Satyajit Ray filmography

Satyajit Ray

Satyajit Ray is very famous director from India who had directed more than 30 movies, in a span of 40 years, mostly in bengali. However, he was also credited as writer (story writer as well as screenplay writer), composer and producer in many cinemas, besides other credits such as lyricist, production designer in a few films. The filmography of Satyajit Ray is listed here.

Filmography

Directed by Ray

Sr. No.	Year	Title	Original Title	English Title	Language	Duration	Producer	Music	Screenplay	Writer
01	1955	Pather Panchali	পথের পাঁচালী	A Song of the Little Road	Bengali	115 Mins			Yes
02	1956	Aparajito	অপরাজিত	The Unvanquished	Bengali	113 Mins	Yes		Yes
03	1958	Parash Pathar	পরশ পাথর	The Philosopher's Stone	Bengali	111 Mins			Yes
04	1958	Jalsaghar	জলসাঘর	The Music Room	Bengali	100 Mins	Yes		Yes
05	1959	Apur Sansar	অপুর সংসার	The World of Apu	Bengali	106 Mins	Yes		Yes
06	1960	Devi	দেবী	The Goddess	Bengali	93 Mins	Yes		Yes
07	1961	Teen Kanya The Postmaster Monihara Samapti	তিন কন্যা পোস্টমাস্টার মণিহারা সমাপ্তি	Three Daughters / Two Daughters * The Postmaster The Lost Jewels The Conclusion	Bengali	56 Mins 61 Mins 56 Mins	Yes	Yes	Yes
08	1961	Rabindranath Tagore ♦	রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর	Rabindranath Tagore	Bengali	54 Mins			Yes
09	1962	Kanchenjungha	কাঞ্চনজঙ্ঘা	Kanchenjungha	Bengali	102 Mins		Yes	Yes
10	1962	Abhijan	অভিযান	The Expedition	Bengali	150 Mins		Yes	Yes
11	1963	Mahanagar	মহানগর	The Big City	Bengali	131 Mins		Yes	Yes
12	1964	Charulata	চারুলতা	The Lonely Wife	Bengali	117 Mins		Yes	Yes
13	1964	Two ¢		Two	No spoken language	15 Mins		Yes	Yes
14	1965	Kapurush-O-Mahapurush Kapurush Mahapurush	কাপুরুষ মহাপুরুষ	The Coward The Holy Man	Bengali	74 Mins 65 Mins		Yes	Yes
15	1966	Nayak	নায়ক	The Hero	Bengali	120 Mins		Yes	Yes
16	1967	Chiriyakhana	চিড়িয়াখানা	The Zoo	Bengali	125 Mins		Yes	Yes
17	1968	Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne	গুপী গাইন বাঘা বাইন	The Adventures of Goopy and Bagha	Bengali	132 Mins		Yes	Yes
18	1969	Aranyer Din Ratri	অরণ্যের দিনরাত্রি	Days and Nights in the Forest	Bengali	115 Mins		Yes	Yes
19	1970	Pratidwandi	প্রতিদ্বন্দ্বী	The Adversary	Bengali	110 Mins		Yes	Yes
20	1971	Seemabaddha	সীমাবদ্ধ	A Company Limited	Bengali	112 Mins		Yes	Yes
21	1971	Sikkim ♦ - †		Sikkim	English	60 Mins		Yes	Yes
22	1972	The Inner Eye ♦ - †		The Inner Eye	English	20 Mins		Yes	Yes
23	1973	Ashani Sanket	অশনি সংকেত	The Distant Thunder	Bengali	101 Mins		Yes	Yes
24	1974	Sonar Kella	সোনার কেল্লা	The Fortress	Bengali	120 Mins		Yes	Yes	Yes
25	1975	Jana Aranya	জনঅরণ্য	The Middleman	Bengali	131 Mins		Yes	Yes
26	1976	Bala ♦		Bala	English	33 Mins		Yes	Yes
27	1977	Shatranj Ke Khiladi ‡	शतरंज के खिलाडी	The Chess Players	Hindi, Urdu, English	113 Mins		Yes	Yes
28	1978	Joi Baba Felunath	জয় বাবা ফেলুনাথ	The Elephant God	Bengali	112 Mins		Yes	Yes	Yes
29	1980	Hirak Rajar Deshe	হীরক রাজার দেশে	The Kingdom of Diamonds	Bengali	118 Mins		Yes	Yes
30	1980	Pikoo ¢	পিকু	Pikoo's Day	Bengali	26 Mins		Yes	Yes	Yes
31	1981	Sadgati	सद्गति	The Deliverance	Hindi	52 Mins		Yes	Yes
32	1984	Ghare Baire	ঘরে বাইরে	The Home and The World	Bengali	140 Mins		Yes	Yes
33	1987	Sukumar Ray ♦	সুকুমার রায়	Sukumar Ray	Bengali	30 Mins		Yes	Yes
34	1989	Ganashatru	গণশত্রু	An Enemy of the People	Bengali	100 Mins		Yes	Yes
35	1990	Shakha Proshakha	শাখা প্রশাখা	The Branches of the Tree	Bengali	130 Mins		Yes	Yes
36	1991	Agantuk	আগন্তুক	The Stranger	Bengali	120 Mins		Yes	Yes	Yes

