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Life, films and filmmaking of Satyajit Ray...

Satyajit Ray on the set of The Adversary, 1970. © Nemai Ghosh
Satyajit Ray on the set of The Adversary, 1970. © Nemai Ghosh

About SatyajitRay.org

Satyajit Ray Org has a mission of promoting discussion and study of Satyajit Ray’s films and filmmaking. Satyajit Ray (1921-1992), an Indian filmmaker and among the dozen or so great masters of world cinema, is known for his humanistic approach to cinema. He made his films in Bengali, a language spoken in West Bengal, the eastern state of India, and Bangladesh. In 1992, Satyajit Ray received the honorary Academy Award ©A.M.P.A.S. ® – Lifetime Achievement.

Different Facets Of Ray...

About Ray

Satyajit Ray, an Indian filmmaker and among the dozen or so great masters of world cinema, is known for his humanistic approach to cinema. A true auteur, Ray directly controlled many aspects of filmmaking.

Biography

Satyajit Ray was born on May 2, 1921, in an intellectual and affluent family in Calcutta, India. His grandfather, Upendrakishore Ray was a distinguished writer, painter, a violin player and a composer.

Filmography

The success of Pather Panchali gave Ray total control over his subsequent films. What followed was a long career as a world-class filmmaker. Until 1981, he would make a feature length film every year.

Filmmaking

Satyajit Ray maintained that the best technique of filmmaking was the one that was not noticeable.

He disliked the idea of a film that drew attention to its style rather than the contents.

Our Favorite Ray Films...

App played by Subir Banerjee
Pather Panchali

(1955, Song of the Little Road)

Madhabi Mukherjee as Charulata
Charulata

(1964, The Lonely Wife)

Chhabi Biswas as Biswambhar Roy
Jalsaghar

(1958, The Music Room)

Swatilekha Chatterjee as Bimala Choudhury
Ghare-Baire

(1984, Home and the World)

Satyajit Ray ©Denis Darzacq
Satyajit Ray ©Denis Darzacq
…my main preoccupation as a filmmaker … has been to find out ways of investing a story with organic cohesion, and filling it with detailed and truthful observation of human behaviour and relationships in a given milieu and a given set of events, avoiding stereotypes and stock situations, and sustaining interest visually, aurally and emotionally by a judicious use of the human and technical resources…
Ray's Signature
Satyajit Ray

(The new cinema and I, Cinema Visions, July 1980)

Get in Touch

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We receive many enquiries about film education institutes in India. Please note that SatyajitRay.org has no affiliation with any film education institute including "The Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute" in Calcutta. If you want to know more about these institutes or their programs you should contact them directly.