Satyajit Ray, the doyen of Indian films

brishti

yyamdancer: you seem to enjoying kolkata - goodee
since you're going to buy ghatak movies, try and get a couple of movies of:

mrinal sen: [he is one of the most politically active film-makers]
bhuvan shome [mr shome]
akaler shandhane [in search of famine]
mrigaya [the deer hunter]
ek din pratideen [and quiet rolls the dawn]
khandhar [the ruins]

tapan sinha:
apanjan
sagina mahato
adalat o ekti meye
sabuj dwiper raja
safed haathi

as always - please check to see if they're subtitled.
my all time favourite ray movie is 'shonar kella' [the golden fortress] and of course 'charulata'... aami chini go chini tomaare ogo bidheshini

also highly recommend two books, which you'll get at oxford -
or better still - in the second hand bookstores in free school street - nothing like the musty smell of old books

the hungry tide - by amitava ghosh [about the sunderbans]
from heaven's lake - vikram seth [travelogue of his journey by foot from tibet into india - absolutely awesome]

peter cat - must-have: chello kebab
olympia - must-have: chateau briand steak [ spelling maybe ] ask for a CB - with a chilled kingfisher beer




:brishti

jyotida: shotti! few of us are so previleged as to watch the two masters at work - i AM envious - kee bolbo aapnake

Scandojazzbuff

Brishti, thanks for this list. I will certainly keep my eyes open for some of these titles.

NeeliAankhen

I have many Satyajit Ray movies to look forward to seeing. One though that I already know and love is Nayak (hero), about a troubled and fascinating popular film star, played by the Bengali popular film star Uttam Kumar.

The character has to cross India - Bombay to Calcutta, or vice versa - to receive an award. Because he was too drunk to get up in the morning, he has missed his plane and so is taking the long train ride. Sharmila Tagore is a young journalist with earnest anti-populist tastes who runs into him on the train and nonetheless decides to see if she can interview him.

I realize when I read all the wonderful writing on IM about the Indian train, one of my reference points is the assortment of characters in that movie.

I'm going to hunt or watch for posts about Flury's, I've encountered it too in the movies - someone getting an important cake from there.

jyotirmoy

From cinema making point of view Kanchenjungha was a very difficult project. If you look at the script you find that the whole film is based on the happenings over one short afternoon only. There is no drama as such in the storyline, none at all. Making a film on such a story line is a real big challenge for any director. Ray's Agantuk has the magic of eye level camera work all through out.

Some young film makers like Ray's son Sandeep, Anjan & Bappaditya are comimg up with great films. Nishijapan, Sanj Batir Rupokatah, Devaki all are worth watching.

Bhai Brishti I would add Kharij & Ak din achanak to your list of Mrinal da's films. Once we used to have great addas at a bar in Esplanade where Ritwik da was a regular. Those days are gone but the memories are etched for ever.
Check out Subornorekha, Ajantrik and Jukti takko goppo by Ritwik Ghatak.

theyyamdancer

I am simply overwhelmed by all these suggestions, which I have spent half an hour copying into my notebook!

In Music World last week we were fortunate to meet up with a distinguished Kolkata photo-journalist, Mr Aranya SEN, who has promised to introduce us to Sandip Ray when we return to Kolkata from our Sikkim interlude. Exciting!!!

jyotirmoy

Ray's Goopi Gyan Bagha Bayn is an example of Ray's versatility.

kishori_ray

Music World is a great shop, and the exact address should be Park Street 18 e in Kolkata's center.

BTW hard to come out of this shop once you entered, they have about everything one can think about. In my case I got a big collection of Indian Classical Music there, and I saw indeed many movies of Satrajit Ray there.