* - The title "Teen Kanya" means three daughters (or girls), but the international version of the film is called "Two Daughters". This is because the feature has three different stories; however, only two of them were included for the international release: The Postmaster - 56 Mins. and Samapti - 56 Mins.

♦ - Documentary
¢ - Short Film
† - Sound Department
‡ - Dialogues

Contributions by Ray

Sr. No.	Year	Original Title	Bengali Title	English Title	Language	Duration	Director	Composer	Screenplay	Writer	Other
01	1950	Chinnamul	ছিন্নমূল	The Uprooted	Bengali	117 Mins	Nemai Ghosh			Yes *
02	1951	The River		The River	Bengali, English	99 Mins	Jean Renoir				Assistant Director *
03	1965	Shakespeare Wallah		Shakespeare Wallah	English	120 Mins	James Ivory	Yes
04	1970	Baksa Badal	বাক্স বদল	Luggage Exchanged	Bengali	106 Mins	Nityananda Datta	Yes	Yes	Yes
05	1983	Phatik Chand	ফটিক চাঁদ	Phatik Chand	Bengali	96 Mins	Sandip Ray	Yes	Yes	Yes
06	1991	Goopy Bagha Phire Elo	গুপী বাঘা ফিরে এলো	The Return of Goopy and Bagha	Bengali	119 Mins	Sandip Ray	Yes	Yes	Yes
07	1994	Uttoran	উত্তরণ	The Broken Journey	Bengali	90 Mins	Sandip Ray		Yes	Yes
08	1995	Target	টার্গেট	Target	Bengali	100 Mins (UK) 122 Mins (USA)	Sandip Ray			Yes
09	1996	Baksho Rahashya	বাক্স রহস্য	The Secret of Suitcase	Bengali	98 Mins	Sandip Ray			Yes
10	2003	Bombaiyer Bombete	বোম্বাইয়ের বোম্বেটে		Bengali	110 Mins	Sandip Ray			Yes
11	2006	Bankubabur Bandhu		Banku Babu's Friend	Bengali	45 mins	Koushik Sen			Yes
12	2007	Kailashey Kelenkari	কৈলাসে কেলেঙ্কারী	A Scandal in Kailash	Bengali	98 Mins	Sandip Ray			Yes
13	2008	Tintorettor Jishu	তিনতোরেত্তোর যীশু	Tintoretto's Jesus	Bengali	100 minutes	Sandip Ray			Yes
14	2010	Gorosthane Sabdhan	গোরস্থানে সাবধান	Attention at the Symmetry	Bengali	93 minutes	Sandip Ray			Yes

* - Uncredited

Other Work

Sr. No.	Year	Title	Director	Role	Note
01	1986	Satyajit Ray Presents I	Sandip Ray	Screenplay Writer and Composer	13 shorts for TV, Stories by Satyajit Ray
02	1986	Satyajit Ray Presents II	Sandip Ray	Screenplay Writer and Composer	A TV series based on 2 long stories and a Feluda novel by Satyajit Ray
03	1999	Ray: Life and Work of Satyajit Ray	Gautam Ghose	Composer	Documentary

