Satyajit Ray Summary

Ray, Satyajit (1921–1992), Indian filmmaker. One of the most prominent figures in the history of cultural production in India, Satyajit Ray is best known in international circles for his films.... Read more

The Indian film director Satyajit Ray (1921-1992) was noted for his refined and subtly moving studies of native family life. His creations possess a humanistic warmth, crystalline purity, and mythic e... Read more

Critical Essay by Guido Aristarco The influences of the Italian cinema on Satyajit Ray are quite clear. [Aparajito (The Unconquered)] … confirms the significance of the two influences we percei... Read more

Critical Essay by Eric Rhode On a first glance you might see Devi [The Goddess] … as no more than a film with a thesis, Ibsen in an Indian setting…. The thesis, it seems, is clear; and i... Read more

Critical Essay by Penelope Houston To attempt to annex Satyajit Ray as the last Victorian would be absurd. But it isn't merely because Charulata is set in 1880, and full of references to Gladst... Read more

Critical Essay by Richard Schickel It is always a trifle embarrassing to set down in unadorned outline the story of one of Satyajit Ray's films, for in that form they generally seem too small, ... Read more

Critical Essay by Ernest Callenbach [Mahanagar] dramatizes a disconcerting shift in the roles of women, and hence in the patterns of family life and emotional life generally. (pp. 46-7) American viewe... Read more

Critical Essay by William S. Pechter [Perhaps] the most remarkable aspect of Ray's body of work is its range and versatility. Even within the trilogy, each of the films is strikingly different ... Read more

Critical Essay by Tom Milne Days and Nights in the Forest … the very title rings with enchantment, and the old Ray magic is soon at work again…. [Whereas] it would be impossible to detac... Read more

Critical Essay by Pauline Kael "It adds years to your life," the young men from Calcutta in Satyajit Ray's Days and Nights in the Forest say of the country quiet, and it's ... Read more

Critical Essay by Alan Ross Ray's films—arguably the most considerable achievement in the art of our time—have made only a modest impact in relation to their quality. What the cur... Read more

Critical Essay by John Coleman Company Limited has a bleak, slightly off-key title to British ears and this quality of getting things just that shade wrong is an element in what it is all about. The f... Read more

Critical Essay by Penelope Gilliatt ["Nayak the Hero"] is the achievement of a great film director working outside his usual style, fumbling sometimes with surrealism, using flashbacks t... Read more

Critical Essay by Jonathan Harker The World of Apu seems to me not only the most successful, the most brilliant, the most moving, and the most important of the three parts of Mr. Ray's trilogy,... Read more

Critical Essay by Pauline Kael The color imagery of Satyajit Ray's "Distant Thunder" is so expressive that I regretted the need to look down to the subtitles; it took precious tim... Read more

Critical Essay by John Russell Taylor Ray is a great director, and ipso facto cannot be typical of anything, perhaps not even reliably himself (it is the prerogative of all great artists constantly to... Read more

Critical Essay by William S. Pechter That [Distant Thunder] falls short of Ray's best work is probably true enough, and worth saying. No less worth saying, however briefly and belatedly, is tha... Read more

Critical Essay by Tom Milne Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of Satyajit Ray's The Chess Players … is the ambivalence with which Ray views the matter of politics and progress, recalli... Read more

Critical Essay by Arlene Croce [Roughly] two-thirds of The World of Apu, with which Ray closes his trilogy, are well worth the trouble, and some of this is as fine, in its own way, as the best of Path... Read more

Critical Essay by John Burgess The World of Apu should not be qualified by the 'final part of a trilogy' tag. It stands surely on its own, prologue included, and this is not to overlook ... Read more

Critical Essay by Eric Rhode In general, Satyajit Ray's films embarrass the critics. Admirers go impressionistic, talk airily of Human Values, and look offended when asked to be more precise. D... Read more

In Patol Babu Film Star, Satyajit Ray has highlighted the idea that personal satisfaction is more important than financial rewards. According to him, one does a job because he is interested in it rath... Read more