Satyajit Ray's Birth Anniversary (What's your favorite Ray film?)
I’ll go with Charulata. Superb.
Charulata for me as well. Superb, indeed. That scene of Madhabi Mukerjee on a swing singing a Tagore song gets a full broom-stick-up from this custodian.
Days And Nights In The Forest
Oh, and for sheer fun factor, The Adventures of Goopy and Bagha can’t be beat. It’s like Satyajit Ray on LSD.
Thanks Blue K. This is seriously worth a watch considering most of his movies lacked the superficial fun element. Gotta watch this movie by any means.
@ Sushi, yeah it’s basically a fairy tale. I think it’s considered a children’s film, but of course, it’s more than that. And it has incredible singing too.
The World of Apu
@Blue K: Goopy Gyne was my first Ray!! Trippy trippy…. :)
I saw Aparjito again 2 weeks back…. last I saw it was 3 or 4 yrs ago….and I could appreciate the way Ray has shot Benares much more than before. Hmm, my favourite tho…. would be Apur Sansar, and then Charulata.
The Music Room and Three Daughters are both quite magical
Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne
Have to vote for The Music Room or Days and Nights in the Forest as much as I like Apu.
The ending of The Music Room just stunned me. I’ve taken away the impression that Ray had a ertain sympathy for the old gentry class and I should watch it again and evaluate.
…although my favorite Ray’s will e whatever gets released in a decent print. Get on the stick, Criterion.
The Music Room and The World Of Apu so far are my favorites but there are plenty more that I need to see from this great filmmaker.
I’m a fan of his entire filmography, but I’ll go with Teen Kanya/ Three Daughters, Ray’s adaptation of three Tagore stories.
Charulata. It’s my favorite film. Days and Nights in the Forest is a close second.
Oh ho, and to answer the question posed by Sushi, I have seen all of his “fiction” films except Sadgati and Two. I am seriously behind in the documentary front, though.
Well, I guess I have to go with the obvious Apu Trilogy. Watching them back-to-back-to-back ranks as one of the great filmgoing experiences of my life.
Happy birthday, Satyajit Ray! He’s the filmmaker who had the hugest influence on me, and every single film I’ve seen by him has been an unforgettable experience. A few years ago I met the Cuban director Huberto Solás who told me about a meeting he had with Ray in Calcutta, I wished that I would have had the opportunity to know him personally while he was still alive. And I second Nohea, his “The World of Apu” is definitely my favorite out of the trilogy, and a film I love like few others. The scene on the balcony where Apu is told that his wife died is one of the most heartbeaking moments in cinema. It’s difficult to decide which film is his greatest masterpiece though, “Charulata” is likely his most flawless and accomplished work, but the brutal and compassionate wartime drama “Distant Thunder”, his most relevant depiction of contemporary India in “The Adversary” and his Renoireque film “Days and Nights in the Forest” also deserve the attribute. “Kanchenjungha” is his most experimental film taking place on a single day and somehow reminescent of Chekhov, and despite the moralistic ending I do love “The Big City” starring India’s finest actress Madhabi Mukherjee. The dark and disturbing “The Middleman” is another film I highly recommend. After reading his biography I became aware that it was an enormous luck that Ray was even able to complete what became his first film “Pather Panchali” despite financial hardships. As few may know it wasn’t planned as his debut feature, but his first project, a rather melodramatic adaptation of Tagore’s novel “The Home and the World” failed. Thirty years later he finally managed to realize the adaptation, but during the shooting he had a heart attack, and from then on he was forced to work on his projects under constant medical observation. Shortly before his death in 1992 he received the Academy Honorary Award, but despite that fact his films still suffer from bad distribution in the States, and even Criterion ignored this important director for many years. In Europe the DVD-label “artificial eye” released various of his films in beautiful packages, and hopefully the time will come when all of his films will be widely available. Thanks to Sushi for starting this thread, Satyajit Ray deserves all the attention he can get.
Still Jalsaghar is my favorite of him, I always love film with dancing.