Short description

Pather Panchali

In his younger age, Satyajit Ray had convinced that he should become a filmmaker, and also convinced that Pather Panchali would be his first film. Write of novel Pather Panchali, Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay was deceased at that point, but his widow was generous enough to allow a complete novice to shoot her husband's masterpiece. The film never had a complete script, it was made from Ray's drawings and notes. Shooting started in early 1953. In retrospect, the technical team was immensely talented, even apart from Ray; both Subrata Mitra (Cinematographer) and Bansi Chandragupta (Art Director) would later be considered undisputed masters of their craft. However, at that point, Ray had never directed anything and Mitra had never operated a movie camera, though Chandragupta was a young professional.

The father, Harihar, was played by a professional film actor, Kanu Banerjee, but Sarbajoya, the mother, was interpreted by Karuna Banerjee, an amateur theater actress and wife of Ray's friend. Apu was spotted on a neighbor's terrace by Bijoya Ray, while Durga was chosen from an interview. The hardest to cast was of course the character of the Aunt, as Bibhutibhusan had described an 80 year old with features to go with. Both existence of such an actress and her ability to act was suspect, but Ray ultimately spotted his most inspired casting of the film in Chunibala Devi, and old retired stage actress, then living in a brothel.

Funding was a problem from the beginning, as no producer agreed to produce the film. Ray kept working in Keymer, exhausted his last penny, and sold the LP records close to his heart. His production manager Anil Chowdhury was reduced to sleeping in a taxi at one point, and he (Chowdhury) convinced Bijoya to pawn her jewels as well (Ray's life insurance policy had already been pawned). Still, partway through filming Ray ran out of funds; the Government of West Bengal loaned him the rest, allowing him to finish the film. The money was loaned on record for 'roads improvement' (Pather Panchali translates as 'song of the road').

While it was in making, a number of westerners, like Monroe Wheeler from the Museum of Modern Art, saw the rushes and immediately saw that a film of invigorating originality was being produced. However, when it went to Cannes, it was screened towards the end of the festival and at the same time as a party thrown by the Japanese delegation. A small number of critics gathered to see the film bored by the propect to see yet another Indian melodrama, when they found "the magic horse of poetry" slowly invading the screen.^[1] The film was awarded the Best Human Document prize at the 1955 Cannes film festival.

In general, Pather Panchali was reviewed worldwide with great praise. Akira Kurosawa said, "I can never forget the excitement in my mind after seeing it. It is the kind of cinema that flows with the serenity and nobility of a big river." ^[2] Newsweek critic reviewed the film as , "One of the most stunning first films in movie history. Ray is a welcome jolt of flesh, blood and spirit." LA Weekly wrote that the film was "As deeply beautiful and plainly poetic as any movie ever made. Rare and exquisite".^[3] "This tale, as crafted by Ray, touches the souls and minds of viewers, transcending cultural and linguistic barriers." was to write James Berardinelli.^[4]

The reaction was not uniformly positive, though. After a Cannes screening, François Truffaut is reported to have said: "I don’t want to see a movie of peasants eating with their hands."^[5] In fact, Ray movies started being appreciated in France only starting in 1980's after Jalsaghar was released there. Bosley Crowther, then the most influential critic of The New York Times, also wrote a review of Panchali that some thought would kill off the film when it was released for a year (it had an exceptionally long run).

The next decade

The rest of the next decade (1956-1965) saw Ray complete the Apu Trilogy. But this period also showcases his exceptional range as a filmmaker, and his increasing control on the medium of his choice. Ray composed films on the British Raj period (Devi, Jalsaghar), a documentary on Rabindranath Tagore (Rabindranath Tagore), two comic films (Parash Pathar, Mahapurush) and his first film from an original screenplay (Kanchenjungha). He also made a number of films (some based on stories of Tagore), that are among the most deeply felt portrayal of Indian women on screen, moving Pauline Kael to comment that she could not believe that Ray was a man, and not a woman. ^[6]

