By SAT News Desk
MELBOURNE, 24 July: India’s world-renowned film personality Satyajit Ray’s (1921-1992) film director, scriptwriter, documentary filmmaker, author, essayist, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligrapher, and music composer’s centenary will be celebrated at the Indian Film festival of Melbourne 2021, this year. The combined festival in cinemas and online is likely to show important movies directed by Satyajit Ray.
The Ray movies will be screened in cinemas, Federation Square, and online. The movies include Pathar Panchali (1955) based on Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay’s 1929 Bengali novel of the same name and is Ray’s directorial debut. The names of the other movies will be announced soon.
The IFFM-2021 will take place in cinemas (August 12-21) and online Australia-wide (August 15-30), with over 90 movies including short films and documentaries for people to see.
Satyajit Ray’s career and influence kicked off with Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road) in 1955, the first film that would become the Apu trilogy (1955-1959). Warmly received at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival, the film not only launched Ray’s career but ushered in a golden age of Indian cinema for international audiences.
He is celebrated for works such as The Apu Trilogy (1955–1959), The Music Room (1958), The Big City (1963) and Charulata (1964). Ray was born in Calcutta to renowned writer Sukumar Ray who was prominent in the field of arts and literature. Starting his career as a commercial artist, he was drawn into independent filmmaking after meeting French filmmaker Jean Renoir and viewing Vittorio De Sica’s Italian neorealist film Bicycle Thieves (1948) during a visit to London.
Ray directed 36 films, including feature films, documentaries and shorts and authored several short stories and novels, primarily for young children and teenagers. Feluda, the sleuth, and Professor Shonku, the scientist in his science fiction stories, Tarini Khuro, the storyteller, and Lalmohan Ganguly, the novelist are popular fictional characters created by him. In 1978, he was awarded an honorary degree by Oxford University.
Sharmila Tagore in THE WORLD OF APPU.
Ray’s first film, Pather Panchali (1955), won eleven international prizes, including the inaugural Best Human Document award at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. This film, along with Aparajito (1956) and Apur Sansar (The World of Apu) (1959), form The Apu Trilogy. Ray did the scripting, casting, scoring, and editing, and designed his own credit titles and publicity material. Ray received many major awards in his career, including 36 Indian National Film Awards, a Golden Lion, a Golden Bear, 2 Silver Bears, many additional awards at international film festivals and ceremonies, and an Academy Honorary Award in 1992. The Government of India honored him with the Bharat Ratna, its highest civilian award, in 1992. Ray had received many notable awards during his lifetime.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, ” Ray’s major films about Hindu orthodoxy and feudal values (and their potential clash with modern Western-inspired reforms) include Jalsaghar (1958; The Music Room), an impassioned evocation of a man’s obsession with music; Devi (1960; The Goddess), in which the obsession is with a girl’s divine incarnation; Sadgati (1981; Deliverance), a powerful indictment of caste; and Kanchenjungha (1962), Ray’s first original screenplay and first colour film, a subtle exploration of arranged marriage among wealthy, westernized Bengalis. Shatranj ke Khilari (1977; The Chess Players), Ray’s first film made in the Hindi language, with a comparatively large budget, is an even subtler probing of the impact of the West on India. Set in Lucknow in 1856, just before the Indian Mutiny, it depicts the downfall of the ruler Wajid Ali at the hands of the British with exquisite irony and pathos.”
“… Satyajit Ray himself said, shortly before his death in 1992, after accepting an Oscar for his lifetime achievement: “The most distinctive feature (of my films) is that they are deeply rooted in Bengal, in Bengali culture, mannerisms and mores. What makes them universal in appeal is that they are about human beings.” (FT, JUNE 23, 2021)
FESTIVAL LINK- iffm.com.au
