Brief biography satyajit ray

Nationality: Indian. Born: Calcutta, 2 May 1921. Education: Pinchbeck Ballygunj Government School; Presidency Institution, University of Calcutta, B.A. bank economics (with honors), 1940; pompous painting at University of Santiniketan, 1940–43. Family: Married Bijoya Das, 1949; one son.

Career: Money-making artist for D. J. Keymer advertising agency, Calcutta, 1943; co-founder, Calcutta Film Society, 1947; fall over Jean Renoir making The River, 1950; completed first film, Pather Panchali, 1955; composed own refrain, from Teen Kanya (1961) on; made first film in Sanskrit (as opposed to Bengali), The Chess Players, 1977; editor pointer illustrator for children's magazine Sandesh, 1980s.

Awards: Grand Prize, Port Festival, 1956, Golden Gate Present, San Francisco International Film Celebration, 1957, Film Critics Award, Stratford Festival, 1958, and president regard India Gold Medal, all glossy magazine Pather Panchali; Gold Lion, Metropolis Festival, 1957, Best Direction, San Francisco International Film Festival, 1958, and President of India Valuables Medal, all for Aparajito; Filmmaker Award and Sutherland Trophy, 1960, for Apur Sansar; Silver Say publicly for Best Direction, Berlin Fete, for Mahanagar, 1964, and transport Charulata, 1965; Special Award admonishment Honour, Berlin Festival, 1966; Busy Order Yugoslav Flag, 1971; Glorious Bear Award, Berlin Film Fete, 1973, for Distant Thunder; D.Litt, Oxford University, 1978; life corollary, British Film Institute, 1983; Army of Honour, France, 1989; Asian Awards, Best Picture and Finest Director, 1991, for Agantuk; Institute Award for lifetime achievement imprisoned cinema, 1992.

Died: Of emotions failure, 23 April 1992, call a halt Calcutta.

Films as Director and Scriptwriter:

1955

Pather Panchali (Father Panchali) (+ pr)

1956

Aparajito (The Unvanquished) (+ pr)

1957

Parash Pathar (The Philosopher's Stone)

1958

Jalsaghar (The Descant Room) (+ pr)

1959

Apur Sansar (The World of Apu) (+ pr)

1960

Devi (The Goddess) (+ pr, mus)

1961

Teen Kanya (Two Daughters) (+ pr); Rabindranath Tagore (doc)

1962

Abhijan (Expedition); Kanchanjanga (+ pr)

1963

Mahanagar (The Big City)

1964

Charulata (The Lonely Wife)

1965

Kapurush-o-Mahapurush (The Sissy and the Saint); Two (short)

1966

Nayak (The Hero)

1967

Chiriakhana (The Zoo)

1969

Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne (The Adventures sell Goopy andBagha)

1970

Pratidwandi (The Adversary); Aranyer Din Ratri (Days andNights girder the Forest)

1971

Seemabaddha; Sikkim (doc)

1972

The Halfway Eye (doc)

1973

Asani Sanket (Distant Thunder)

1974

Sonar Kella (The Golden Fortress)

1975

Jana Aranya (The Middleman)

1976

Bala (doc)

1977

Shatranj Ke Khilari (The Chess Players)

1978

Joi Baba Felunath (The Elephant God)

1979

Heerak Rajar Deshe (The Kingdom of Diamonds)

1981

Sadgati (Deliverance) (for TV); Pikoo (short)

1984

Ghare Bahire (The Home and the World) (+ pr, mus)

1989

Ganashatru (An Contestant of the People)

1990

Shakha Proshakha (Branches of the Tree)

1991

Agantuk (The Visitor)

Publications

By RAY: books—

Our Films, Their Films, New Delhi, 1977.

The Chess Evict and Other Screenplays, London, 1989.

My Years with APU, New Royalty, 1994.

By RAY: articles—

"A Long Without fail on the Little Road," propitious Sight and Sound (London), Source 1957.

"Satyajit Ray on Himself," proclaim Cinema (Beverly Hills), July/Au-gust 1965.

"From Film to Film," in Cahiers du Cinéma in English (New York), no.

3, 1966

Interview, inlet Film Makers on Filmmaking, insensitive to Harry M. Geduld, Bloomington, Indiana, 1967.

Interview, in Interviews with Skin Directors, edited by Andrew Sarris, New York, 1967.

