Happening This Month

Satyajit Ray taught future filmmakers in his native India by being a pioneering director in his time. When his country’s screens were dominated by large-scale escapist entertainment, Ray was at the vanguard of what came to be called the Parallel Cinema movement, a drive to create realistic films dealing with social issues. Drawing on the influence of French director Jean Renoir and the Italian neorealist Vittorio De Sica, Ray created a cinema of simple observation. His sense of detail and ability to elicit strong performances from non-professional actors made his films both powerful and influential. He was the inspiration for generations of Indian filmmakers, along with such Western figures as Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, Danny Boyle and Christopher Nolan. TCM celebrates the 100th anniversary of his birth on May 2 with 24 hours of his films.

Ray was born to a literary family in Kolkata. His grandfather, Upendrakishore Ray, was a writer and publisher who set up the U. Ray and Sons printing company. Satyajit’s father, Sukumar Ray, was an illustrator, critic and poet who died when Satyajit was only three. Ray studied economics and the arts in college and worked for years as a book cover designer and illustrator. One of his projects was a children’s edition of the classic Bengali novel Pather Panchali, a book he hoped one day to bring to the screen.

When Renoir came to India to film The River (1951), Ray helped him find locations, and Renoir encouraged him to pursue his dreams of directing. During a six-month work assignment in London, Ray saw De Sica’s neorealist classic Bicycle Thieves (1948), another influence on his filmmaking style. In a review of that and other Italian films he had seen in London, he wrote, “For a popular medium, the best kind of inspiration should derive from life and have its roots in it. No amount of technical polish can make up for artificiality of the theme and the dishonesty of treatment.” Those words would anticipate his own approach when he started making films.

In 1952, he started shooting Pather Panchali (1955) with his own money, working with an inexperienced crew and mostly amateur actors. It took two-and-a-half years to finish the film as he tried to obtain funding from a variety of sources without losing control of the project. The finished product was a slow-building success in India, winning an audience through word of mouth. It won a special award as Best Human Document at the Cannes Film Festival and was an art-house hit in the U.S. in 1958. By that time, Ray had enjoyed an even bigger international success with the film’s sequel, Aparajito (1956), which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. He finished what would be called The Apu Trilogy with The World of Apu, released in 1959.

In the years immediately following the trilogy, Ray made several films delving into female psychology, including Devi (1960), about a young wife whose father-in-law thinks she is a goddess; The Big City (1963), about a wife and mother who defy convention by getting a job; and Ray’s personal favorite, Charulata (1964), about a neglected wife who develops feelings for her husband’s brother. After that, he started exploring different genres, making children’s films like the musical The Adventures of Goopy and Bangha (1969); the complex Days and Nights in the Forest (1970), which premiered to critical acclaim at the New York Film Festival; and his study of India under British colonial rule, The Chess Players (1977).

While filming The Home and the World (1984), a study of nationalism and the unprecedented politicization of a young wife, Ray suffered a debilitating heart attack. He only finished the film with the help of his son, Sandip Ray, who would go on to become a film director in his own right. Ray only made three other features after that, directing his last film, The Stranger (1991), from an oxygen tent as his health continued to decline. He was able to record his acceptance speech when he was awarded a special Oscar in 1992 but died only 24 days after the ceremony.

TCM presents 14 of Satyajit Ray’s films, starting with The Apu Trilogy Sunday, May 2, and running through the next day. The lineup includes six network premieres:

Three Daughters: The Postmaster (1961) is the first of three short films adapted from Rabindranath Tagore’s stories and deals with the one-sided bond forged between a regional postmaster and the child assigned as his housekeeper. Out of boredom, he teaches her to read and write, never realizing she has fallen in love with him.

Three Daughters: Monihara (1961), translated “The Lost Jewel,” was not included in the original international release of Three Daughters, which was re-titled Two Daughters. It tells of a woman who becomes obsessed with the jewels her husband gives her in an effort to win her love. The film was not included with its companion pieces in the U.S. until preserved by The Academy Film Archive in 1996.

Three Daughters: Samapti (1961) or “The Conclusion” tells of a young man returning home after passing his examinations. His mother has arranged for him to marry a young woman from a respectable family, but instead he chooses a young tomboy, although she may never be able to adjust to married life.

The Holy Man (1965) is officially adapted from a short story by Parashuram, the pen name for Rajshekhar Basu, but bears more than a passing resemblance to Molière’s classic comedy Tartuffe. A widowed lawyer falls under the spell of a preacher who claims to be on a first name basis with Buddha and the Hindu gods and to have witnessed Christ’s crucifixion.

An Enemy of the People (1989) translates Ibsen’s play to contemporary India for the tale of a doctor who loses his reputation when he discovers the waters at a popular tourist attraction are poisoned.

The Stranger won Ray the Indian National Film Awards for Best Picture and Director for his last directorial effort. He adapted his own short story about a family thrown into an uproar when the wife’s long lost uncle visits. Is he truly whom he claims to be or an imposter after the man’s inheritance?