Satyajit Ray, Bangali filmmaker and among the dozen or so great masters of world
cinema, is known for his humanistic approach to cinema. They are about things that make up the human
race - relationships, emotions, struggle, conflicts, joys and sorrows.
His films demonstrate a remarkable humanism,
elaborate observation and subtle handling of characters and situations.
Best known for his The Apu Trilogy that includes Pather Panchali (Song of the
little road, 1955), Aparajito (The Unvanquished, 1956) and Apur Sansar (The
World of Apu, 1959).
Seemabaddha : (Comapny Limited)
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Based on the novel: 'Seemabaddha' by Mani Shankar Mukherjee Cast:
Haradhan Bannerjee,Barun Chanda,Harindranath Chatterjee StorySyamal, sales director of an English firm in Calcutta which manufactures ventilators, aspires to win the job of company director but must compete with a colleague who is manoeuvering to get the position for himself. His sister-in-law Sudarsana arrives to spend a few days with them. She remembers having been jealous of her sister's marriage, something Syamal appears not to have forgotten. In order to cover up his company's problems meeting a production deadline, Syamal resorts to provoking a strike at the factory and, in the end, obtains the coveted directorship. His machinations are observed by Sudarsana who, unlike her sister, gains clear insight into the personality of her brother-in-law.
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Jalsaghar : (Music Room)
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Screenplay: Satyajit Ray
Based on the short story: 'Jalsaghar' by Tarasankar Banerjee Cast:
Chhabi Biswas,Padma Devi
Khoka,Pinaki Sen Gupta The action occurs in a palace in Nimitia, in Bengal, at the beginning of the century. On his terrace, smoking a hookah, the zamindar has his memory stirred by the sound of some music from the coming of age ceremony of his neighbor's son. He recalls his own son's initiation and the recitals in his salon to which he invited the finest musicians, the most beautiful singers, the greatest dancers. Now his wife and his son are dead and his status as an important landowner has declined. Goaded by his neighbor, an arrogant pretender who boasts of his taste in music, the zamindar opens his salon once again and ruins himself with a final recital. He savors the music. He savors his victory and toasts his ancestors. At dawn, he departs on his horse and leaves this elegant world behind.
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Agantuk (The Stanger)
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Based on the short story: 'Atithi' by Satyajit Ray.
Screenplay: Satyajit Ray Cast: Utpal Dutt ,Mamata Shankar
A long-lost uncle, a stranger to the family who has almost been given up for
dead, signals his existence in a letter expressing his desire to spend a few days in Calcutta with his niece. Driven by the suspicions of the husband, the family thinks he might be an impostor, if not a common thief, who may have come to claim an inheritance. The uncle, a world traveller, is put to the test by various 'bhadralok' friends who try to probe him: is he really the uncle or only pretending to be him? When questioned by a lawyer friend, the uncle shows legal acumen in defending himself. The niece's little boy has accepted the uncle from the start. The niece also gradually comes to accept him, whereas her husband,like everyone else, cannot understand this mysterious visitor. The uncle departs as abruptly as he arrived, leaving some wise observations on the qualities of "civilization" and human nature.
An emotionally charged film, Ray literally, plants his own voice in it. He briefly sings three times in place of the enunciator-protagonist. The film voices his global concerns; against narrowness of all sorts, against boundaries, borders and barriers.
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Devi (The Goddess)
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Producer: Satyajit Ray Productions || Screenplay: Satyajit Ray
Based on the short story: 'Devi' by Prabhart Kumar Mukherjee Cast:Sharmila Tagore,Chhabi Biswas,Soumitra Chatterjee,Purnendu
The action takes place in 1860 at Chandipur, in Bengal, in a rural setting.
Kalikinkar, the master of the house and local zamindar, has a revelation during
a dream: his daughter-in-law Doyamoyee has manifested herself to him as an incarnation
of the goddess Kali. Installed in the family temple, she cures the sick child
of an itinerant man who seeks her help. Her husband Umaprasad, who has received
a western-based education at a Calcutta university, finds himself dispossessed
of his wife who has become a "goddess." In a critical scene, Umaprasad
attacks tradition and tries to reason with his father, although unsuccessfully.
The cure seems a miracle which demonstrates the truth of the traditional beliefs,
and a crowd of worshippers comes to venerate her. Doyamoyee's beloved nephew,
the child Khoka, falls ill. He is placed in the care of his aunt, but she is
unable to save him. His death shatters her and she is overwhelmed by madness.
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Parash Pathar: (The Philosopher's Stone)
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Based on the short story: 'Parash Pathar' by Parasuram
Story:In this satirical film, Paresh, an unimportant clerk at a bank, sees his life transformed one day when a neighbor child shows him a stone which he claims is capable of instantly changing any piece of metal into gold. Incredulous at first, Paresh becomes convinced by a demonstration of the stone's power and manages to make off with it. Soon he is wealthy and takes pains to preserve the secret of his riches until, drunkenly loquacious, he reveals it during a party at the home of an industrial magnate. The industrialist covets the stone and demands to be let in on its magic formula. This causes a series of calamities that make Paresh regret his acquisition.
Cast:Tulsi Chakravarty, Ranibala,Kali Banerjee Gangapada Bose,Haridhan Chatterjee,Jahar Roy.
