Satyajit Ray: The finest film maker.

[Plum]

Yes, wodehouse solli dhaan enakku seshappa iyer solli irukkaarnu theriyin

[kid-glove]

Haydn symphony (Reversed) was used in Devi & the other one was in "The Music room", both establish the scenery well. When he does reversals & manipulations, you know how much he cared about the BGM. The painstaking arrangement in his BGM fusion (of WCM to native sounds) seems like he made it for himself, & not necessarily the audience. There seems to be a strong aesthetic & thematic* influence, not necessarily 'didactic', in his composition. Of course, I'm in agreement in that films should work with the sound muted. But when they added it, it heightened the visual's impact & tone, but it also sort of ate away the real merits of the image. I get the conundrum here. But it should be known that Ray himself explains (in his book) how a WCM structure is comparable to a film. He uses Beethoven's structure to character & plot, IIRC. And he makes multiple comparisons to Westerns & Noir. So it's hard to know that this man didn't embrace BGM.

*I think the problem here is thematic impact of BGM on film. That it could only intensify/hint/redirect/recur what is already part of the film, so why is it given as much importance in this forum. Perhaps because there's a thought? There's an intelligence? There's a craft & art in making different instruments operate & hit viscerally, but also when they operate as leitmotif, it hypnotically brings up the earlier reaction, and therefore makes a more cerebral connection.

[P_R]

Jana Aranya
Beautiful film again.
Perhaps not a great film. Acting is quite ordinary in many places.
The way things interlock - though slightly predictable - comes out well.

I haven't seen Seemabadhdha yet. This is surely not as captivating as Pratidwandi. But that is about the limitation of the source material. But for the story taken, Satyajit Ray has done a lovely job of executing.

The scene where Sukumar is describing the walks of people in various statures of life, as they come out of the match

Shouts aloud to a 'clerk' walking at a distance
Sukumar: Dada, who won?
Clerk: Mohan Bagan

Somnath laughs at his generalization and they see someone slightly older than him
Somnath: him?
Sukumar: graduate
Somnath: pass or honors?
Sukumar: Let us ask him....Dada..
'Graduate': (turns and looks)
Sukumar: Pass of Honors?
Graduate: Mohan Bagan



Somnath's relationship with his elder brother's wife is enjoyable. She acted quite well.

(discussing his ex-girlfriend's wedding invitation)
Somnath: I remember you cried a lot at the day of your wedding
aNNi: (brief drop in smile) everybody does....don't you also want her to?
(The former line was used in Rituparno Ghosh's

(discussing letter from the ex..that comes later in the film)
aNNi: this fat a letter this long into her marriage is not good
Somnath:...
aNNi: call me after you have read it I will bring your tea (exits the room)
Somnath: (opens..sees a greeting...with a pic of his ex and her child....rips and throws them away and says aloud) Tea

Such lovely moments.

It is aNNi who tells him she will never think ill of him. Well she does not understand the gravity and nor does he want to confide of course.
But the end shot in the movie is where she knows he has crossed a line. No one else does. The Gandhian father feels a 'relief', Somnath feels wretched about himself. But the one who has got the 'outsider's perspective on the outside world is the woman of the house. And she knows something horrible has been done.
How extremely well told. I would say this ending is even better than Charulata, where the famous freeze, dramatized things a little bit more than required.

The old vs. young conversations. The old man 'trying to be involved', derisive of other grumpy old men by the lake (how much like the father in Mahanagar) but then ruing how he has denied himself the sources of solace that other old men have. But then at some stage he seems to have settled to not trying to understand everything.

And what dialogue-action synchrony. The visitor says, 'there (in the West) the young and old build walls between themselves'.
At walls, Somnath pulls the screen of his room across to shield it from the place the old men are conversing. Happening neatly in the background.
The glovebox that keeps falling open, the keen audience notices the contents but not Somnath.
Utpal Dutt's delightful cameo.

Quite an enjoyable film.

[tamizharasan]

good to see this thread still active. Quite good discussions here.

[tamizharasan]

Agantuk(The stranger) is one of the least discussed movie of Ray but I found it fascinating. The Lawyer's interrogation with uncle related to find the truth was very interesting. Cannbalism and Civilization. The discussion gives lot of insights about the socieity and opinions. Insisting the fact country's technology development does not have much to say about the civilization. Very engaging and interesting movie.

[P_R]

Aparajito is not on yeeteep. There is one video with poor audio synch.
adhu paathuttu dhaan Apur Sansar (which is there) paarkkaNum.

Agantuk - and many others are not there

[tamizharasan]

Aparajito is not on yeeteep. There is one video with poor audio synch.
adhu paathuttu dhaan Apur Sansar (which is there) paarkkaNum.

Agantuk - and many others are not there

I watched Agantuk at my bengali's friends place few years back with english subtitles. Interesting watch for sure. I just want to tell one thing what North India media has to say about Ray. Ray makes boring movies related to only poor people and suffering. My bengali friend felt bad about it. What an insult to such a great film maker. The only good thing is he was born in bengal otherwise no one would have known Ray now.

[tamizharasan]

Satyajit Ray is a painter by profession before he started making movies, which helped him to learn about society. He has become a social scientist and anthropologist through his interest. That was the reason he could understand humanity and human relations in general very well. That is why no one in Indian cinema analysed human relations and behaviours better than Mr. Ray. Amazing personality.

[tamizharasan]

Biography


Satyajit Ray
Director, Producer, Screenwriter, Composer, Writer, Graphic Designer
Born: May 2, 1921, Kolkata (Calcutta), India
Died: April 23, 1992, Calcutta, India

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.

[tamizharasan]

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.