images of ray....

Biography of Satyajit Ray

Satyajit Ray, standing 6'-4" tall, was a towering figure in the world of cinema. He studied at the university in Calcutta and later joined Shantiniketan, Rabindranath Tagore's university to study art. He began his career as a commercial artist (1943-56). He founded Calcutta's first film society in 1947 and made his first film, Pather Panchali (1955) while working at an advertising agency.

Pather Panchali was an immediate success and won Grand Prix at the Cannes Festival. Pather Panchali with his Aparajito (1956, The Unvanquished) and Apur Sansar (1959, The World of Apu) are known as 'Apu Trilogy'. His later films include Jalsaghar (1958, The Music Room), Kanchenjunga (1962), Charulata (1964, The Lonely Wife), Ashanti Sanket (1973, Distant Thunder), The Chess Players (1977), The Home and The World (1984), Ganashatru (1989, Public Enemy), and Agantuk (1990, The Stranger).Ray also edited Sandesh, a children's magazine and wrote numerous fiction and nonfiction works.

In 1992 he received an honorary Academy Award.

Growing up, 1921-39
At Shantiniketan, 1940-42
Advertising & Graphic Design, 1943
Calcutta Film Society, 1947
Encounter With Jean Renoir, 1949
The 'Bicycle Thieves' Effect, 1950
Making of Pather Panchali, 1950-55
Triumph of Pather Panchali, 1955
A Film a Year, 1956-1981
Ray's Literary Career, 1961-1992
The Final Offerings, 1989-1992

Growing up, 1921-39

1921, Ray Family

Satyajit Ray was born on May 2, 1921, in an intellectual and affluent family in Calcutta, India. His grandfather, Upendrakishore Ray (Roychowdhury) was a distinguished writer, painter, a violin player and a composer. He was also a pioneer in half-tone block making and founded one of the finest presses in the country - U. Ray & Sons. He died six years before Satyajit Ray was born. His father, Sukumar Ray (1887-1923), the eldest son of Upendra Kishore, studied printing technology in England and joined the family business. He too was an eminent poet, writer and illustrator of nonsense literature in the tradition of Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear. Sukumar Ray fell ill the year Satyajit Ray was born with a dreaded tropical disease of the time - Kala-azar. He regularly contributed poems, stories and illustrations to 'Sandesh', a children's magazine in Bengali which Satyajit Ray's grandfather had started publishing and printing. Need less to say the child Satyajit was fascinated by the block making and the printing process. In 1880's, Ray family had embraced 'Brahmo Samaj', sect within Hindu society. Brahmo was a reaction to Christianity (at that time, India was under British colonial rule and Calcutta was the seat of power), western literature and orthodox Hindu practices such as 'Sati'. With a cosmopolitan and rational outlook, Raja Ram Mohan Roy founded the Brahmo. Later Brahmos were led by Devendranath Tagore, father of Rabindranath Tagore. The progressive outlook of the Brahmo Samaj strongly influenced Satyajit Ray's work. Many of Ray's films would later show this progressive outlook and a strong aversion to religious fanaticism (Devi, Charulata, Teen Kanya, Sadgati, Ghare Baire and Ganashatru to name a few).

1926, Early Childhood

About three years after his father's death, the printing business changed hands and Satyajit and his mother had to leave their spacious house. They moved to Satyajit's maternal uncle's house. His mother taught needlework to supplement the household income. Here he would also meet cousin Bijoya, his future wife. At an age of eight, Satyajit joined Ballygunj Government School, until then he had been taught by his mother. Satyajit was an average student. While still at school, he became a film fan, regularly reading Hollywood trivia in magazines like Picturegoer and Photoplay. Western classical music was another interest. He would often pick-up gramophone records at flea markets. He matriculated when he was just short of fifteen.

1936, At College

His mother insisted upon Satyajit joining college. At the Presidency College, Satyajit read science for the first two years and for the third year, he took economics. (An uncle had assured him a job if he graduated in economics.) At the cost of academics, Satyajit was spending more and more time and energies in pursuit of his two interests- Watching films and listening to western classical music on his gramophone. In films, his interest had shifted from stars to directors, savouring offering of Ernst Lubitsch, John Ford, Frank Capra, and William Wyler. He became a subscriber of Sight & Sound.He graduated in 1939. At the age of eighteen, he decided to give up further studies. Even though he had no formal training, he was planning to become a commercial artist. He had a natural flair for drawing. His mother however felt that he was too young to take up a job. She suggested that he should join as a student of painting at Shantiniketan. After initial resistance, he agreed.

