Satyajit Ray [1921-92] Page at Magic Lantern Video & Book Store

"The person who has never seen movies by Satyajit Ray
is like a person who has never seen the moon and the sky."
— Akira Kurosawa [1910-98]

     Satyajit Ray was truly a 'renaissance man': composer of music; graphic designer & commercial artist; magazine publisher; writer, producer, director & editor of motion pictures & television; writer of stories & novels for adults & children; and writer of film criticism & other non-fiction.
     He was born in Kolkata (Calcutta) in the India state of Bengal on 2 May 1921. After college, he worked as a commercial artist until meeting French filmmaker Jean Renoir; Ray was an uncredited assistant director on Renoir's superb "The River"
[1950]. Other early influences include India's Rabindranath Tagore, Nandalal Bose & Benode Behari Mukherjee, and Italy's neorealist films of the 1950s.
     Ray's first film, "Pather Panchali" (Song of The Little Road) took three years to complete; it introduced India's cinema to the West and won eleven international awards. "Aparajito" (The Unvanquished) was released in 1956, to mixed reviews but solid business and long-lasting acclaim. Ray made two other movies (not especially successful) before conceiving the third film of the Apu Trilogy, "Apur Sansar" (The World of Apu), released in 1959.

     Riding on his successes, Ray made a series of period film adaptations and also re-established his father's magazine for children, Sandesh; writing & illustrating became a major source of income thereafter.
     The film "Kanchenjungha" [1962] was Ray's first original screenplay and his first color feature and his first original music score; the negatives for the film no longer exist. The period film "Charulata" (The Lonely Wife) [1965] was a turning point, and was considered by Ray his favorite and by many critics as his most accomplished work.
     Around the time of "Charulata", Ray expanded into wide-ranging new genres, and added a concern for political & social issues to his modern-period works, such as in the City Trilogy {below}. In 1967, Ray wrote a script entitled "The Alien" based on his 1962 children's story "Bankubabur Bandhu" (Banku Babu's Friend), and much pre-production ado was made by studio Columbia Pictures over attached actors Peter Sellers & Marlon Brando; but Ray was ripped off by filmmaker-as-agent Mike Wilson: Ray received not a penny from the project, nor was it filmed. Ray made his most commercially successful film, "Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne" (The Adventures of Goopy & Bagha) [1969], a musical fantasy based on a children's story written by his grandfather, and later a political-themed sequel, "Hirak Rajar Deshe" (Kingdom of Diamonds) [1980]. He made his first film in Hindi, "Shatranj Ke Khiladi" (The Chess Players), in 1977. A revival of Ray's films in France led to several commissions for shorts & TV documentaries.

A heart attack in 1983, during filming of "Ghare-Baire" (The Home & The World) [1984], severely restricted Ray's further work: he gave over operation of the camera & other duties to his son, Sandip Ray, and the doctors gave orders not to film on location. The studio-only sets of his later films eliminated the use of many of his stylistic touches. Ray's last three films display a more verbose style; his last 11 films were in color.
Satyajit Ray was awarded an Honorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement, but he was so ill that the Academy had a bonded messenger carry an Oscar® statuette to India so that Ray could be filmed accepting the honor, an event that took place while Ray was lying in a hospital bed; the awards program was broadcast 30 March 1992, three weeks before Ray's death. Hundreds of thousands of Bengalis filed past his bier, bringing Kolkata to a virtual standstill.

The University of California established the Satyajit Ray Film & Study Collection at the Santa Cruz campus in 1993 (largely backed by the Packard family of Silicon Valley), and the Government of India set up the Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute (a school) in 1995. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences in America, pressured by Martin Scorsese & others, has spent large amounts of time and effort to preserve many of Ray's films. The amateur nature of the majority of the backers and producers of Ray's films, plus the problems of the Bengal/Kolkata climate and local business practices, allowed many of the negatives and positives and prints to become broken & mistreated, such that many reels and elements are chopped or missing and-or damaged by mold & scratches. The restorations already in existence are good jobs in the editing sense, but many frames are still scratched or snowy or blurry and await painstaking digital restoration.
The few commercially produced VHS & DVD copies of Ray's works that are available from Amazon are (or will be) coded below, and news of newly-available versions will be greatly appreciated. {To notify the webmaster, click here}

