36 films, including feature films, documentaries and shorts. In 1968, Satyajit Ray made a children’s film titled Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne, based on a short story written by his grandfather Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury. As with his previous film with Goopy and Bagha, in Hirak Rajar Deshe too, …

Monihara: Satyajit Ray's sole horror film induces the scariest emotion of all — hopelessness
7 years, 6 months ago

Monihara: Satyajit Ray's sole horror film induces the scariest emotion of all — hopelessness

Firstpost  

The story of Satyajit Ray’s Monihara begins as dusk falls, when a village schoolmaster walks through the compound of an abandoned and derelict mansion and comes and sits on the banks of a river. Editor’s note: In a prolific career spanning nearly four decades, Satyajit Ray directed 36 films, including feature films, documentaries and shorts. A large mansion next to …

Aranyer Din Ratri: Satyajit Ray's beautiful study of man, nature, and the very nature of man
7 years, 8 months ago

Aranyer Din Ratri: Satyajit Ray's beautiful study of man, nature, and the very nature of man

Firstpost  

Editor’s note: In a prolific career spanning nearly four decades, Satyajit Ray directed 36 films, including feature films, documentaries and shorts. There are many people who consider Aranyer Din Ratri the best film of Satyajit Ray’s post-Apu Trilogy career. At the end of the day, when Asim asks for her phone number, she writes her number on a currency note …

Jana Aranya: Satyajit Ray's most cynical, ruthless film resonates with today's world
7 years, 9 months ago

Jana Aranya: Satyajit Ray's most cynical, ruthless film resonates with today's world

Firstpost  

Editor’s note: In a prolific career spanning nearly four decades, Satyajit Ray directed 36 films, including feature films, documentaries and shorts. Jana Aranya is perhaps Ray’s most ruthless film, in which he doesn’t hold back from dealing one blow after another. In another scene, Ray explores the mind of the average Bengali Brahmin young man beautifully when Somnath shows his …

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