Revision as of 20:25, 5 July 2021

This page is under construction--and will remain so till around April 2015

Filmography

As a director

1955 Pather Panchali

1956 Aparajito (1956)

1958 Jalsaghar

1958 Paras-Pathar

1959 Apur Sansar (1959)

1960 Devi

1961 Rabindranath Tagore (Documentary)

1961 Teen Kanya

1962 Abhijaan

1962 Kanchenjungha

1963 Mahanagar

1964 Charulata

1965 Mahapurush

1965 Kapurush (The Coward)

1965 Two (TV Short)

1966 Nayak

1967 Chiriyakhana

1969 Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne

1970 Aranyer Din Ratri

1970 Pratidwandi

1971 Sikkim (Documentary)

1972 Seemabaddha

1972 The Inner Eye (Documentary short)

1973 Ashani Sanket

1974 Sonar Kella

1976 Bala (Documentary short)

1976 Jana Aranya

1977 Shatranj Ke Khilari

1979 Joi Baba Felunath

1980 Heerak Rajar Deshe (The Kingdom of Diamonds)

1981 Pikoo’s Day (TV Short)

1981 Sadgati (TV Movie)

1984 Ghare-Baire

1987 Sukumar Ray (Short documentary)

1989 Ganashatru

1990 Shakha Proshakha

1991 Agantuk (The Stranger)

As a writer

1950 Chinnamul

1955 Pather Panchali (screenplay)

1956 Aparajito (1956) (screenplay)

1958 Jalsaghar (script)

1958 Paras-Pathar (dialogue) / (screenplay)

1959 Apur Sansar (1959) (screenplay)

1960 Devi (screenplay)

1961 Rabindranath Tagore (Documentary)

1961 Teen Kanya (screenplay)

1962 Abhijaan (screenplay)

1962 Kanchenjungha (story and screenplay)

1963 Mahanagar (scenario) / (screenplay)

1964 Charulata (scenario) / (screenplay)

1965 Mahapurush (screenplay)

1965 Kapurush (The Coward) (screenplay)

1966 Nayak (screenplay) / (story)

1967 Chiriyakhana (screenplay)

1969 Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne (screenplay)