Satyajit Ray won an Honorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement in 1992

He also won
two awards & four nominations (1956-84) at Cannes
Golden Lion (1957) & Career Golden Lion (1982) at the Venice Film Festival
6 awards at the Berlin International Film Festival, among 12 nominations (1964-78)
14 India National Film Awards (1967-94)
and the Legion of Honor of France (1987)

"Pather Panchali"
aka "Song of the Little Road"
[West Bengal Aug 1955, USA Sept 1958]

Daily life in the early XXth Century of a poor Brahmin {high-caste} family in rural Bengal, India. The father, a priest & poet, has to take employment elsewhere to make a living for them, an aunt living with them dies, the sister becomes ill, and a deadly monsoon wreaks havoc. Apu and his mother leave the village for hope of a better life in Benares. Written & directed by Satyajit Ray; based on the 1928 novel by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay; music by Ravi Shankar; starring Subir Bannerjee {as Apu}, Kanu Bannerjee, Karuna Bannerjee, Uma Das Gupta, Chunibala Devi, Reba Devi & Aparna Devi
Sony b&w DVD [10/2003] out of prodn/used
Sony b&w VHS [8/96] out of prodn/used
full credits from IMDb

"Aparajito" aka "The Unvanquished"
[India 1956, USA April 1959]

Apu and his mother leave Benares for a small village in Bengal, to live with an uncle. Apu's success at school provides a chance for college, but his mother is afraid of being left alone.
Produced, written & directed by Satyajit Ray; based on novels by Bibhutibhushan Bandyo- padhyay; music by Ravi Shankar; starring Pinaki Sengupta & Smaran Ghosal {as Apu}, Kanu Bannerjee, Karuna Bannerjee, Ramani Sengupta, Charaprakash Ghosh, Subodh Ganguli & Santi Gupta; won Golden Lion Award at Venice Film Festival
Sony b&w DVD [10/2003] out of prodn/used
imported b&w VHS [11/2002] 2 tapes for $32.95
Sony b&w VHS [8/96] out of prodn/used
full credits from IMDb

"Apur Sansar" aka "The World of Apu"
[India 1959, USA Oct 1960]

After his mother's death, young adult Apu is adrift and trying to become a writer; he agrees to marry a beautiful girl whose intended groom has gone mad. The marriage blossoms in fits & starts, and the girl dies in childbirth. Crazed with grief, Apu leaves the child with his in-laws and becomes a recluse. A friend finds that the child is being neglected and cajoles Apu to return to his destined life; Apu and the boy reunite joyfully and set off toward their future together.
Produced, written & directed by Satyajit Ray; based on the novel "Aparajito" by Bibhutibhu- shan Bandyopadhyay; music by Ravi Shankar; starring Soumitra Chatterjee, Sharmila Tagore, Alok Chakravarty & Swapan Mukherjee; won British Film Institute's Sutherland Trophy & India's Golden Lotus Award
Sony b&w DVD [10/2003] out of prodn/used
Sony b&w VHS [8/96] out of prodn/used
full credits from IMDb

Satyajit Ray's 'City Trilogy'
Three films in the style of the French New Wave (Nouvelle Vague)
examining the changing values of the middle-class in modern Kolkata (Calcutta).

"Pratidwandi"
aka "The Adversary" [Priya India 1971, USA Oct 1972]
Written, directed & music by Satyajit Ray; based on a novel by Sunil Gangopadhyay;
won Silver & Golden Lotus Awards; full credits from IMDb

"Seemabaddha"
aka "Company Limited" [India 1971, USA Nov 1974]
Written, directed & music by Satyajit Ray; based on a novel by Sankar Mukherjee;
full credits from IMDb

"Jana Aranya"
aka "The Middleman" [India 1976, USA Oct 1976]
Written, directed & music by Satyajit Ray; based on a novel by Sankar Mukherjee;
won India's Golden Lotus Award; full credits from IMDb

