Satyajit Ray (Bengali: 唳膏Δ唰嵿Ο唳溹唰� 唳班唳) was an Indian filmmaker and author of Bengali fiction and regarded as one of the greatest auteurs of world cinema. Ray was born in the city of Calcutta into a Bengali family prominent in the world of arts and literature. Starting his career as a commercial artist, Ray was drawn into independent filmmaking after meeting French filmmaker Jean Renoir and watching Vittorio De Sica's Italian neorealist 1948 film, Bicycle Thieves.
Ray directed 36 films, including feature films, documentaries and shorts. He was also a fiction writer, publisher, illustrator, calligrapher, graphic designer and film critic. He authored several short stories and novels, primarily aimed at children and adolescents.
Ray's first film, Pather Panchali (1955), won eleven international prizes, including Best Human Documentary at the Cannes Film Festival. This film, Aparajito (1956) and Apur Sansar (1959) form The Apu Trilogy. Ray did the scripting, casting, scoring, and editing, and designed his own credit titles and publicity material. Ray received many major awards in his career, including 32 Indian National Film Awards, a number of awards at international film festivals and award ceremonies, and an Academy Award in 1992. The Government of India honoured him with the Bharat Ratna in 1992.
Early Life and Background: Ray's grandfather, Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury was a writer, illustrator, philosopher, publisher, amateur astronomer and a leader of the Brahmo Samaj, a religious and social movement in nineteenth century Bengal. Sukumar Ray, Upendrakishore's son and father of Satyajit, was a pioneering Bengali author and poet of nonsense rhyme and children's literature, an illustrator and a critic. Ray was born to Sukumar and Suprabha Ray in Calcutta.
Ray completed his B.A. (Hons.) in Economics at Presidency College of the University of Calcutta, though his interest was always in Fine Arts. In 1940, he went to study in Santiniketan where Ray came to appreciate Oriental Art. In 1949, Ray married Bijoya Das and the couple had a son, Sandip ray, who is now a famous film director.
Literary Works: Ray created two of the most famous fictional characters ever in Bengali children's literature鈥擣eluda, a sleuth in Holmesian tradition, and Professor Shonku, a genius scientist. Ray also wrote many short stories mostly centered on Macabre, Thriller and Paranormal which were published as collections of 12 stories. Ray wrote an autobiography about his childhood years, Jakhan Choto Chilam (1982). He also wrote essays on film, published as the collections: Our Films, Their Films (1976), Bishoy Chalachchitra (1976), and Ekei Bole Shooting (1979).
Awards, Honors and Recognitions: Ray received many awards, including 32 National Film Awards by the Government of India. At the Moscow Film Festival in 1979, he was awarded for the contribution to cinema. At the Berlin Film Festival, he was one of only three to win the Silver Bear for Best Director more than once and holds the record for the most Golden Bear nominations, with seven. At the Venice Film Festival, he won a Golden Lion for Aparajito(1956), and awarded the Golden Lion Honorary Award in 1982. In 1992 he was posthumously awarded the Akira Kurosawa Award for Lifetime Achievement in Directing at the San Francisco International Film Festival.
Feluda was originally written by Satyajit Ray for the children鈥檚 magazine 鈥楽andesh鈥�. The popularity of the series was such that Ray went on to include a few adult themes in the later stories when he realized that even adults were enjoying the series. I actually read Feluda before Agatha Christie and as such Feluda was my introduction to detective fiction. The best part of the stories is the evergreen manner of Ray鈥檚 narrative. I remember reading 鈥楤aadhshahi Angti鈥� which was written in 1960s and when I visited Lucknow in 1990s, I could still recognize the places described in the book. The other thing that I loved about the series was that in every story we learned something new 鈥� be it about geometry or about telepathy. Absolutely and irrevocably in love with Feluda and his adventures 鈥� forever a fan.
I won't rate the stories in this book as one of the top 5 Feluda stories, but this collection compiles Feluda's adventures in Kolkata. Revisit the places with the detective as he unravels strange mysteries and even stranger characters.
I live in Bangladesh and this book kinda provided as a handy guide when I was in Kolkata for my holiday. The descriptions of the places and monuments vivid, the stories engaging - this will be a light but enjoyable read when compared to Feluda's other adventures.
There are many different kinds of intersting story, if I could explain about the book that is just excellent.. who really love to read detective books, must read
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
One of the fascinating book! Osadharon. Feluda is lyk a real hero.. joto barii pori na keno mone hoe bar bar pori. Kolkatae feluda is indeed one of the best sellers of the bengali literature!