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Satyajit Ray
A Short Biography
Satyajit Ray is the most acknowledged Indian name in international film world and one of the greatest film makers of all time. Most of his films were made in Bengali but the universal humanitarian appeal of his movies touched cinegoers through out the world. Ray was born in 2nd May, 1921 in a distinguished family in north Calcutta. His grandfather Upendrakishore Roychoudhury was a famous children's story writer. He was a friend of Tagore and took Ray to Tagore at his childhood. His father Sukumar Roy was legendary Bengali writer, poet and was a celebrated cultural figure. Satyajit Ray's nickname was Manik and he was popular to many others by this name. Their family had a home cum press named U. Ray & Sons in Garpar, a place in north Calcutta. Ray's father was attacked with a dreaded disease - Kalajor - and died when Ray was just three. At the age of six their family business wound up and he moved to Bhawanipore in South Calcutta. He studied at Ballygunge Government High School. In 1936 he got admitted in Presidency College with major in Economics. He later regretted that this subject was not his line. He got attached to Western Classical music and sketching. After graduating from Presidency,
he went to Shantiniketan and started practicing art under Nandalal Bose. In 1941, at the news of Tagore's death, he came to Calcutta bare footed to pay homage to Tagore. He came back to Calcutta in 1942 mostly because of the urge to watch and study movies. In 1943 he took his first job as assistant art visualizer at D J Keymers, an advertising agency. When DK Gupta started Signet Press for publishing and promoting Bengali books, Gupta picked Ray for designing cover pages of the books published from his press. Ray designed the cover page of Bibhutibhusan Banerjee's novel "aam aantir bhnepu", which was a story of rural Bengal life and which later he filmed as "pather panchali" ( The Song of the Little Road ).
Ray was used to watch films regularly and in 1947, he and his friends formed a club - The Calcutta Film Society. In 1949 famous French film director Jean Renoir came to Calcutta in search for locations for his new film "The River". Ray assisted him and Renoir became his mentor. This was the first time when Ray could watch a famous film director from close. His employer sent him for a summer training to London in 1950. During this time he watched 99 films in around six months. Probably this was the time when he decided to make films. While coming back to Calcutta by sea, he completed a rough script for the movie "pather panchali". He bought the film rights of this book from Bibhutibhsan's widow. He formed a team to shoot this film with his friends - Bansi Chandra Gupta who was a production designer and also worked as art director in Renoir's "The River". Ray requested Ravi Shankar to take care the music of this film. They started looking for producers with a budget of seventy thousand rupees. But no one was interested. In 1952, he used his savings, took loan from his friends and managed to gather around fifteen thousand and shot some test scenes in Gopalnagar, Bibhutibhsan's native village. His crew was full of first timers and no stars. He was used to shoot in Sundays and holidays as he had to keep his regular job. He stopped
shooting whenever the cash exhausted. In 1953, he started shooting in a village named Boral, near the southern outskirt of the city. To keep up the cost, his wife's jwellery was pawned, some of his music records and books were sold. He started showing prospective producers the portion of the film he was able to shoot so far. At last, Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy , a famous doctor and then Chief Minister of West Bengal, came for a rescue. He saw the portion of the film shot and managed to get some fund from a Community Development Project. In 1954, a Hollywood film director came to Calcutta to choose location for his upcoming film. He saw the unfinished version of the film and was deeply impressed. He requested Ray to send the film to New York for a premiere. The film went to the Western World and made history. After couple of months the film was released in Calcutta. Initially it did not draw any attention. But slowly the news about the movie started spreading and people started showing up. Prime Minister Nehru viewed the movie in Calcutta and was moved. He arranged all clearance from Govt. for this movie to be shown elsewhere. The movie went to the prestigious Cann Film festival and won "The Best Human Document" award. And after that lots of awards and recognitions showered upon this movie. The film became one of the finest film ever made in the world. This film brought Indian cinema in international limelight. After this Ray made two other films based on the rest of the original story - Aparajito (The Unvanquished) and Apur Sansar ( The World of Apu). These three films combined is well known as - Apu Trilogy.
Ray started making films on different kinds of stories and ideas. Devi (The Goddess) was not just a film - it was a piece of social work , shaking the truth under prejudices and believes. His first color
film was Kanchenjangha in 1962. His first film on Tagore's stories was - Tin Konya ( Three Daughters ) based on three short stories of Tagore. And then he made Charulata ( The Lonely Wife ). His first film for children was Goopi Gayen Bagha Bayen in 1968. Later he converted some of his own popular stories into movies. He made three films based on urban Calcutta life - Pratidwandi, JanaAranya and Simabaddha. He composed music for most of his films. His first film in Hindi was - Satranj ki Khiladi. In 1978, Berlin Film Festival ranked him as one of three all time great directors in the world.
His literary skill gave two of the most popular characters - Feluda and Professor Shanku. He wrote around 25 story books and some articles and book on film making. He received many awards, some to mention: Bharatratna , the highest civilian award from India, Lègion d'Honneur from France, Academy Award (Oscar) for Lifetime Achievement in World Cinema.
Ray fell sick and could not shoot film because of health. In 1989 he again came back but started shooting in indoor. He made three movies- Ganashatru, Sakha Prosakha and Aguntuk. Satyajit Ray died on April 23, 1992. He survived by his son Sandip, wife Bijaya, daughter-in-law and grand son Sauarajit.
source: Calcuttaweb
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