Kailashe Kelenkari

One of the youngest directors of Bengali cinema, Sandip Ray was born of Satyajit Ray and Bijoya Ray on September 8, 1953. He almost grew up on father Satyajit Ray’s sets, beginning as a still photographer while still in school. Sandip started off by assisting his father on Shatranj Ke Khiladi (The Chess Players) in 1977. Earlier he had worked with Ray as a production photographer in a few projects. Ray went on to praise Sandip saying that he was “the best assistant that I have ever had”. His own directorial debut was in the year 1983, with the classical children’s fiction, Phatik Chand, which told the endearing story of a child kidnapped from his home and his adventures after he loses his memory in an accident. The film went on to receive an award at the International Children’s Film Festival in Vancouver.

This was followed by two televised serials (in 15 episodes) based mostly on stories by his father and the filming of Goopy Bagha Phire Elo (The Return of Goopy and Bagha 1991), a sequel to the delightful children’s film by Ray, Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne.

Incidentally it was from the legacy of Feluda, the fictional private detective created by Ray and immortalised by actor Soumitra Chattopadhyay as the on-screen avatar, that Sandip Ray experienced true commercial success. His Bombayer Bombete and the other Feluda films that followed had a certain cinematic dynamism about them, creating a different ‘Feluda’ in starkly different times, yet retaining the original experience intact. —Satyajit Ray Society