Satyajit Ray (May 2 1921-April 23 1992) was a Bengali film director whose films are perhaps the greatest testament to Bengali and Indian cinema. He has a large collection of works that are accliaimed among the world film industry. He has been called one of the four greatest director-producers of cinema in the world.
Satyajit Ray is perhaps the most well known Indian filmmaker to the Western World and inarguably among the great masters of world cinema. He made his films in Bengali. Ray was born in Calcutta in a distinguished family of Bengal. His grandfather Upendra Kishore Ray was a scientist, amateur astronomer, illustrator, musician, writer of children’s stories and a publisher. His father Sukumar Ray was a brilliant writer and his mother an exceptional singer.
After graduating from Calcutta’s Presidency College, Ray went to Shantiniketan, the university founded by Rabindranath Tagore. There Ray read widely, observed nature, and became interested in graphic design while studying fine art.
Ray returned to Calcutta in 1943 and worked with a British owned advertising agency, as a visualiser. In 1949 he met the great French director Jean Renoir who encouraged Ray to make films. When ad. agency sent him to work in their head office in London, he took the opportunity to see as many films as he could and it inspired him to start work on ‘Pather Panchali’.
‘Pather Panchali’ was three years in the making—years of unceasing finance struggle. It was ultimately completed with the help of the West Bengal Government. The film won a special prize at Cannes for the ‘Best Human Document’ and even had a run of 13 weeks in Calcutta. The two other films—Aparajito (1956) and Apur Sansar (1959) done well and acclaimed widely. Though a profilic period of interesting filmmaking followed for Ray—Jalsagar (1958), Devi (1960), Teen Kanya (1961), Abhijan (1962), Kanchenjunga (1962)—his first film in colour, Mahanagar (1963)—perhaps his next masterpiece and most perfectly crafted film was Charulata (1964). He was honoured with Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1967 for his services in the field of literature and journalism.
Ray worked in no fixed genre unlike many of his contemporaries—a song and dance children’s fantasy film—Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne (1969), Pratiwandi (1970), Seemabaddha (1974) and Jana Aranya (1975)— his modern urban trilogy with the common thematic thread—corruption uniting the three films. Detective crime fiction—Sonar Kella (1974), Jai Baba Felunath (1978) and Shatranj Ke Khiladi (1977) his first film in Hindi.
In 1978, the organising committee of the Berlin Film Festival ranked him as one of the three all-time best directors. In the 1980s Ray had to stop making films for five years due to ill-health but late in 1988 his doctors permitted him to work provided he restricted himself to indoor studio shooting. Of his last films perhaps the only one which saw him return to form somewhat was in fact his last film, Agantuk (1991).
Though not well received in India, in Paris, the film figured in the top ten box-office grossers. Finally in 1992, Satyajit Ray received the honorary Academy Award (Oscar) for Lifetime Achievement in recognition of his rare mastery of the art of motion pictures.
Besides many other accolades, he was awarded Bharat Ratna in 1992. He went for his heavenly abode on 23 April 1992.