In 1957, Ray completed Aparajito, the second installment of the Apu films. This films follows the family in Varanasi, where the ailing Harihar dies. This prompts Sarbojoya to return to Bengal with Apu, back to a village life (though not the same village as in Pather Panchali). Apu starts going to school, turns out to be a rather good student, and finally the opportunity comes for him to go Calcutta. From this point the film becomes increasingly poignant, as Ray films an eternal struggle, between the young man and his ambitions and the mother who loves him, but finds him increasingly alienated from herself. The film is strikingly modern, which probably explains its lack of box office success, but many critics, notably Mrinal Sen and Ritwik Ghatak rank it even higher than the first film. Aparajito won the Golden Lion in Venice, removing any doubt that Ray's first film was a fluke.

Apur Sansar was made in 1959. Just like the two previous films, numerous critics find this to be the supreme achievement of the Trilogy (Robin Wood, Aparna Sen). One critic went as far as saying, "The World of Apu ... probably the most important single film made since the introduction of sound". ^[7] Ray introduced two of his favorite actors Soumitra Chatterjee and Sharmila Tagore in this film. The film finds Apu (Soumitra) living in a non-descript Calcutta house in near-poverty. He gets involved in an unusual marriage with Aparna, the scenes of the their life together forming "one of the cinema's classic affirmative depiction of married life". ^[8] But Aparna's death devastates Apu, causing him to reject his newborn son, but five years later, he finally comes back. Life has again truimphed over death.

Before the completion of the Trilogy, Ray completed two other films. The first is the comic Parash Pathar, made in 1958. In his performance of a lifetime, Tulsi Chakrabarti plays a poor Calcutta clerk who suddenly stumbles upon a stone than turns iron into gold. Ray follows his rise and inevitable fall with candid humor and humanism. Parash Pathar was then followed by Jalsaghar, widely regarded as one of the masterpieces of his ouvre.^[9] In this film, Ray studied a bygone era, that of the Zamindars. Bishwambhar Roy, the protagonist of the film, is a zamindar on brink of financial destruction, and has lost touch with everything after the death of his wife and son, except his passion for music. Ray followed this poignant story by Devi, a film in which studies the deep superstitions in the Hindu society with characteristic subtlety. Sharmila Tagore gives an outstanding performance as Doyamoyee, a young wife who is deified by her father-in-law. She commented later, "Devi was what a genius got out of me, not something I did myself".

In 1961, Ray made a documentary Rabindranath Tagore on Rabindranath Tagore, on the occasion of the poet's birth centennial, a tribute to the person who probably influenced him most. This was followed by Teen Kanya, a collection of three small films made based on stories of Tagore. The first installment, Postmaster, "A small gem", is the most acclaimed of the three. Bosley Crowther, who previously wrote a scathing review of Pather Panchali, conceded in New York times that it "says almost all that can be managed about the loneliness of the human heart." In 1962, Ray directed Kanchenjungha, which was his first original screenplay and colour film, tells a story of an upper class Bengali family spending an afternoon in Darjeeling, a mountain resort, thus film time coincides with real time. Complex and musically composed, the film tells the story of the family members revolt against the dominating family-head Indranath Roy, and his final humbling.

By now, Ray had found in Madhabi Mukherjee (introduced in film by Mrinal Sen), the perfect actress to interpret the main character in a film he long wanted to make, Mahanagar. Mahanagar was the among the most contemporary of Ray's work to date, telling a story of a house wife who decides to work to support her family, and the conflicts and emotions that leads to. Ray won Silver Bear in Berlin International Film Festival for the film. He also finished Abhijan in 1962, a story of a taxi driver (Soumitra Chatterjee) and Gulabi (Waheeda Rehman).

In 1964, Satyajit Ray made Charulata, regarded as many critics as his masterpiece. ^[10] Based on Nastanirh, a short story of Tagore, the film tells the tale of a lonely wife, Charu, in 19th century Bengal, and her growing feelings for her brother-in-law, Amal. This Mozartian film is often called "perfect" to the minutest detail, Ray himself famously said the film contained "least flaws" among his work, and his only work, that given a chance, he would make exactly the same way. ^[11] Madhabi Mukherjee, as the lead actress, gives a stunning performance in the film, accompanied by excellent ones by everyone else. The film also showcases the craft of both Subrata Mitra and Bansi Chandragupta at their best, the cinematography has influenced many films since. Almost all passages of the film have entered Bengali movie lore, but two scenes have received special critical attention: The first seven wordless minutes of the film, depicting Charu's ennui, and the "Garden-swing sequence", where Charu confronts her love for Amal. Charulata was followed by Kapurush-O-Mahapurush in 1965.

