My Years with Apu
My Years with Apu

Author: Satyajit Ray

Publisher: Penguin Books India

Published: 2020-04-20

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13: 9780140247800

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The absorbing story of how one of the greatest directors of our time began his film-making career 'Ray's fascinating account of how he made the (Apu) trilogy and how his passion for cinema was first kindled.' -India Today 'Written in an impeccable style it brings back memories of an era when film-making was an art born out of a love for the medium and not merely a means to make money. -Sunday Mail 'My Years With Apu prompts wistful thoughts of those other books, the other Ray masterpieces that remained unwritten at the time of the director's death.' -Indian Review of Books 'A swift, detailed, precise narrative...the story and its many links still retain, as a powerful myth of artistic genesis, their freshness, and may have acquired a new significance with the passing of time.' -The Telegraph

Childhood Days
Childhood Days

Author: Satyajit Ray

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2000-10-14

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 9351180751

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Frank and funny, these stories written originally for the Bengali children's magazine Sandesh, are an essential read for all Ray enthusiasts as well as those who want to know Ray, the writer and film-maker, better. In this volume, Ray also shares some of his experiences while shooting Pather Panchali—his epic debut, and subsequent films, particularly for children. He describes how an entire field of kaash flowers was eaten up by cows before he could shoot his famous scene with the train in Pather Panchali; and how a circus tiger let loose in a bamboo grove chased away a group of curious onlookers in the blink of an eye.

The Apu Trilogy
The Apu Trilogy

Author: Andrew Robinson

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2010-11-30

Total Pages: 197

ISBN-13: 1786729628

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"I can never forget the excitement in my mind after seeing 'Pather Panchali'", noted Akira Kurosawa. Satyajit Ray's three films about the boyhood, adolescence and manhood of Apu, Pather Panchali (1955), Aparajito (1956) and The World of Apu (1959) - collectively known as The Apu Trilogy - are established classics of world cinema. The Trilogy was the chief reason for Satyajit Ray's receiving an Academy Award for lifetime achievement in 1992, just before his death. This book by Ray's biographer and world authority Andrew Robinson is the first full study of the Trilogy. Robinson - who came to know the director well during the last decade of his career - covers the literary and cultural background to the films, their production, their music composed by Ravi Shankar, their aesthetic value, and their complex critical reception in the East and the West, from 1955 up to the present day. Extensively and beautifully illustrated and a pleasure to read, The Apu Trilogy will appeal to anyone captivated by the unique world created by Satyajit Ray.

Manik and I
Manik and I

Author: Bijoya Ray

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2012-08-01

Total Pages: 834

ISBN-13: 8184757506

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It is unusual to come across a life so rich in varied experiences as the one that Bijoya Ray, wife and constant companion to the renowned film-maker Satyajit Ray, has lived. Despite being closely related, Satyajit—‘Manik’ to his friends and family—and Bijoya fell in love and embarked on a life together years before Ray’s groundbreaking film Pather Panchali was made, and their long, happy married life lasted right until Ray’s death in 1992. Bijoya Ray never felt the urge to write her memoirs, but was finally persuaded to pick up the pen when she was well into her eighties. Manik and I brims over with hitherto unknown stories of her life with Satyajit Ray, told in candid, vivid detail.

Satyajit Ray
Satyajit Ray

Author: Andrew Robinson

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 1989-01-01

Total Pages: 500

ISBN-13: 9780520069466

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Profiles the life of the Indian director, and discusses the making of each of his films

Satyajit Ray on Cinema
Satyajit Ray on Cinema

Author: Satyajit Ray

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2013-04-02

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 0231535473

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Satyajit Ray, one of the greatest auteurs of twentieth century cinema, was a Bengali motion-picture director, writer, and illustrator who set a new standard for Indian cinema with his Apu Trilogy: Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road) (1955), Aparajito (The Unvanquished) (1956), and Apur Sansar (The World of Apu) (1959). His work was admired for its humanism, versatility, attention to detail, and skilled use of music. He was also widely praised for his critical and intellectual writings, which mirror his filmmaking in their precision and wide-ranging grasp of history, culture, and aesthetics. Spanning forty years of Ray's career, these essays, for the first time collected in one volume, present the filmmaker's reflections on the art and craft of the cinematic medium and include his thoughts on sentimentalism, mass culture, silent films, the influence of the French New Wave, and the experience of being a successful director. Ray speaks on the difficulty of adapting literary works to screen, the nature of the modern film festival, and the phenomenal contributions of Jean-Luc Godard and the Indian actor, director, producer, and singer Uttam Kumar. The collection also features an excerpt from Ray's diaries and reproduces his sketches of famous film personalities, such as Sergei Eisenstein, Charlie Chaplin, and Akira Kurosawa, in addition to film posters, photographs by and of the artist, film stills, and a filmography. Altogether, the volume relays the full extent of Ray's engagement with film and offers extensive access to the thought of one of the twentieth-century's leading Indian intellectuals.