1970 Aranyer Din Ratri (screenplay)

1970 Baksa Badal (screenplay)

1970 Pratidwandi (screenplay)

1971 Sikkim (Documentary)

1972 Seemabaddha (screenplay)

1972 The Inner Eye (Documentary short)

1973 Ashani Sanket (screenplay)

1974 Sonar Kella (screenplay) / (story)

1976 Jana Aranya (screenplay)

1977 Shatranj Ke Khilari (dialogue) / (screenplay)

1979 Joi Baba Felunath (novel) / (screenplay)

1980 Heerak Rajar Deshe (The Kingdom of Diamonds) (screenplay) / (story)

1981 Pikoo’s Day (short film)

1981 Sadgati (TV Movie) (dialogue) / (screenplay)

1983 Phatik Chand (novel) / (screenplay)

1984 Ghare-Baire (screenplay)

1986 Kissa Kathmandu Kaa (TV Mini-Series) (novel)

1989 Ganashatru (screenplay)

1990 Shakha Proshakha (screenplay) / (story)

1991 Goopy Bagha Phire Elo (story)

1991 Agantuk (The Stranger) (screenplay) / (story)

1994 Uttoran (screenplay) / (story)

1995 Target

1996 Baksha Rahasya (story)

2000 Dr. Munshir Diary (telefilm, based on his story)

2003 Bombaiyer Bombete (novel)

2007 Kailashey Kelenkari (novel)

2008 Tintorettor Jishu (novel)

2010 Gorosthane Sabdhan (novel)

2011 Royal Bengal Rahasya (novel)

2011 Some Maana (Short)

2012 Jekhane Bhooter Bhoy (story)

2013 Feluda (novel)

As a producer

1956 Aparajito (1956)

1958 Jalsaghar

1959 Apur Sansar (1959)

1960 Devi

1961 Teen Kanya

1962 Kanchenjungha

1991 Agantuk (The Stranger)

As a music composer

1958 Paras-Pathar

1961 Teen Kanya

1962 Abhijaan

1962 Kanchenjungha

1963 Mahanagar

1964 Charulata

1965 Mahapurush

1965 Shakespeare-Wallah

1965 Kapurush (The Coward)

1966 Nayak

1967 Chiriyakhana

1969 Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne

1970 Aranyer Din Ratri

1970 Baksa Badal

1970 Pratidwandi

1971 Sikkim (Documentary)

1972 Seemabaddha

1972 The Inner Eye (Documentary short)

1973 Ashani Sanket

1974 Sonar Kella

1976 Jana Aranya

1977 Shatranj Ke Khilari

1979 Joi Baba Felunath

1980 Heerak Rajar Deshe (The Kingdom of Diamonds)

1981 Sadgati (TV Movie)

1983 Phatik Chand

1984 Ghare-Baire

1989 Ganashatru

1990 Shakha Proshakha

1991 Goopy Bagha Phire Elo

1991 Agantuk (The Stranger)

1996 Baksha Rahasya

1999 Ray

2000 Dr. Munshir Diary (TV Movie)

2008 Tintorettor Jishu (theme music)

2010 Gorosthane Sabdhan (from the archives)

2011 Royal Bengal Rahasya (from the archives)

Madhabi Mukherjee

The actress’ regrets

Priyanka Dasgupta , May 1, 2021: The Times of India

“Manik-da was an extraordinary human being — learned, well-behaved and refined”. That’s how fondly 79-year-old Madhabi Mukherjee describes Satyajit Ray — the director of three of her remarkable films — on the eve of his birth centenary. As the empowered Arati of ‘Mahanagar’ (1963), the lonely Charu of ‘Charulata’ (1964) and the evolved Karuna of ‘Kapurush’ (1965), Mukherjee’s nuanced performances join the dots to form a narrative about a woman’s emancipation.

Describing Ray as a director, Mukherjee said, “There are some professors who teach in a way that one needs to go back home, re-read and then understand. Then there are others who explain everything lucidly in class. Manik-da belongs to the second category.” Her casting in ‘Mahanagar’ was partly accidental since she had agreed to meet Ray only after the crew had offered her the taxi fare!

Few know that the famous swing scene of ‘Charulata’ was shot at Shibpur’s Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology. Even fewer are aware why Tagore’s ‘Nashtanirh’, from which it was adapted, was not retained as the title. “During title registration, it was found that Sunanda Devi had a film with the same name,” she revealed. That 1951 film had Uttam Kumar in the cast. “After contemplating names like ‘Amal’ and ‘Bhupati’, ‘Charulata’ was chosen,” she said. Ray had gone to Cannes with ‘Charulata’. “Everyone was sure that I would win. The norm was that the award would be given to the one who was present in person. Back then, I couldn’t afford the airfare,” she recalled.

Yet, Mukherjee never collaborated with Ray after ‘Kapurush’. Some believe she was a victim of politics. Despite their 21-year age difference, others claim that an alleged relationship between them had led to trouble in Ray’s domestic life. Few refer to an interview where Mukherjee had allegedly admitted that there was “yearning from both sides”.

In her memoir, she had mentioned how not a word was said when Ray had directed Soumitra Chatterjee in 14 films while people within the unit and outside started talking when she did her second with him (‘Charulata’). “I don’t like dirty politics and decided to move away. I had refused ‘Nayak’ and ‘Ashani Sanket’. Manik-da had also asked journalist Sebabrata Gupta to convince me to do ‘Ghare Baire’. I’ve been unyielding and can’t accept if my self-respect is hurt. I never gave Manik-da my reason for refusal. I didn’t even confront the person who did politics.”