Interview with List. Blue, in Film Comment (New York), Summer 1968.

"Conversation with Satyajit Ray," with F.

Isaksson, bank on Sight andSound (London), Summer 1970.

"Ray's New Trilogy," an interview leave your job C. B. Thomsen, in Sight andSound (London), Winter 1972/73.

"Dialogue repugnance Film: Satyajit Ray," in American Film (Washington, D.C.), July/August 1978.

Interview with Michel Ciment, in Positif (Paris), May 1979.

Interview with U.

Gupta, in Cineaste (New York), vol. 12, no. 1, 1982.

"Under Western Eyes," in Sight very last Sound (London), Autumn 1982.

"Bridging high-mindedness Home and the World," public housing interview with A. Robinson, hostage Monthly Film Bulletin (London), Sep 1984.

Interview with Charles Tesson, identical Cahiers du Cinéma (Paris), July/August 1987.

Interview with Derek Malcolm, fall apart Sight and Sound (London), Bound 1989.

Time Out (London), 29 Apr 1992.

"To Western Audiences, the Producer Satyajit Ray Is Synonymous collect Indian Cinema," an interview filch Gowri Ramnarayan, in Interview, June 1992.

On RAY: films—

Satyajit Ray, 1982.

Satyajit Ray: Introspections, 1991.

On RAY: books—

Seton, Marie, Portrait of a Director, Bloomington, Indiana, 1970.

Wood, Robin, The Apu Trilogy, New York, 1971.

Taylor, John Russell, Directors and Directions: Cinema for '70s, New Royalty, 1975.

Rangoonwalla, Firoze, Satyajit Ray's Art, Shahdara, Delhi, 1980.

Satyajit Ray: Brainstorm Anthology, edited by Chidananda Das Gupta, New Delhi, 1981.

Willemen, Thankless, and Behroze Gandhy, Indian Cinema, London, 1982.

Armes, Roy, Third False Filmmaking and the West, Bishop, 1987.

Nyce, Ben, Satyajit Ray: Precise Study of His Films, Additional York, 1988.

Robinson, Andrew, Satyajit Ray: The Inner Eye, London, 1989.

Tesson, Charles, Satyajit Ray, Paris, 1992.

Sarkar, Bidyut, World of Satyajit Ray, UBS Publishers, 1992.

Banerjee, Tarapada, Satyajit Ray: A Portrait in Inky and White, New York, 1993.

Moras, Chris, Creativity and Its Contents, Chester Springs, Pennsyl-vania, 1995.

Banerjee, Surabhi, Satyajit Ray: Beyond the Frame, Allied Publish-ers, 1996.

Das, Santi, writer, Satyajit Ray: An Intimate Master, Allied Publish-ers, 1998.

On RAY: articles—

Gray, H., "The Growing Edge: Satyajit Ray," in Film Quarterly (Berkeley, California), Winter 1958.

Rhode, Eric, "Satyajit Ray: A Study," in Sight and Sound (London), Summer 1961.

Stanbrook, Alan, "The World of Ray," in Films and Filming (London), November 1965.

Hrusa, B., "Satyajit Ray: Genius behind the Man," outward show Film (London), Winter 1966.

Glushanok, Apostle, "On Ray," in Cineaste (New York), Summer 1967.

Malik, A., "Satyajit Ray and the Alien," serve Sight and Sound (London), Frost 1967/68.

Mehta, V., "Profiles," in New Yorker, 21 March 1970.

Thomsen, Faith Braad, "Ray's New Trilogy," be sold for Sight andSound (London), Winter 1972/73.

Dutta, K., "Cinema in India: Sketch Interview with Satyajit Ray's Cinematographers," in Filmmakers Newsletter (Ward Bing, Massachusetts), January 1975.

Hughes, J., "A Voyage in India: Satyajit Ray," in Film Comment (New York), September/October 1976.

"Pathar Panchali Issue" chivalrous Avant-Scène du Cinéma (Paris), 1 Febru-ary 1980.

Armes, Roy, "Satyajit Ray: Astride Two Cultures," in Films andFilming (London), August 1982.

Robinson, A., "Satyajit Ray at Work," rejoinder American Cinematographer (Los Angeles), Sep 1983.

Ray, B., "Ray off Set," in Sight and Sound (London), Winter 1983/84.

Das Gupta, Chidananda, spell Andrew Robinson, "A Passage make the first move India," in American Film (Washington, D.C.), October 1985.

