A tribute to Satyajit Ray
We pay a tribute to the legendry filmmaker Satyajit Ray on his 89th birth anniversary.
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The Satyajit Ray classic Aranyer Din Ratri will be this year's highlight at River to River, Italy's only festival of Indian cinema that is celebrating its 10th anniversary. Four films by India's master filmmaker - Shatranj Ke Khiladi, Jalsaghar, Charulata being the other three - will be screened in the retrospective section at the weeklong festival that opens in Florence Dec 3.
We pay a tribute to the legendary filmmaker... -
Satyajit Ray was born in Kolkata on May 2, 1921, into an illustrious Bengali family. His father, Sukumar Ray was a pioneering writer of Bengali nonsense rhyme and children's literature. After graduating from Presidency College, Ray studied fine arts at the Shantiniketan university founded by Rabindranath Tagore
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His early working life included advertising and publishing but he decided to make movies after watching Vittorio De Sica's Bicycle Thieves. In 1943, he assisted French director Jean Renoir who was in Kolkata shooting The River. Renoir encouraged Ray to turn to filmmaking
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Post Charulata, Ray branched into genres including science fiction, fantasy and mystery. He made serious movies – Nayak (1966), Pratidwandi (1970), Seemabaddha (1971), Jana Aranya (1975) – as well as lighter fare – Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne (1969), Sonar Kella (1974) and Joy Baba Felunath (1978)
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He began his career with an award at Cannes and ended it with a Lifetime Achievement Oscar as well as the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award. He also won the Golden Lion for Aparajito at the Venice Film Festival in 1956 and the Golden Lion Honorary Award there in 1982. That same year, he was given a special “Hommage a Satyajit Ray” award at Cannes