At Shantiniketan, 1940-42

1940-41, Discovering Oriental Art

In 1940, he joined Rabindranath Tagore's Vishva-Bharati University at Shantiniketan despite the initial reluctance. The desire to learn about Indian arts to be successful as a commercial artist, mother's wishes and the lure of Tagore, perhaps, were too strong to ignore. Tagore had been a close friend of his grandfather and father.
Trips to nearby villages for sketching exercises, were his first encounters with rural India for the city-bred Satyajit Ray.

During this period, he discovered the oriental art- Indian sculpture and miniature painting, Japanese woodcuts and Chinese landscapes... Till then, his exposure to art had been limited to only the western masters. He also undertook a long tour of places of artistic interests in India along with three friends. For the first time, he had begun to appreciate qualities of Indian art. The tour drew his attention to use of small details in Indian art to signify a bigger meaning. A quality that his films would later demonstrate.

Binode Behari Mukherjee, his art teacher at Shantiniketan, also demonstrated this quality in his work. He had an impressionable influence on Ray. About 30 years later, Ray would make a loving documentary on him - The Inner Eye, 1972.

At Shantiniketan too, Ray had found means to pursue his interest in music and films. A German Jew, professor of English, had a collection of western classical records. Ray would often listen to music at his cottage in the evenings. He also found books on cinema in the university library such as Paul Rotha's 'Film Till Now' and Raymond Spotiswoode's 'Grammar of the Film. Despite his great love for films the thought of becoming a filmmaker had not yet occurred.

Tagore died on August 7, 1941.

1942, Back to Calcutta

As the year 1942 was coming to an end, Ray missed the city life and his inability to see films at Shantiniketan. Soon he was making weekend trips to Calcutta, visiting his mother and cousin Bijoya, looking for bargains on books and gramophone records at flea markets and watching movies. He was also in love with cousin Bijoya who lived in the same joint-family house as his mother.

In the remote Shantiniketan, he also felt being out of touch with what was happening in Calcutta, India and the world. Mahatma Gandhi had launched Quit India movement against the British Empire, the war was at Calcutta's doorsteps, and he had missed Citizen Kane that played in Calcutta only for a few days.

In December 1942, Ray left Shantiniketan for good, the day Calcutta was bombed by Japanese for the first time

Advertising & Graphic Design, 1943

Calcutta Film Society, 1947

Encounter With Jean Renoir, 1949

The 'Bicycle Thieves' Effect, 1950

A business trip to London in 1950 proved a turning point. Ray and wife travelled to London by ship, a journey that took 16 days. With him, he was carrying a notebook in which he had made some notes on making a film of Pather Panchali. He wanted the film to be shot on actual locations, no make-up with new faces. The reaction to this had been negative from his friends. Shooting on locations with unknown actors was thought be a totally unfeasible idea.

In this six-months long stay abroad, Ray saw about a hundred films including Vittorio De Sica's Bicycle Thieves.

Bicycle Thieves made a profound impression on Ray. Later, in the introduction of 'Our Films, Their Films', he wrote- "All through my stay in London, the lessons of Bicycle Thieves and neo-realist cinema stayed with me".

The film had reconfirmed his conviction that it was possible to make realistic cinema with an almost entirely amateur cast and shooting at actual locations.

He had completed his treatment of Pather Panchali on the return journey to India by a ship.

Making of Pather Panchali, 1950-55

Triumph of Pather Panchali, 1955

A Film a Year, 1956-1981

1956-1981, Impressive oeuvre

The success of Pather Panchali gave Ray total control over his subsequent films; in his numerous functions—writer, director, casting director, composer (since 1961). Two sequels based on the novel (Aparajito, The Unvanquished, 1956; Apur Sansar, The World of Apu, 1959) completed the acclaimed 'The Apu Trilogy'.

Aparajito, his second film, was about his young protagonist's journey towards freedom from his mother's protection and love. The film won the Golden Lion in Venice.

What followed was a long career as a world-class filmmaker. Until 1981, he would make a feature length film every year.

His later films included - Parash Pathar (The Philosopher's Stone, 1958), Jalsaghar (The Music Room, 1958), Devi (The Goddess, 1960), Teen Kanya (Two Daughters, 1961), Kanchenjungha, (1962), Charulata (The Lonely Wife, 1964), Pratidwandi (The Adversary 1970), Shantranj Ke Khilari (The Chess Players, 1977), and Ghare-Baire (Home and the World, 1984).

