Satyajit Ray, the doyen of Indian films

Apart from original Felu da I miss the original & unique Lal mohan babu.

I am not sure if this piece of information has been previously reported in this thread( looks a bit big)

Ray came up with a script called 'Alien' in the 60's. Some production company in Hollywood was interested with the script and peter sellers and marlon brando were booked for the roles. Due to some copyrighting issue ray abandoned the project and came to India. This script had a striking resemblance with the script of ET directed by Spielberg and released all over the world in the 80's. Ray had given an interview then 'ET would not have been possible without his Alien script'. Spielberg though rejected any claims of plagiarizing.

Yes, Ray's short story is called Bonkubabur bondhu.

Storyline has similarity to ET.

Maybe a bit sacrigious for this thread

Can anybody please remind me which British TV sketch show used to do a spoof film-program interview with character who I think was based on Ray?


It's bugging me. Have tried Google and Youtube, but can't find it.

Are you talking about the comedy series "Goodness Gracious Me"?

I thought that was it... but I couldn't find one among the many GGM clips on Youtube.

what is sacrilegious is sacrigious

have been goggling on your behalf trying to locate the spoof you speak of, nick.
no luck
best set the [un]official IM oogling expert on this - peak !



trivia:
one of the creators / writers / producer of GGM, anil gupta - was the production manager for ray's film, ganashatru.



:brishti

I was watching the business-meeting-with-new-guy Jonathan snip. Lovely! How lucky Nathans are: I knew one in London who was happily Nathan at school and Naathan at home.

But I wish I could find those film interviews! I used to hate those intellectual-critic-jargon Film-Night programs, so this went down particularly well with me

Ressurecting this golden oldie thread, to report that I watched the DVD of the documentary made by Satyajit Ray in 1961, entitled "Rabindranath Tagore", made in English to celebrate Tagore's birth centenary and re-released in 2011 as part of a six-DVD box set to commemorate Tagore's 150th birth anniversary as part of the year long celebrations.

It is a fascinating documentary with a long look at the origins of Shanti Niketan (Abode of Peace), as well as Rabi Thakur's poetry, music, family life in Calcutta at Jorasanko and in rural Bengal on the banks of the Padma river, source of much of his poetic inspiration.

Highly recommended!

http://youtu.be/SPqQ7-XuLeA


Now I am watching "Hungry Stones" by Tapan Sinha, also part of the same set, gifted to me by 2 IndiaMikers (Thank You again! ) based on the eponymous story by Tagore, in which Soumitra Chatterjee falls in love with a ghost, played by Arundhuti Debi, the wife of the director. Apparently, reading online about Sinha's influences, he was very much influenced by British and American cinema, in particular "A Tale of Two Cities" directed by Jack Conway and starring Ronald Coleman. Hungry Stones, made in 1961, with a very young Soumitra Chatterjee, excellent in the role, has taken Tagore's story and then added a new dimension. The music in this film is absolutely grandiose.

http://www.nfdcindia.com/tagorestori...ito-pashan.htm

http://www.upperstall.com/people/tapan-sinha


The other four DVDs in the set are : "Teen Kanya" (Three Daughters) by Satyajit Ray, which I have since twice in the cinema in Paris (and which sparked off my love affair with the Bengali language and culture!); "Ghaire Baire" (Home and the World) by Satyajit Ray, which I have already a (defective) copy of purchased in Kolkata last year, and which I am therefore looking forward to watching; "Kabuliwala" by Hemen Gupta, another Tagore short story translated to celluloid; "Char Adhyay" (Four Chapters) by Kumar Shahani, in Hindi, based on Tagore's novel of the same name, and with a backdrop of the Indian Freedom Movement and cinematography by K.K. Mahajan, which I have not yet seen either; and last, but by no means least, "Natir Puja", a silent twenty minute documentary by Tagore compiled and restored especially for this edition. Tagore himself features in this last one, which is a dance-drama enacted by his students at Shantiniketan.

This Satyajit Ray documentary on Tagore contains a historical howler. When dealing with the subject of the Bengal partition of 1905 a map is projected onto the screen that shows Bengal in its post-1912 borders, i.e. without Bihar and Orissa.

Thanks Golghar for pointing out this discrepancy.

Happy Birth Day to Satyajit Ray - "Maharaja, tomare selaam " [Salute to you, Emperor ]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHKhDYZioxc

Linten him, about his childhood .....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlojSRL_x0I

Thank you DJ for memorizing our Manik da, the versatile legend ever . . . Most people apart from Bengali only know about him as an ever great director but he has been a unique or even best creator of many phases of our cultural thing . . . starting from Movie Maker, novelist, writer, Artist, Music Director, Musician and so on . . . and yes ! The man who has introduced the Indian Cinema into the World for the first time . . . influenced by the the movie " The Bicycle Thieves " . . . done the history in World Cinema by his unique creativity of acclivity and declivity of our social values . . . " Pather Panchali ", I, sometime, get wonder that how could a person be a Satyajit Ray !!!

But, even today, I will raise a matter which would be a matter of debate that if HE would have been in another cultured country then has HE been treated like our country or HIS birthday would have been a matter of real honored for that country ???? WE ( Including our all politicians and Bureaucrat of India ) should sit and think about this thing . . .