Outlook India. Satyajit Ray.

Satyajit Ray's first film, Pather Panchali, turns 50 on August 26, prompting Outlook India to devote a special issue in tribute. Sandipan Deb:

In the sparest and the most refined of cinematic idioms, he gave us a world. Other than Abhijan, Shatranj Ke Khiladi and Sadgati, his body of work is an exquisitely crafted narrative of a century in the life of a society. If Joyce captured a man in full through the relentless description and analysis of a day in Dublin, Ray’s films are delicate vignettes sculpted in time recording an entire culture.

Chidananda Dasgupta, author of The Cinema of Satyajit Ray: "[A]s in Tagore, myth is an inseparable part of the Ray consciousness. The contemplative space with which he surrounds his characters, differentiating his narrative mode from that of the West, comes from a profoundly Indian spiritual base."

David Robinson was one of the first Europeans to see Ray's first film: "There was no way that we could ignore the quality of Pather Panchali. It was and remains one of the truly great films, of powerful poetic quality, the work of an artist of exceptional creative personality."

Namrata Joshi explains what she means when she thinks of PP as "pure cinema."

Ashish Rajadhyaksha, respectfully: "Put one way, the impact of 30 years of experimenting with realism has been enormously generative: that impact is still being discussed. Put in another, Ray has been a millstone round the neck of Indian cinema."

Eight Indian directors describe Ray's impact on cinema - and themselves. Then, clips and quotes from the rest of the world.

And of course, a complete filmography, but more intriguingly, "12 Ray Films You Cannot Miss."

Further exploration: SatyajitRay.org.

Posted by dwhudson at August 24, 2004 2:53 AM