Didn’t she feel sad watching those roles played by others? “I was not greedy. I had one kind of trauma. Manik-da had another. He must have understood that someone was doing politics,” she said. She, however, honoured Ray’s invitations to all his film premieres.“I’ve done injustice to Manik-da. He had wanted me to rise above the situation. But I failed him.” She refused to name the trouble-maker.

Memorabilia

2020: Sandip finds a trove

Priyanka Dasgupta, Ray ‘classics’ tumble out of Kolkata loft in his son’s lockdown clean-up, April 26, 2020: The Times of India

Sandip Ray found 100 unseen photos of his father (like the one above) and over 1,000 negatives of stills from sets of the master’s movies
From: Priyanka Dasgupta, Ray ‘classics’ tumble out of Kolkata loft in his son’s lockdown clean-up, April 26, 2020: The Times of India

Feluda might be proud of what filmmaker Sandip Ray did during the lockdown – snoop around the attic of his Bishop Lefroy Road house in south Kolkata to discover a treasure trove of Satyajit Ray memorabilia tucked away without anyone seemingly knowing about its existence.

The priceless find includes negatives of 100 hitherto unseen photos clicked by Satyajit Ray, over 1,000 unseen negatives of working stills from the sets of the master’s early movies, and letters and telegrams from stalwarts of cinema such as Frank Capra, Arthur C Clarke, Akira Kurosawa and Richard Attenborough.

According to Sandip, who has carried the Ray legacy forward with a series of whodunits revolving around his father’s fictional sleuth Feluda, the long overdue clean-up had thrown up the perfect collection for Ray fans to feast their eyes on during his birth centenary on May 2 next year.

“We used to clear a bit of the loft once in a while, but there was never this kind of uninterrupted time to check if there was anything important lying there,” Sandip said. Till 1959, the Ray family’s address had been south Kolkata’s 31, Lake Avenue. They then shifted to 3, Lake Temple Road, before finally moving to their 1/1 Bishop Lefroy Road address in the heart of the city.

While shifting homes, a lot of stuff kept piling up, but throwing these away was never an option because the family didn’t want to risk disposing of something precious. But it wasn’t until now that Sandip realised what an invaluable treasure the loft held.

This treasure is a ray of hope for us: Son

Some of the negatives in the collection have never seen the light of day. “I don’t remember seeing them printed. Among them are working stills from Pather Panchali,” Sandip said. When shooting for Pather Panchali began at Boral in South 24-Parganas in 1952, acclaimed photographer Nimai Ghosh hadn’t yet joined Ray’s unit. Art director Bansi Chandragupta, who had done the production design of the Ray classic, used to shoot stills on the sets.

Chances are these negatives, once printed, will add a fresh perspective on the making of the classic. Asked to give a rough estimate of the retrieved negatives, Sandip said the count was huge. “During those days, one exposure meant 36 photos. We have managed to retrieve at least 25 such wallets,” he said.

Besides stills from the sets, there are negatives and transparencies/slides that are the Oscar-winning legend’s own work. The letters from iconic filmmakers to Ray are episodes in themselves. “Arthur C Clark had written to Baba about the stories he was writing and the kind of research he was doing. I had read some of these letters. ” Sandip said. The Rays believe there are more hidden gems waiting to be discovered since only 50% of the loft has been cleared. “This is a terrible and uncertain time. Chancing upon this treasure trove has been a ray of hope for us,” he said.

The writer

Some famous works

July 4, 2021: The Times of India

Satyajit Ray’s films are known, watched and discussed all over the world, but Ray was not just a filmmaker. He used to compose music for his own films, he was an illustrator, a calligrapher, and, as many of us have now come to know ever since the webseries ‘Ray’ hit our computer and cellphone screens, he was an eminent name in the world of literature too. In his lifetime, Ray wrote many novels, novellas, short stories, plays and essays. Four of these short stories have been adapted for ‘Ray’ but there’s a wealth of other short stories, most of which are available in English translation.