__________________
'Vasudhaiva kutumbkam'- The universe is my family.
http://www.youtube.com/kishoriray
http://kishoriray.multiply.com/
[url]http://www.flickriver.com/photos/kishoriray/

Dilliwala

Great thread.
I think I have to watch 'Kanchenjunga' sometime, what with my great fondness for all things Himalayan. This is the first I've heard of this film, I think, don't recall the name.
Still haven't been to the Eastern Himalaya either.

brishti

yyamdancer:
whilst you're in musicworld...
pick up a cd of chandrobindoo - its a bengali rock band - you just may like it


flury's aint what it used to be neeli
from ever since i remembered, flury's had furniture/design/ambiance from somewhere near the dinosaur-age, the bearers there also seemed to belong to that era.
it was a landmark. it had a certain personna. it had character.
with a makeover - its kinda gone 'pink' everything looks pink in there! plastic spoons??? euckh.

you want a feel of what it used to be like - check out 'coffee house' on college street.
thats where all em greats of bengal used to meet and discuss.
that place is caught in a time warp [mostofcalcuttaisanyways!] - as i think all coffee houses are, all over india.

but flury's - you can skip it - it aint what it used to be - just like so many other landmarks i guess.




:brishti

Scandojazzbuff

You inspired me to take the river boat to 'Little India' here in Bangkok yesterday to my source for Indian DVD. Sunny Video where the woman who runs it never cracks a smile. Not one Satyajit Ray movie in stock! But, coming in a couple of weeks.

I was able to find:

Bhuvan Shome
Amu
Company

So, the trip was not in vain.

BTW, how much do you pay in Kolkata for Ray DVD's?

jyotirmoy

Bhuvan Shome is a great film and fantastic performance by Suhashini Mule.

Bhaswaran

I totally agree with you Jyotida. Photographically, Ritwik Ghatak's films attract me more.

__________________
....life is a journey.....and the journey is more important than the destination........

Photos in Indiamike :http://www.indiamike.com/photopost/s...0/ppuser/15496

Photos in Flickr :http://www.flickr.com/photos/bhaswaran/

Darjeeling trip Video : "Darjeeling - The Queen of Hills" DVD

jyotirmoy

Both Ray's & Ghatak's photography are great, each in its own way.
Ghatak's camera captured the stark side as did his story line & dialouges.
The opening scene of Charulata is a rare example of expressive photography. Similarly Ghatak's camera has captured the starkness of the twisting rocky dune filled river bed of the river Subornorekha so similar to the twists and troubles that have gathered around the lives of the characters.

Bhaswaran

Yes that is where they stands out for...total with their individual styles and sense....to direct the viewers imagination

brishti

i have collated snippets from the net -
a tiny detail which i hope, will clarify ray's masterful photography in the films mentioned in the posts above:

Quote:

Jean Renoir was making ‘The River’ in Calcutta he tried to get a job as a camera assistant but failed. Stubborn as he was, he didn’t take no for an answer, hung around and followed the unit with his little notebook in which he wrote and made meticulous sketches. This paid off, for later the cameraman Claude Renoir was asking him for his notes on the film to check on his own lighting schemes. It was here that he met a young illustrator working in an advertising agency and planning his first feature film - Satyajit Ray. Ray wanted to break away from the conventional lighting styles followed in the commercial cinema of Calcutta and looked towards the 21 year old science graduate to photograph his feature ‘Pather Panchali.’ In Aparajito, Ray’s second film he introduced ‘bounce lighting’ in cinema. He achieved his special quality of light by stretching a white cloth across the open courtyard of the set they had built in a studio. Placing studio lights below he bounced them off of the cloth to simulate a diffused daylight feel. BOUNCE LIGHTING was born. He had begun a revolution. Today, bounce lighting is taken for granted and used in cinema the world over – and this is the man who invented it. Years later, in New York, he was looking at a poster of one of the Ray films when a voice boomed from behind, 'I'd love to meet the man who shot this film.' He turned around and said quietly, 'that was me.' He was immediately swept up in a bear hug by a man who kissed him on both cheeks and said, 'You are truly a genius.' The man was Vittorio Storaro. He photographed the famous Ray films, Pather Panchali, Aparajito, Apur Sansar, Charulata, Jalsaghar, Devi, Kanchenjunga - his first color film. in 1992 became the only Indian to win the Eastman Kodak Lifetime Achievement for Excellence in Cinematography. He was the master of light, a Jedi Master.

His name was Subrata Mitra.
So when you talk about photography in the above Ray’s films – this is the man who was responsible.

There was a time in this country when we made them good.






:brishti