The Pather Panchali Sketchbook
The Pather Panchali Sketchbook

Author: Satyajit Ray

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 2016-05-01

Total Pages: 144

ISBN-13: 9789351779339

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Pather Panchali placed Indian cinema on the world map in 1955: this is a simple statement of fact, no hyperbole. In the sixty years since, the movie has acquired cult status, and its sketchbook mythical proportions. Believed to have been forever lost after the film-maker donated it to the Cinematheque Francaise archives, the sketchbook is now available as a book, along with other fascinating and previously unseen material on the film: parts of the draft scenario, reviews, recollections, posters and illustrations. For film and Ray enthusiasts, this is a treasure trove, and for a whole new generation of filmgoers, including those who might not even have seen the film yet, it will reveal a process unfolding, a mind at work. As for connoisseurs of the graphic form, Ray's sketches are legend, and the novelistic qualities of this particular sketchbook have been the matter of intense discussion. As much a chronicle of the work of a genius as it is a handbook for aspiring film-makers, this collector's edition of The Pather Panchali Sketchbook is a must-have for every film lover's library.

Satyajit Ray
Satyajit Ray

Author: Gaston Roberge

Publisher: Manohar Publishers

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 286

ISBN-13: 9788173047350

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The essays offered here were written between 1970 and 2005. Teaching assignments, requests for articles, and the authors own evolving interests prompted them. They were not written with the view to form a book. They are now published together in the conviction that, both singly and as a whole, they can contribute to a better appreciation of Satyajit Rays legacy. The essays deal with Ray as a film-maker. The date on which each essay was written is indicated as it situate each in the cultural context in which it was conceived. Out of the twenty-nine feature films of Ray, only eight, plus the Apu Trilogy as a whole, are discussed. Moreover, this small collection is not a selection, indicaing preferences; nor is it a classification, rating the films. The discussion of Jana Aranya is the only essay that was written for this book to illuminate the evolution that took place from the first to the last film of Satyajit Ray. In order to preserve their historical value, generally, the essays were not updated. Given Rays deep involvement in film education, especially in the film societies movement in India, it was felt mandatory to include two articles on the subject, one discussing the situation of the film societies today, and the other, inspired by Satyajit Ray, and proposing a programme of media education for a new type of film society.

The Cinema of Satyajit Ray
The Cinema of Satyajit Ray

Author: Darius Cooper

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2000-01-13

Total Pages: 278

ISBN-13: 9780521629805

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Satyajit Ray is India's greatest filmmaker and his importance in the international world of cinema has long been recognised. Darius Cooper's study of Ray is the first to examine his rich and varied work from a social and historical perspective, and to situate it within Indian aesthetics. Providing analyses of selected films, including those that comprise The Apu Trilogy, Chess Players, and Jalsaghhar, among others, Cooper outlines Western influences on Ray's work, such as the plight of women functioning within a patriarchal society, Ray's political vision of the 'doubly colonised', and his attack and critique of the Bengali/Indian middle class of today. The most comprehensive treatment of Ray's work, The Cinema of Satyajit Ray makes accessible the oeuvre of one of the most prolific and creative filmmakers of the twentieth century.

Speaking of Films
Speaking of Films

Author: Satyajit Ray

Publisher: Penguin Books India

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 9780144000265

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Presents India's greatest film-maker on the art and craft of films. Speaking of Films brings together some of Ray's most memorable writings on film and film-making. With the masterly precision and clarity that characterize his films, Ray discusses a wide array of subjects: the structure and language of cinema with special reference to his adaptations of Tagore and Bibhuti Bhushan Bandopadhyay, the appropriate use of background music and dialogue in films, the relationship between a film-maker and a film critic, and important developments in cinema like the advent of sound and colour. He also writes about his own experiences, the challenges of working with rank amateurs, and the innovations called for when making a film in the face of technological, financial and logistical constraints. In the process, Ray provides fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpses of the people who worked with him - the intricacies of getting Chhabi Biswas, who had no ear for music, to play a patron of classical music in Jalsaghar, the incredible memory of the seventy-five-year-old Chunibala Devi, Indir Thakrun of Pather Panchali, and her remarkable attention to details.