Ray’s stories can be divided into several genres. The first and most prominent one is horror. There is hardly a subgenre of horror that the writer hasn’t written in. In ‘Ratan Babu and that Man’, for instance, a quiet middle-aged loner goes to a sleepy little suburban town in search of a few weeks of solitude only to meet a man who seems to have an uncanny number of things in common with him. Before we realise that Ray is slowly diving into the world of doppelgangers, his skilful writing, vivid descriptions of sunsets, dusks and railway overbridges, and the breath-taking thrills of psychological horror have already gripped us, making it an unforgettable story. In ‘Bhuto’, an aspiring ventriloquist wishes to learn from the master of the art, but when the master refuses, the young man swears revenge by not only learning the art himself, but by shaping his dummy in the resemblance of the master who shunned him so ruthlessly. But, as he soon realises, his troubles have just begun. In ‘Fritz’, a man returns to the circuit house in a town in Rajasthan which he had visited as a child, and is suddenly reminded of a Swiss doll which he had buried in a corner of the lawn after a dog had torn it apart. That night, the doll named Fritz comes back to life, eager to play with his long-lost friend. In what is perhaps Ray’s most famous horror story titled Khagam, a young man kills the pet cobra of a reclusive hermit, and the hermit curses him. That night, in a forest rest house, the man slowly begins to turn into a cobra himself, until the hermit is found in the morning feeding milk to his favourite pet. Ray’s story reads just like a screenplay, and he manages to evoke such stunningly horrifying imagery that even today, anyone who reads it will check under their bed before going to sleep.

…TO THRILLS

The second genre that Ray wrote in was that of psychological thriller, although some readers may argue that these stories were, in essence, horror stories. Purists would beg to differ though, but whichever genre they might have been in, the stories themselves were unmistakably thrilling. In ‘A Strange Night for Mr Shasmal’, a young man on the run takes shelter in a rest house, only to find that all the living things that he has killed in his life — birds, snakes, insects, cats and dogs — have turned up in his room to pay him a visit. Very soon though, the story takes an unexpected turn, with the advent of the final unexpected visitor. Psychological thriller/ horror at its best. In ‘Mr Eccentric’, an aged retired man lives in a house in Darjeeling and has the rather strange habit of collecting seemingly inconsequential things he finds lying on the road — a button, a pair of gloves, a walking stick — until a dark truth is revealed about the items he collects.

Note how Ray didn’t stop short of dealing with subjects which we normally wouldn’t associate with children’s literature. But Ray never thought of children as any different from adults, claiming instead that their minds are much more fertile, and hence, much more capable of accepting fresh ideas.

SHAPESHIFTERS TO SHAPING KIDS

This brings us to the third genre of stories that Ray wrote. In these stories, Ray gave children priceless life lessons, preparing them for the world of adulthood and the myriad joys and sorrows that came with it. In a story titled ‘Class Friend’, Ray wrote about a successful and affluent man who is paid a visit by an old friend from school. When the needy friend seeks financial help, the protagonist refuses, but a strange turn of events makes him change his mind. In ‘Apodartho’ (The Idiot which hasn’t been translated yet), a young boy tells the story of a dim-witted but harmless uncle who everyone chides, but who, many years later, by dint of the fact that he was now the eldest surviving member of the family, managed to earn everyone’s love and respect. In ‘The Millionaire’, an affluent industrialist who had consciously detached himself from all his friends and well-wishers learns a lesson when he happens to meet his younger self. These are all stories that help shape young minds, that teach them the difference between right and wrong, and the shades in between.

And there are dozens and dozens of more such stories. All of them so visual, so screenplay-like that they are all waiting to be adapted for the screen. In the hands of the right filmmakers, they can turn out to be magnificent films that will once again remind the world of the remarkable oeuvre of the genius called Satyajit Ray.

See also

The Apu Trilogy

Pather Panchali 1955

Aparajito (1956)

Apur Sansar (1959)

Satyajit Ray