Birthday of the classic of Indian cinema
On May 2, 1921, in Calcutta, in the family of Sukumar and Suprabha Rai, a poor family, but with a very rich ancestry dating back to the Great Mughals, the son Satyajit was born.
Satyajit was barely three years old when his father died. Suprabha Ray, living a semi-impoverished existence without her husband, nevertheless found the means to provide her son with a decent education, first at a high school in Calcutta, then at the Presidential College, where Satyajit received a bachelor's degree in economics, and then at the Visva-Bharati University, founded by Rabindranath Tagore.
His education allowed Satyajit, a 22-year-old boy from a poor Indian family, to get a job at a prestigious British advertising agency. Satyajit soon joined Signet Press, where he was responsible for creating illustrations and decorating the covers of published books. There into his hands fell the book of the classic of Bengali literature Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay "Pather Panchali (Song of the Road)". After reading the book, Ray got excited about the idea of filming this novel. But it took about 10 years for this dream to come true.
At the age of 26, Satyajit Ray, together with like-minded friends, founded the Calcutta Film Society, whose members had the opportunity to get acquainted with the novelties and masterpieces of world cinema, as well as organize meetings with the most prominent masters of world cinema. Working in this cinema club allowed Satyajit to find like-minded people to realize his dream.
For several years Ray was preparing for filming, looking for funding. Finally, in 1952, with financial support from the West Bengal government, Satyajit Ray was able to begin filming. On August 26, 1955, the film "Pather Panchali ডিভিডি কাভার (Song of the Little Road)" was released on the screens of Indian cinemas, making a splash. And in May 1956 it was presented at the Cannes International Film Festival. Satyajit Ray's debut film did not receive the Palme d'Or, but won the award for Best Human Document of the Year.
The creativity of Satyajit Ray was extremely diverse and versatile. In addition to purely cinematic activities, he was a fiction writer, publisher, illustrator, composer, graphic designer. But for us, he is primarily a filmmaker. Moreover, we take into account only the full-length feature films created by him. And there are 29 such in his filmography. Five of them entered the Golden Thousand, including "Ôporajito অপরাজিত) (The Unvanquished)", "Pather Panchali ডিভিডি কাভার (Song of the Little Road)", "Charulata চারুলতা", "Apur Sansar অপুর সংসার (The World of Apu)", "Pratidwandi প্রতিদ্বন্দ্বী (The Adversary)", "Jalsaghar জলসাঘর (The Music Room)". Based on this indicator, Satyajit Ray is included in the list of the 100 greatest directors in world cinema, compiled by FilmGourmand. Akira Kurosawa appreciated the work of Satyajit Ray: "To have not seen the films of Ray is to have lived in the world without ever having seen the moon and the sun.».
As usual, in honor of the birthday of the great Master, we want to remind fans of his work frames from his best films included in the Golden Thousand.