"The River" aka "Le Fleuve"
[United Artists; U.S.A. Sept 1951, France Dec 1951]

Three teenage girls – a daughter of English settlers, a daughter of an American industrialist, and a Bengali-American – vie for the innocent affections of a dashing Captain. Renoir, as usual, brings his poetic sensibilities to another view of the human condition. Co-produced, co-written & directed by Jean Renoir [1894-1979]; assistant director Satyajit Ray; co-written by Rumer Godden, from her novel; starring Patricia Walters, Radha, Adrienne Corri, Thomas E. Breen, Nora Swinburne, Esmond Knight, Arthur Shields & Suprova Mukerjee
Criterion Special Edition color DVD [3/2005] for $24.99
HomeVision color VHS [6/2000] out of prodn/used
full credits from IMDb • movie entry at Wikipedia

"Parash Pathar"
aka "The Philosopher's Stone" [Aurora/L.B. India 1958]
Directed by Satyajit Ray; Golden Palm nomination at Cannes; full credits from IMDb

"Jalsaghar"
aka "The Music Room" [Aurora India 1958, USA Oct 1963]
Produced, written & directed by Satyajit Ray, from a novel by Tarashankar Banerjee
full credits from IMDb

"Devi" aka "The Goddess" [India 1960, USA Oct 1962]
Produced, written & directed by Satyajit Ray; Golden Palm nomination at Cannes
full credits from IMDb

"Teen Kanya" aka "Three Daughters"
[India 1961, USA April 1963]
there is also a shortened version of the film, called "Two Daughters"
Co-produced, written, directed & music by Satyajit Ray, based on stories of Rabindranath Tagore
full credits from IMDb

"Rabindranath Tagore" documentary [India 1961]
Written & directed by Satyajit Ray; video/DVD not available; full credits from IMDb

"Kanchenjungha" [N.C.A. India 1962, USA July 1966]
Produced, written, directed & music by Satyajit Ray; IN COLOR; video/DVD not available
full credits from IMDb

"Abhijan" aka "The Expedition" [India 1962]
Written, directed & music by Satyajit Ray, from a novel by Tarashankar Banerjee
full credits from IMDb

"Mahanagar" aka "The Big City" [India 1963, USA June 1967]
Written, directed & music by Satyajit Ray; won Silver Bear for Best Director & nominated Golden Bear
at the Berlin International Film Festival; full credits from IMDb

"Charulata"
aka "The Lonely Wife" [India 1964, USA Sept 1965]
Written, directed & music by Satyajit Ray; based on a story of Rabindranath Tagore;
won 2 awards at Berlin International Film Festival; full credits from IMDb

"Two" [1965 India TV short]
Directed by Satyajit Ray; video/DVD not available; credits from IMDb

"Kapurush-O-Mahapurush" [India 1965]
{These two works are distinct, but are intended as a two-part film, running 74 minutes and 65 minutes, respectively.}

"Kapurush" aka "The Coward" [India 1965]
Written, directed & music by Satyajit Ray; based on a story by Premendra Mitra;
full credits from IMDb

"Mahapurush" aka "The Holy Man" [India 1965]
Directed & music by Satyajit Ray; full credits from IMDb

"Nayak" aka "The Hero" [India 1966, USA July 1974]
Written, directed & music by Satyajit Ray; won 2 awards at Berlin International
Film Festival, won India's Silver Lotus Award; full credits from IMDb

"Chiriyakhana" aka "The Zoo" [India 1967]
Co-written, directed & music by Satyajit Ray; won India's Golden Lotus Award;
full credits from IMDb

"Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne"
aka "The Adventures of Goopy & Bagha" [India 1969]
Co-written, directed & music by Satyajit Ray; won India's Golden Lotus Award;
full credits from IMDb

"Aranyer Din Ratri"
aka "Days and Nights In The Forest" [India 1970, USA March 1973]
Written, directed & music by Satyajit Ray; based on a novel by Sunil Gangopadhyay;
full credits from IMDb

"Sikkim" documentary [India 1971]
Written, directed & music by Satyajit Ray; video/DVD not available; credits from IMDb