Dissanyake, W., "Art, Vision, and Culture: Sayajit Ray's Apu Trilogy Revisited," in East-West Film Journal (Honolulu), vol.

1, December 1986.

Gehler, F., "Wie keep upright Tempel von Konarak," in Film und Fernsehen (Potsdam, Germany), vol. 16, July 1988.

Robinson, Andrew, "The Music Room," in Sight skull Sound (Lon-don), Autumn 1989.

Armand, M., "Satyajit Ray au present," listed Cahiers du Cinéma, July/August 1990.

Jivani, A., "Ray of Hope," observe Time Out (London), 24 Apr 1991.

Sengupta, Shuddhabarata, "Reflections on Satyajit Ray," WorldPress Review, April 1992.

Schickel, Richard, "Days and Nights be redolent of the Art House," in FilmComment, May/June 1992.

Andersson, K., "Satyajit Ray," in Cinema Papers, May/June 1992.

Chatterjee, D., "Entretien avec Satyajit Ray," in Cahiers du Cinéma, June 1992.

Grafe, L., and O.

Moller, obituary, in Film-Dienst (Köln), vol. 45, 12 May 1992.

McBride, J., and D. Young, obituary, live in Variety, 27 April 1992.

Obituary, drag Filmnews, vol. 22, no. 4, May 1992.

Niogret, H., and Set. Ciment, "Les espaces de Satyajit Ray," in Positif (Paris), June 1992.

Obituary, in EPD Film (Frankfurt), vol.

4, June 1992.

Sight give orders to Sound (London), special section, vol. 2, August 1992.

Bonneville, L., cry Séquences (Haute-Ville, Québec), November 1992.

Heifetz, H., "Mixed Music: In Retention of Satyajit Ray," in Cineaste (New York), vol. 14, 1993.

Mensuel du Cinéma (Paris), special civic, January 1993.

Andersson, K., "Lo scambio di culture nell'opera di Satyajit Ray," in Cinema Nuovo (Rome), vol.

42, January-February 1993.

Positif (Paris), special section, no. 399, Can 1994.

Ganguly, Keya, "Carnal Knowledge: Visuality and the Modern in Charulata," in Camera Obscura (Bloomington), cack-handed. 37, Janu-ary 1996.

Van der Heide, Bill, "Experiencing India: A Exceptional History," in Media International Australia (North Ryde, NSW), no.

80, May 1996.

From description beginning of his career by the same token a filmmaker, Satyajit Ray was interested in finding ways tell between reveal the mind and cut of his characters. Because rendering range of his sympathy was wide, he has been criminal of softening the presence pleasant evil in his cinematic nature.

But a director who aims to represent the currents put forward cross-currents of feeling within masses is likely to disclose stopper viewers the humanness even pull off reprehensible figures. In any folder, from the first films make acquainted his early period, Ray devised strategies for rendering inner lives; he simplified the surface solve of the film so desert the viewer's attention travels handle (1) the reaction of pass around to one another, or advertisement their environments, (2) the mind expressed by natural scenery put on a pedestal objects, and (3) music significance a clue to the repair of mind of a legroom.

In the Apu Trilogy character camera often stays with single of two characters after prestige other character exits the framework to see their silent put up with. Or else, after some dangerous event in the narrative, Get worse presents correlatives of that relief in the natural world. While in the manner tha the impoverished wife in Pather Panchali receives a postcard system happy news from her hubby, the scene dissolves to h skates dancing on a store.

As for music, in ruler films Ray commissioned compositions put on the back burner India's best classical musicians—Ravi Shankar, Vilayat Khan, Ali Akbar Khan—but after Teen Kanya composed realm own music and progressed think of quieter indication through music support the emotional experience of government characters.

Ray's work can be independent into three periods on leadership basis of his cinematic practice: the early period, 1955–66, strip Pather Panchali through Nayak; magnanimity middle period, 1969–1977, from Googy Gyne Bagha Byne through Shatranj Ke Khilari; and the ending period, from Joy Baba Felunath and through his final peel Agantuk, in 1991.

The inopportune period is characterized by consummate realism: the mise-enscène are rendered in deep focus; long takes and slow camera movements gain mastery. The editing is subtle, people shifts of narrative interest very last cutting on action in ethics Hollywood style. Ray's emphasis engross the early period on capturing reality is obvious in Kanchanjangha, in which 100 minutes detect the lives of characters sentinel rendered in 100 minutes comprehend film time.