NO English Subtitle
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Ghare Baire (Home and the World)
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Based on the he novel: 'Ghare Baire' by Rabindranath Tagore
Cast:
Victor Bannerjee,Soumitra Chatterjee,Swatilekha Chatterjee,Bimala Chatterjee
Story :
The action occurs in 1905, in the period in which Great Britain, represented by Lord Curzon, decided the partition of Bengal in order to separate the Hindus and Moslems. The populace mobilized against this project in the nationalist movement known as swadeshi, which called for a boycott of foreign made goods, and in an insurrection which was subsequently suppressed. In this turbulent context, a bourgeois couple, Nikhil and Bimala, who have remained faithful to the ideals of the Bengal Renaissance, receive in their home a friend, Sandip, a vehement anti-English nationalist. Encouraged by her husband to be a "modern" woman, Bimala is seduced by Sandip, before gradually recognizing the duplicity of his motives and behavior.
In this film, as well as in Devi (The Goddess, 1960) and Charulata (The Lonely Wife, 1964), Ray explores the cultural emergence of the idea of the "modern woman" in the upper class of colonial India, showing with striking sensitivity the pressures this new ideal placed on individual women whose self-identities were also molded by traditional expectations.
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Ganashatru (An Enemy of the People)
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Adapted from the play: 'An Enemy of the People' by Henrik Ibsen Cast:
Soumitra Chatterjee,Ruma Guha Thakurta,Mamata Shankar
NO English Subtitle
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Ashani Sanket (Distant Thunder)
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Based on the novel: 'Asani Sanket' by Bibhutibhushan Banerjee Cast:Soumitra Chatterjee, Babita,Ramesh,Mukherjee,Chitra Banerjee StoryThe action, which occurs in a tiny village in 1943, during World War II, is based on the man-made famine that caused the deaths of five million inhabitants of Colonial Bengal.
Gangacharan, a Brahmin recently settled in the village with his wife Ananga, decides to start a school in exchange for being supported by the villagers. Airplanes disturb the peaceful sky, a metaphor for the disruption of traditional life of the villagers by War in Europe. It causes the price of rice to increase rapidly. This causes hardship for and rioting by the villagers and hording of grain by merchants. Gangacharan, shrewd, manages to initially, keep himself supplied with food in exchange for his services. However conditions begin to deteriorate rapidly. Anaga is molested while hunting for edible roots in the lush forest, highlighting the irony of the situation : there is no drought and the fields have produced a good harvest that season. The film ends with Anaga telling Ganga about her pregnency as a deluge of starving humanity approaches toward them.
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Mahanagar(The Big City)
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Screenplay: Satyajit Ray
Based on the short story: 'Abataranika' by Narendranath Mitra. Cast:
Anil Chatterjee,Madhabi Mukherjee,Jaya Badhuri,Prasenjit Sarkar Story: Subrata Mazumdar, an unassuming employee of a bank in Calcutta, has problems providing for the needs of his family. Against established custom and the reproofs of her father-in-law, a retired professor, his wife Arati looks for a job. She finds work selling sewing machines door-to-door. When she proves successful in her work and gains untraditional self-confidence, her husband is unable to accept the situation and would love for her to quit. As the result of a crisis at the bank, however, he loses his job and his wife's work becomes even more essential. Arati establishes a friendship with a colleague, an Anglo-Indian woman, and takes her side when she is unjustly punished by their boss. On the strength of her convictions, Arati is willing to sacrifice her own job and her family's needs as an expression of solidarity with her friend. The film ends with a more equal re-alignment of the relationship between Arati and her husband.
The original negative of this film was lost in a film fire.
English Subtitled
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Sonar Kella : (The Golden Fortress)
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Screenplay: Satyajit Ray || Based on the novel: 'Sonar Kella' by Satyajit Ray
Story: A parapsychologist discovers that the drawings of the child Mukul represent scenes from a former life. It emerges that everything had taken place in a fortress, where the boy's father had worked as a gem cutter. The child is led to places in Rajastan where such an environment might be found. Alerted to this strange phenomenon by newspaper reports, some bandits kidnap the boy. The detective Feluda is engaged, along with his assistant Tapesh, to recover the child.
English Subtitled
Due to the age or rarity of this title,
the quality will not be up to modern film standards.
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Satyajit Ray, Bangali filmmaker and among the dozen or so great masters of world
cinema, is known for his humanistic approach to cinema. They are about things that make up the human
race - relationships, emotions, struggle, conflicts, joys and sorrows.
His films demonstrate a remarkable humanism,
elaborate observation and subtle handling of characters and situations.
Based on the short story: 'Atithi' by Satyajit Ray.
Producer: Satyajit Ray Productions || Screenplay: Satyajit Ray
Based on the short story: 'Parash Pathar' by Parasuram
Story:In this satirical film, Paresh, an unimportant clerk at a bank, sees his life transformed one day when a neighbor child shows him a stone which he claims is capable of instantly changing any piece of metal into gold. Incredulous at first, Paresh becomes convinced by a demonstration of the stone's power and manages to make off with it. Soon he is wealthy and takes pains to preserve the secret of his riches until, drunkenly loquacious, he reveals it during a party at the home of an industrial magnate. The industrialist covets the stone and demands to be let in on its magic formula. This causes a series of calamities that make Paresh regret his acquisition.
Cast:Tulsi Chakravarty, Ranibala,Kali Banerjee Gangapada Bose,Haridhan Chatterjee,Jahar Roy.
Based on the he novel: 'Ghare Baire' by Rabindranath Tagore
Cast:
Adapted from the play: 'An Enemy of the People' by Henrik Ibsen