Later work

In 1966, Satyajit Ray cast Uttam Kumar, the iconic hero of Bengali film industry in a film of his for the first time. The film, Nayak, which examines the life of a successful cinema star. Arindam, the star, is on a train to Delhi to pick a national award. Though almost everyone else on the train either lionizes him or hates him, he finds a sypathetic listener in Aditi (Sharmila Tagore), an editor for a women's magazine, and reveals his inner angst to her. The film was shown in Berlin to somewhat lukewarm reception, which saddened Ray.^[12] Nayak was followed by Chiriyakhana, a whodunit again starring Uttam Kumar. Ray, who directed the film at the request of his assistants who tried to film it but later lost nerve, essentially discounted the film from his ouvre.

In 1969, Ray made what would be commercially the most successful of his films. Based on a children's story written by his grandfather, Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne is a musical fantasy. Goopy, the singer and Bagha, the drummer, meet each other in a forest after being outcast from the villages for terrible musical performances. Here they meet the King of Ghosts, pleased with them allows them three boons. Equipped with the power of magically getting food, shoes that carry them instantly to any place they wish, and most importantly marvelous singing and drumming skills, the duo set out to a fantastic journey in which they finally stop an impending war between two neighboring states, Shundi and Halla. Ray made a sequel to this film in 1980, a somewhat overtly political Hirak Rajar Deshe (where the kingdom of the evil Diamond King or Hirok Raj is an allusion to India during Indira Gandhi's emergency period). ^[13]

After this fantasy film, Ray made a film that again (like many others) has been called his masterpiece. Featuring a musical structure arguably even more complex than Charulata, Aranyer Din Ratri was based on a story of the relatively new poet and writer, Sunil Gangopadhyay. It traces four Calcuttan young men going to the forests for a vacation, trying to leave their petty urban existence behind. All but one of them get engaged into revealing encounters with women, which becomes a deep study of the Indian middle class, but done with virtuouso humor and wit. According to Robin Wood, "A single sequence [of the film] ... would offer material for a short essay", ^[14] but the "memory game sequence" where the four men and two women play a game of memory where they have to name famous people (revealing much about themselves in the process) has been the most acclaimed one.

Often accused, at least in Bengal of ignoring the contemporary realities of the Indian urban experience, Ray finally made his emphatic statement on the topic in 1970's. He completed the so-called Calcutta trilogy: Pratidwandi, Seemabaddha and Jana Aranya, three films which were conceived separately, but whose thematic connections form a loose trilogy. Though made in that order, the class and age of the protagonist imposes an alternative order on them (which critics often use): Pratidwandi about an idealist young graduate; if dillusioned, still uncorrupted at the end of film, Jana Aranya about how a young man gives in to the culture of corruption to make a living, and Seemabaddha about an already successful man giving up morals for further gains. Of this, the first, Pratidwandi uses an elliptical narrative style previously unseen in Ray films, such as scenes in negative, dream sequences and abrupt flashbacks. The other two have a more simple narrative style. This difference reflects the superior imagination and sensitibility of the protagonist of Pratidwandi, Siddhartha, a character Ray deeply identified with. ^[15] On the other hand, Jana Aranya is the bleakest, displaying a dark humor hithertho unseen in a Ray film.

In 1973, Ray returned to rural India after more than a decade with his Ashani Sanket. Here the filmmaker studies one of the great tragedies of recent Bengali history, the famine in 1943 that caused at least 3 million deaths. It was caused by a combination of ruthless speculation, apathy of the British rulers and disrupted communication due to the World War II. The film continues to confirm Ray's unique artistic perspective, he decides to look at the famine from the viewpoint of the village dwellers affected by it, caught unaware in the vortex of events they have no idea about. ^[16] The nature is lush, green photographed beautifully, to contrast against the impending danger. Ray cast Bobita, a Bangladeshi actress, as Ananga (the main female role), which launched her career as the leading actress in Bangladesh.