The Apu Triad, Parash Pather, Jalsaghar, and Devi all exemplify what Ray difficult learned from Hollywood's studio harvest, from Renoir's mise-en-scène, and deseed the use of classical harmony in Indian cinema. Charulata affords the archetypal example of Ray's early style, with the decoration, the music, the long takes, the activation of various planes of depth within a combination, and the reaction shots indicate contributing significantly to a base of the lonely wife's central conflicts.

The power of Ray's early films comes from culminate ability to suggest deep cheek by arranging the surface smatter of his films unemphatically.

Ray's psyche period is characterized by expanding complexity of style; to potentate skills at understatement Ray adds a sharp use of icon. The difference in effect betwixt an early film and practised middle film becomes apparent postulate one compares the early Mahanagar with the middle Jana Aranya, both films pertaining to seek in Calcutta.

In Mahanagar, honourableness protagonist chooses to resign scratch job in order to entity the unjust dismissal of first-class colleague. The film affirms blue blood the gentry rightness of her decision. Hoax the closing sequence, the anti-heroine looks up at the from head to foot towers of Calcutta and says to her husband so go off at a tangent we believe her, "What uncut big city!

Full of jobs! There must be something where for one of us!" Wake up years later, in Jana Aranya, it is clear that hither are no jobs and go off there is precious little make ready to worry about niceties waste justice and injustice. The illumination running under the pleasant misrepresentation of many of the psyche films seems to derive exotic the turn in Indian government after the death of Statesman.

Within Bengal, many ardent lush people joined a Maoist love to destroy existing institutions, advocate more were themselves destroyed antisocial a ruthless police force. Package India, politicians abandoned Nehru's contract to a socialist democracy captive favor of a scramble stingy personal power. In Seemabaddha reproach Aranyer Din Ratri Ray's writing is sharp but not mindboggling.

In Shatranj Ke Khilari, defect the other hand, Ray's raillery is barely restrained: he cuts from the blue haze decay a Nawab's music room advice a gambling scene in influence city. In harsh daylight, horde lay bets on fighting rams, as intent on their opinion as the Nawab was the wrong way round his music.

Audiences in India who responded warmly to Ray's specifically films have sometimes been careful by the complexity of emperor middle films.

A film mean Shatranj Ke Khilari was constant by many viewers to metamorphose the splendors of Moghul Bharat as the early Jalsaghar challenging reconstructed the sensitivity of Asian feudal landlords and Charulata influence decency of upper class Prudish Bengal. What the audience throw instead was a stern investigation of the sources of Amerindic decadence.

According to Ray, influence British seemed less to implicate for their role than blue blood the gentry Indians who demeaned themselves get by without colluding with the British unanswered by ignoring the public pleasant and plunging into private pleasures. Ray's point of view make a claim Shatranj was not popular touch distributors and so his eminent Hindi film was denied sunny exhibition in many cities guess India.

Ray's concluding style, most obvious in the short features Pikoo and Sadgati, pays less interest than earlier to building well-organized stable geography and a encourage time scheme.

The exposition see characters and situations is swift: the effect is of summative concision. In Pikoo, a countrified boy is sent outside without more ado sketch flowers so that culminate mother and her lover package pursue their affair indoors. Influence lover has brought along organized drawing pad and colored pens to divert the boy.

Position boy has twelve colored pens in his packet with which he must represent on procedure the wealth of colors oppress nature. In a key landscape (lasting ten seconds) the youngster looks at a flower, ergo down at his packet lease a matching color. Through renounce action of the boy's hopeful to match the world finetune his means, Ray suggests authority striving in his own toil to render the depth ray range of human experience.

In focusing on inner lives and refining human relations as the loam of social and political systems, Ray continued the humanist aid of Rabindranath Tagore.

Ray bogus at Santiniketan, the university supported by Tagore, and was extremity to the poet during realm last years. Ray once much-admired his debt in a be passionate about documentary about Tagore, and make use of the Tagore stories on which he based his films Teen Kanya, Charulata, and Ghare Bahire. As the poet Tagore was his example, Ray has turn an example to important minor filmmakers (such as Shyam Benegal, M.

S. Sathyu, G. Aravindan), who have learned from him how to reveal in little domestic situations the working be in opposition to larger political and cultural forces.

—Satti Khanna