"The Inner Eye" [India 1972]
a documentary short about artist-teacher Benode Behari Mukherjee and his growing blindness
Written, directed & music by Satyajit Ray; video/DVD not available; credits from IMDb

"Ashani Sanket"
aka "Distant Thunder" [Balaka India 1973, USA Oct 1973]
Co-written, directed & music by Satyajit Ray; IN COLOR; won Golden Berlin Bear Award
& India's Silver Lotus Award; full credits from IMDb

"Bala" documentary short [India 1976]
Directed by Satyajit Ray; video/DVD not available; credits from IMDb

"Shatranj Ke Khiladi"
aka "The Chess Players" [India March 1977, USA May 1978]

Set in 1856 Lucknow, two noblemen play games of chess day & night, oblivious to the games being played outside their secluded world, including the British takeover of the territory ruled by their poetry-writing king. Co-written, directed & music by Satyajit Ray; based on a story by Munshi Premchand; starring Sanjeev Kumar, Saeed Jaffrey, Shabana Azmi, Farida Jalal, Victor Banerjee, Tom Alter, Amjad Khan & Richard Attenborough, with narration by Amitabh Bachchan
Kino Video color DVD [4/2006] for $26.99
full credits from IMDb

"Hirak Rajar Deshe"
aka "Kingdom of Diamonds" [West Bengal 1980]
a sequel to "The Adventures of Goopy & Bagha" [1969]; written, directed & music by Satyajit Ray;
won India's Silver Lotus Award; full credits from IMDb

"Pikoor Diary" aka "Pikoo's Day" [India TV color short 1981]
Written & directed by Satyajit Ray; video/DVD not available; credits from IMDb

"Sadgati" aka "The Deliverance" [India TV 1981]
Co-written, directed & music by Satyajit Ray; full credits from IMDb

"Ghare-Baire"
aka "Home and The World" [N.F.D.C. India 1984, USA June 1985]
Written, directed & music by Satyajit Ray, based on a novel of Rabindranath Tagore; full credits from IMDb

"Sukumar Ray" documentary short [India 1987]
Directed by Satyajit Ray; video/DVD not available; credits from IMDb

"Ganashatru"
aka "An Enemy of the People" [N.F.D.C. India 1989]
Written, directed & music by Satyajit Ray, based on a play by Henrik Ibsen [1828-1906] of Sweden;
full credits from IMDb

"Shakha Proshakha"
aka "Branches of The Tree" [India 1990, USA April 1992]
Written, directed & music by Satyajit Ray; full credits from IMDb

"Agantuk" aka "The Stranger"
[N.F.D.C. India 1991, USA May 1992]
Co-produced, written, directed & music by Satyajit Ray; won 2 Golden Lotus Awards; full credits from IMDb

"Uttoran" [N.F.D.C. India 1994, USA April 1995]
Directed & music by Sandip Ray; script by Satyajit Ray (won Silver Lotus Award); full credits from IMDb

"Baksha Rahasya" [posthumous video release 1996]
Co-directed by Satyajit Ray; video/DVD not available; credits from IMDb

	"The Master Works of Satyajit Ray: A Musical Tribute To The Great Bengali Film Director" [2003] Navras music CD [1/2003] for $19.98 includes soundtrack music from "Pather Panchali" [1955], "Aparajito" [1956], "Jalsaghar" [1958], "Apur Sansar" [1959], "Devi" [1960], "Teen Kanya" [1961], "Mahanagar" [1963] & "Charulata" [1964]
	"The Best of Satyajit Ray" [21 stories 2001] Penguin 7½x5 pb [1/2001] for $21.50
	"Childhood Days: A Memoir, 1926-1936" aka "Jakhan Choto Chilam" [1982] by Satyajit Ray, translated by his wife Bijoya Ray Penguin 7½x5 pb [2/98] for $16.00

"Mullah Nasiruddiner Galpo" ("Stories of Mullah Nasiruddin") comic tales collected by Satyajit Ray

Feluda Stories & Films
Between 1965 and 1992, Satyajit Ray wrote a total of 335 Feluda stories featuring
Pradosh C. Mitter {also spelled Mittra or Mitra}, a private detective living in Kolkata, India
Feluda entry at Wikipedia
browse all Feluda books