Ray directed Sonar Kella in 1975, a comedy-thriller for children, first of Feluda Series, followed by Joi Baba Felunath in 1978.

In 1977, Ray completed Shatranj Ke Khiladi, an Urdu movie about chess players of Lucknow. This was Ray's first feature film in a language other than Bengali, something he previously said he would not do. This is also his most expensive and star-studded film, featuring likes of Sanjeev Kumar, Saeed Jaffrey, Amjad Khan, Shabana Azmi, Victor Banerjee and Richard Attenborough. It was based on a story by Munshi Premchand, an important writer of Hindi literature. The film studies the decadence of the Lucknow gentry and the helpless surrender of its Nawab to the British in 1859. Ray infuses humanism and warmth in to these decadent characters, contrasting that of the acrid sarcasm of Premchand. This is characteristic of Ray, who was "bored by villains". In fact, at some point he thought about giving up the project as he was completely repulsed by the Nawab, but only finally went through it when he found his saving grace (after a long period of research), his love for music and arts.

In 1981, after being denied by the Indian government to make a film on child labour (on the ground that it was illegal in India), Ray reacted by making a Hindi film called Sadgati, dealing with arguably the equally depressing fact of untouchability. Based on a story of Premchand, this is his "cruelest film",^[17] and varied very little from the literary work, somewhat uncharateristic of Ray. The film presents, with excruciating detail, the life of Dukhi, an untouchable, and his death while working for the merciless Ghansiram, a Brahmin, who manages to throw his body in an animal dumping ground without ever touching him.

During making Ghare Baire in early eighties, Ray suffered a heart attack that would severely restrict his creative output in the years to come. Nevertheless with the help of his son, Sandip Ray, who would operate the camera from then on, completed this film in 1984. He wanted to film this Tagore novel on the dangers of fervent nationalism for a long time, and even wrote a (weak, by his own admission) script for it in the 1940s. In spite of ineveitable rough patches due to his illness, the film did receive some critical acclaim, and it contained the first full-blown kiss in Ray's films.

Ray's last three films, made after his recovery, have a very distinctive style, largely due to the strictures put on him by doctors. Shot mostly indoors, they are much more verbose than his earlier films. Ganashatru, the first of the trio, is based on An Enemy of the People of Henrik Ibsen. Ray transfers the story of the lone doctor to Bengal. Ganashatru is regarded by some as a weak film by Ray standards, and seen as an exercise to get back into filming after prolonged illness. ^[18] In Shakha Proshakha, made from an original screenplay, Ray is back to form. In this film of "distressing beauty", ^[19] three sons come to see their ailing father, who lives with a fourth son, who has mental problems. The father, who has lived a life of utmost honesty, comes to learn the corruption of his sons, and the final scene shows him finding solace only in the companionship of the fourth, uncorrupted but mentally ill son. Agantuk, Ray's last, is another original screenplay, based on a short story Atithi he had written earlier. This film tells a story of Anila (Mamata Shankar), who receives a letter from a man (Utpal Dutt), who claims to be her long lost uncle, who later on appears and stays with the family, stating that he is an anthropologist who has traveled all over the world.

Documentaries and short films

In addition to the documentary made on Tagore in 1981, Ray made a number of others. Most of these are on artists he admired. His favorite, and the one to achieve most critical acclaim, was The Inner Eye, on the blind painter Benode Behari Mukherjee, who was Ray's teacher at Santiniketan. The name of the film would later supply the title to Ray's biography by Andrew Robinson. Ray made a documentary Bala on Balasaraswati, the virtuouso Bharatnatyam dancer, then in her late fifties. Though it contains a beautiful performance by Bala, her lack to discuss her early life left Ray dissatisfied with the project. In 1987, Ray made a documentary Sukumar Ray, on his father, Sukumar Ray. He also made a film of Sikkim before it was annexed by India, but very few copies of the prints exist as the Indian government was adverse to its distribution.