Definitely Charulata. I love the female protagonist and how ice cream plays a part in the movie!!!
lol @ Allison. I forgot that part about “Kulpi” (icecream)
My personal favorite is Ghare-Baire aka The Home and the World but that is due in some part to it being the first film of his I saw and thus having a deeper personal connection for me. It doesn’t really matter that much though since every film I’ve seen of his I’ve admired greatly, so trying to pick one as the best seems a bit of a fool’s errand.
Pather Panchali (called Song of the Little Road on this site) holds pride of place for me of the films of Ray’s I have had the pleasure of seeing. It shows Ray’s great eye for detail in nature and his human subjects alike. Whether it is the winds in the trees, the spider running out of the fallen bowl, the snake slithering under the house, the train caught at a distance, or the tragic face of the old ‘auntie’ – every little event is captured as it unfolds magically before our eyes. Ray provides us a deep poetic understanding of the complexity, tragedy, and adventure that is life happening all around us. He takes life in a small Indian village, through the events surrounding the family of an impoverished scholar, and turns them into something timeless and universal. The great score provided by a young Ravi Shankar just adds to the overall effect. I can’t imagine a better introduction to this great cinematic master than this film.
It is sad how Ray’s wonderful filmography is still so little known and appreciated by the larger film community.The first film of his I found was a very poor vhs print of one of his films I obtained from the library, around the time of his honorary Oscar. It was unwatchable, because the black and white faded subtitles were often invisible against the white background of the poor quality print. His films are not widely available in the North American Region 1 format, which has made his films difficult to readily obtain here. Shocking for such a major filmmaker who should be as widely known and heralded as Bergman, Fellini, Tarkovsky, or Antonioni. As Apursansar points out, good versions do exist, but must be mainly sought for outside of N. American distributors, including our very own Criterion label. That being the case, and those of us still without universal players, have a hard time tracking down his films.
Thanks to the wonderful selection of Ray’s films chosen for us for the World Cup by Apursansar, I was able to delve into some of the wealth and variety of this great filmmaker. I suggest anyone interested in his films, to look for those chosen by him for the World Cup. Although these films were streaming on-line at the time of the World Cup, good luck trying to find his films. It is worth the search. Many gems reside there.
Ray mainly worked using his own scripts, and unlike all the mostly escapist films coming out of India during his career, he dealt with social issues and the changes taking place to Indian society during his lifetime. He was particularly astute at detailing the rise of the educated middle class, and the struggles the youth of his time had finding opportunites in the market place. He details in some of his films like The Adversary and The Middleman (Jana Aranya) how these educated young men and women were mainly left floundering in low-paid, under-employed positions. These films resonated with me, and should anyone going through the current so-called ‘economic downturn’.
http://www.calcuttaweb.com/cgi-bin/shop.php?srchby=satyajit&s=USDVD
http://www.calcuttaweb.com/cgi-bin/shop.php?s=USDVD&p=2&srchby=satyajit
http://www.calcuttaweb.com/cgi-bin/shop.php?s=USDVD&p=3&srchby=satyajit
http://www.calcuttaweb.com/cgi-bin/shop.php?s=USDVD&p=4&srchby=satyajit
Happy birthday Mr. Satyajit Ray!
I’m also one of those who adores Charulata the most… :)
apursansar says “his “The World of Apu” is definitely my favorite out of the trilogy, and a film I love like few others.” — hmm, I wouldn’t have guessed :D
The Adversary and Abhijan are very good.
The Big City and The Little Road are great as well.
Iv’e seen about 6 of his films, and have about 6 more in my collection that I need to watch.
If I have to choose one it is KATCHENJUNGHA.
Sushi
Today is Satyajit Ray’s birth anniversary. I thought it’d be great to create a thread on this occasion where everyone can tell us their favorite Satyajit Ray movie.
I must admit that I haven’t seen nearly as many movies by him like most of the other users (Yes I am talking about the likes of Myra, Apursansar, Rudiger, Filmy, Blue K and Kenji etc.) on this forum have. I bet there must be people who have seen every single film made by Ray (do mention if you have).
As far as I am concerned I am rather confused between Charulata and Pather Panchali which are both awesome films in their own right. Pather Panchali was a tender tale of the journey of life in all its simplicity. Charulata on the other hand was perhaps one of the earliest movies in Indian Cinema that touched the taboo topic of extra-marital affair.
What’s your favorite film by Satyajit Ray?