"Sonar Kella"
aka "The Golden Fortress" [West Bengal 1974]
Written, directed & music by Satyajit Ray; starring Soumitra Chatterjee {as Pradosh Mitter};
won Silver & Golden Lotus Awards; full credits from IMDb

"Joi Baba Felunath"
aka "The Elephant God" [India 1978]
Written, directed & music by Satyajit Ray; starring Soumitra Chatterjee {as Pradosh Mitter};
won India's Golden Lotus Award; full credits from IMDb

"Bombaiyer Bombete"
aka "The Buccaneers of Bombay" [India Dec 2003]
Co-written, directed & music by Sandip Ray, based on a novel & script by Satyajit Ray; starring
Sabyasachi Chakravarthy {as Pradosh Mitter}; video/DVD not available; full credits from IMDb

"Kailashey Kelenkari"

aka "Scandal In Kailash" [India Dec 2007]
Written, directed & music by Sandip Ray, based on a 1974 novel by Satyajit Ray; starring
Sabyasachi Chakravarthy {as Pradosh Mitter}; video/DVD not available; not listed at IMDb

"Tintoretor Jishu"

aka "Tintoretto's Jesus" [India - to be released in Dec 2008]
Written, directed & music by Sandip Ray, based on a 1983 novel by Satyajit Ray;
video/DVD not available; not listed at IMDb

"Ray: Life & Work of Satyajit Ray" documentary film [1999]
Produced & directed by Goutam Ghose; full credits from IMDb

"The Music of Satyajit Ray" documentary [India 1984]
Directed by Utpalendu Chakrabarty; video/DVD not available; credits at IMDb

"Satyajit Ray, Filmmaker" documentary [India 1982]
Directed by Shyam Benegal; video/DVD not available; credits at IMDb

	"Satyajit Ray: Interviews" [2007] Edited by Bert Cardullo Univ Press of MS 9x6 pb [3/2007] for $15.60 Univ Press of MS 8½x6 hardcover [3/2007] for $50.00
	"Satyajit Ray: A Vision of Cinema" [2005] by Andrew Robinson, photographs by Nemai Ghosh I.B. Tauris 13¾x10x1¼" thick (6¼ pounds!) pb [9/2005] for $89.95
	"The Song of The Little Road" documentary [indep Aug 2003] Produced, written & directed by Priyanka Kumar I saw this movie in Santa Fe, New Mexico in January 2008, with Ms. Kumar speaking beforehand. The film is brilliant. Interviewees include film critic Peter Rainer, musician Ravi Shankar and filmmakers Martin Scorsese & Ismail Merchant video/DVD not yet available; full credits at IMDb Priyanka Kumar's website {parked}
	"The Cinema of Satyajit Ray: Between Tradition & Modernity" [2000] by Darius Cooper Cambridge Univ Press 9x6 pb [1/2000] for $32.99 Cambridge Univ Press 9x6¼ hardcover [1/2000] for $72.90

	"The Apu Trilogy" [2006] by Satyajit Ray First-time authorized publication, on the 50th Anniversary of "Pather Panchali", of Satyajit Ray's three scripts – plus interviews, sketches, and a filmography Seagull Books 8¼x5½ pb [3/2006] for $25.46 Seagull Books 8½x5¾ hardcover [3/2006] for $89.95
	"My Years With Apu: A Memoir" [1994] by Satyajit Ray Penguin India 7½x5 pb [5/96] import/used Faber & Faber pb [2/97] out of print/used Penguin India hardcover [1/94] import/used
	"The Apu Trilogy" [2007?] critical text by Phillip Kemp British Film Institute pb [9/2007] for $10.17

	"Satyajit Ray: The Inner Eye - The Biography of A Master Film-Maker" [1990] by Andrew Robinson I.B. Tauris 9¼x6¼ pb [2/2004] for $19.50 Univ CA Press 9¾x6½ hardcover [11/90] out of print/used
	"Satyajit Ray: A Study of His Films" [1988] by Ben Nyce Praeger Publrs 9¼x6 hardcover [10/88] for $106.95

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