subhojit / swarnabha
Portrait of Satyajit Ray created by me in 1997 and edited in 2009 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This movie made me cry at 4:30 am and that too in front of my college buddies but to my amazement I was not even ashamed to do so. The movie was none other than “Apur Sansar“( ‘The world of Apu’ in English ) , a masterpiece created by the genius director Satyajit Ray. This movie is based on a novel written by famous bengali author Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay. I will not talk much about the movie as that’s not my intention and secondly that’s going to destroy the emotions of the movie.
It was not the first movie by Satyajit Ray which I have seen , I have been his fan since I was 10. He is the creator of the famous character Feluda. There is not a single bengali household which is not obsessed by Feluda. ray’s books and movies are evergreen and enjoyed by people of every age. There have been numerous translations of his books and few of them are also globally acclaimed.If you are a bengali then I would request you to read the complete Feluda and Shanku series. Please do .
He is the best director that bengal has ever seen and his direction is way ahead of his time and he worked with such creativity that even modern day technology fails to portray emotions and feelings that precisely. The characters were well defined and the actors were handpicked and were crafted to perfection. The must watch movies are The Apu Trilogy, Debi, Pratidwandi, Agantuk, Satranj Ke Khiladi, Goopy Bagha series, Sonar Kella, Aranyer Din Ratri, Jalsaghar,Nayak. Ray’s first film, Pather Panchali (1955), won eleven international prizes, including Best Human Documentary at the Cannes film festival. This film, Aparajito (1956) and Apur Sansar (1959) form The Apu Trilogy. Ray did the scripting, casting, scoring, and editing, and designed his own credit titles and publicity material. He won a special lifetime achievement award at the 1992 Acadamy Awards. Legends like filmmaker Akira Kurosawa and Ray were acquainted. Kurosawa said of Ray’s work, “To have not seen the films of Ray is to have lived in the world without ever having seen the moon and the sun”.
Bengali movies started way back before Satyajit started making movies. Legends like Mrinal Sen and Ritwik Ghatak made great impression in movie industries worlwide. Modern bengali directors like Rituporno ghosh and Srijit Mukherji also made wonderful movies. But till date I consider Ray to be the greatest director, creative mind and visionary of Bengal
Related articles
- Sunday Watch-Satyajit Ray Short Film (madaboutmoviez.com)
- Bengali Films -Then & Now… (madaboutmoviez.com)
- Showcase: In the master’s words (thehindu.com)
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