Apart from the hours longs films in Kapurush-Mahapurush and Teen Kanya, Ray also made two shorter films. The first one, Two, is worldless 15 minute film on two boys, one rich and one poor. The rich boy tries to trump the poor boys modest toys by his more expensive ones, with apparent success, but the last passage of the film features the poor boy playing a beautiful flute in the background. The second and longer one, Pikoor Diary, enjoys something of a cult status among its admirers. According to Ray, it was "a poetic statement that cannot be reduced to concrete terms". Based on an earlier short story written by himself, Ray explores a days of a small boy Pikoo and his uncomplicated approach to life while his mother seduces a friend of his father, and his grandfather lies dying.

Unfilmed

In 1967, Ray wrote a script for a movie to be entitled The Alien, with Columbia Pictures as producer for this planned US/India co-production, and Peter Sellers and Marlon Brando as the leading actors. However Ray was surprised to find that the script he had co-written had already been copyrighted and the fee appropriated. Marlon Brando dropped out of the project and though an attempt was made to bring James Coburn in his place, Ray became disillusioned and returned to Calcutta.^[20] Columbia expressed interest in reviving the project several times in the 70s and 80s but nothing came of it. When E.T. was released in 1982, many saw striking similarities in the movie to Ray's earlier script - Ray discussed the collapse of the project in a 1980 Sight & Sound feature, with further details revealed by Ray's biographer Andrew Robinson (in The Inner Eye, 1989). Ray believed that Spielberg's movie "would not have been possible without my script of The Alien being available throughout America in mimeographed copies."^[21]

Other films Ray expressed interest to make but never did for various reasons include a short documentary on Ravi Shankar, a film based on Mahabharata, the great Indian epic and E. M. Forster's A Passage to India.

Other works

See also: Literary works of Satyajit Ray

He is also famous in Bengal for his characters in novels including Professor Shonku and Feluda. He continued running the Bengali childrens magazine Sandesh started by his grandfather Upendrakishore Ray.

He had also directed 2 TV commercials, one for Indian Railways, and other one for, India Iron & Steel Co.

References

1. ^ Seton 1971, pp. 33
2. ^ Critics on Ray URL accessed on 3 April, 2006.
3. ^ Critics on Pather Panchali URL accessed on 3 April, 2006
4. ^ Berardinelli J. "Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road)". colossus.net. http://movie-reviews.colossus.net/movies/p/pather.html. Retrieved 2006-04-29. 
5. ^ "Filmi Funda Pather Panchali (1955)". The Telegraph. 2005-04-20. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050420/asp/calcutta/story_4634530.asp. Retrieved 2006-04-29. 
6. ^ Palopoli S. "Ghost 'World'". metroactive.com. http://www.metroactive.com/papers/cruz/10.08.03/apu-0341.html. Retrieved 2006-06-19. 
7. ^ Harker 1960
8. ^ Wood 1972
9. ^ Malcolm D. "Satyajit Ray: The Music Room". guardian.co.uk. http://film.guardian.co.uk/Century_Of_Films/Story/0,,36064,00.html. Retrieved 2006-06-19. 
10. ^ Robinson 2003, pp. 157
11. ^ Palopoli S. "Charulata". Slant magazine. http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/film_review.asp?ID=1080. Retrieved 2006-06-19. 
12. ^ Dasgupta 1996, pp. 91
13. ^ Robinson 2003, pp. 188–189
14. ^ Wood 1972, pp. 13
15. ^ Robinson 2003, pp. 208–209
16. ^ Robinson 2003, pp. 221–223
17. ^ Robinson 2003, pp. 257
18. ^ Dasgupta 1996, pp. 134
19. ^ Robinson 2003, pp. 353
20. ^ Neumann P. "Biography for Satyajit Ray". Internet Movie Database Inc. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0006249/bio. Retrieved 2006-04-29. 
21. ^ Newman J (2001-09-17). "Satyajit Ray Collection receives Packard grant and lecture endowment". UC Santa Cruz Currents online. http://www.ucsc.edu/currents/01-02/09-17/ray.html. Retrieved 2006-04-29. 

External links

• Filmography (SatyajitRay.org)

See also

• Calcutta trilogy
• The Apu Trilogy
• Goopy and Bagha (disambiguation)