Ray's Literary Career, 1961-1992

1961-1992, Writer of non-fiction, stories and novels

In 1961, Ray revived Sandesh, a children's magazine founded by his grandfather, to which he continued to contribute illustrations, verses and stories throughout his life.

Ray wrote numerous short stories, articles, and novels in Bengali.

He made a significant contribution to children's literature in Bengali. Most of his fiction was written for teen age children. His detective stories and novels were particularly popular with them.

His stories are unpretentious and entertaining. The subjects included: adventure, detective stories, fantasy, science fiction and even horror.

The Final Offerings, 1989-1992

1984-1992

About forty years of filmmaking, with a film a year, was interrupted by his fragile health in the mid-1980s. Ray's Ghare-Baire (Home and the World, 1984) based on a novel by Rabindranath Tagore, was a return to his first screen adaptation. While shooting, he suffered two heart attacks and his son, Sandip Ray, completed the project from his detailed instructions.

1989-1992

Ill health kept Satyajit Ray away from active filmmaking for about four years. In 1989, he resumed making films with Ibsen's An Enemy of the People as the basis for his Ganashatru (Enemy of the People, 1989). This was followed with Shakha Prashakha (Branches of the Tree, 1990) and Agantuk (The Stranger, 1991).

This series of three films were to be his last. Many film critics and film historians found these films a marked departure from his earlier work.

In 1992, He accepted a Lifetime Achievement Oscar from his sickbed in Calcutta through a special live satellite-television event and Bharat Ratna (the Jewel of India), the ultimate honour from India.

Satyajit Ray died on April 23, 1992.

What Ray Said....

As a small boy I had read about Beethoven in the Book of Knowledge, now I was listening enraptured to his sonatas and symphonies.

At the age when Bengali youth almost inevitably writes poetry, I was listening to European classical music.

Ever since Two Daughters I've been composing my own music.

I had developed this habit of writing scenarios as a hobby. I would find out which stories had been sold to be made into films and I would write my own treatment and then compare it.

I mix Indian instruments with Western instruments all the time.

I think the first feature was made in Bombay in 1913, not so long after Hollywood. The cinema industry in Calcutta started not long after that.

I think they quite like me when I work because I'm one of the safer directors to back, because even if my films don't bring their costs in back home, once they're shown outside of India they manage to cover the costs.

I was interested in both Western and Indian classical music.

I wouldn't mind taking a rest for three or four months, but I have to keep on making films for the sake of my crew, who just wait for the next film because they're not on a fixed salary.

I've made seventeen or eighteen films now, only two of which have been original screenplays, all the others have been based on short stories or novels, and I find the long short story ideal for adaptation.

It was only after Pather Panchali had some success at home that I decided to do a second part. But I didn't want to do the same kind of film again, so I made a musical.

Most of the top actors and actresses may be working in ten or twelve films at the same time, so they will give one director two hours and maybe shoot in Bombay in the morning and Madras in the evening. It happens.

My cameraman and I devised a method, which we started using from my second film, which applies mainly to day scenes shot in the studio, where we used bounced light instead of direct light. We agreed with this thing of four or five shadows following the actors is dreadful.

My films play only in Bengal, and my audience is the educated middle class in the cities and small towns. They also play in Bombay, Madras and Delhi where there is a Bengali population.

One of the reasons why some of my films seem so slow is because the soundtrack isn't expressive enough - maybe they need more sound or music.

Particularly in the final stages I always find that I'm rushed. It's dangerous when you're rushed in the editing stage, most of my early films are flawed in the cutting.

Sometimes a director is making three films. Perhaps he is shooting a film in Madras and a film in Bombay and he can't leave Madras as some shooting has to be done, so he directs by telephone. The shooting takes place. On schedule.

The conception of background music is changing. You use less and less of it these days.

The director is the only person who knows what the film is about.

The only solutions that are ever worth anything are the solutions that people find themselves.

There is a ban on Indian films in Pakistan, so that's half of our market gone. Satyajit Ray
There's always some room for improvisation.

Well the Bombay film wasn't always like how it is now. It did have a local industry. There were realistic films made on local scenes. But it gradually changed over the years.

What is attempted in these film is of course a synthesis. But it can be seen by someone who has his feet in both cultures. Someone who will bring to bear on the films involvement and detachment in equal measure.

When I write an original story I write about people I know first-hand and situations I'm familiar with. I don't write stories about the nineteenth century.

When I'm shooting on location, you get ideas on the spot - new angles. You make not major changes but important modifications, that you can't do on a set. I do that because you have to be economical.

You cannot go beyond a certain limit in your expenditure if you want to bring back money from your local market, which is very small after Pakistan.