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.
With the summer heat in Kolkata becoming unbearable, Feluda, Topshe and Lalmohon Babu decides to go to the beaches of Puri to cool off. However, in the course of their travels in Puri, they come across two intriguing characters 鈥� a wildlife photographer who has returned from Nepal and an astrologer who can read one鈥檚 past and the future by touching his/her forehead.
While not obvious at first, it soon becomes clear to Feluda that strange events involving these two men and a few others in Puri are strung by a common thread 鈥� a mysterious man named D. G. Sen, who a certain uncle of Feluda used to know.
唳嗋唳�! 唳唳侧唳︵! You are aging like a fine wine! 唳む唳� 唳Ο唳监唳曕Π 唳班唳∴唳班唳� 唳唳侧唰囙Π 唳溹唳苦Σ 唳班唳膏唳唳� 唳栢唳侧Δ唰� 唳班唳ㄠ 唳膏唳� 唳班唳∴唳� 唰ㄠЁ 唳ㄠΞ唰嵿Μ唳� 唳唳∴唳苦Δ唰� 唳灌唳溹唳� 唳灌啷�
Oh man Feluda defined my childhood. Our very own Indian Sherlock Holmes never disappoints. This story was quite fun: I could more or less guess the reveal but the story/motive that follows was beyond my grasp. My only issue was, that in true Sir Arthur Conan Doyle/Agatha Christie fashion a volley of characters were introduced in the first 5-6 pages and that confused me a bit.
When it comes to thrillers or mystery fiction, writers generally take a long time in building a plot, throwing off suspicion with conflicting evidence and then, in the end, surprise us. But I guess in just around 100 pages, this is the best you get.
This is the first Satyajit Ray I read. And I think he did a decent job at surprising us with the end. All in all, 3 stars for the good ending but uninteresting start of the book.
Feluda goes to Puri with Topse and Jatayu. While there, Topse and Jatayu discover a body on the beach. Later, they visit D.G. Sen's house to see his ancient scripture collection. During their visit, they meet Bilash Majumder, who has partially lost his memory after falling off a cliff in Nepal. He believes that D.G. Sen pushed him, as Sen was the only one present with him at the time.
Soon after, D.G. Sen's assistant, Nisith Pramanik, is found dead in a dilapidated house. From the evidence found at the scene, it becomes clear that Nisith was secretly selling Sen's scriptures without his knowledge and replacing them with fakes.
Feluda is attacked and struck with a blunt instrument but survives. He later meets Sen's estranged son, with whom Sen has had no contact for years.
One night, Feluda and his team stake out on the beach and spot two suspicious figures. When the men realize Feluda's presence, they shoot at him, but Feluda confronts them and, with Topse's help, manages to capture them. The two men are revealed to be Bilash, who is actually Sarkar in disguise, and Laxman, a doctor and astrologer living on the ground floor of D.G. Sen's house.
The truth is revealed: Sarkar is a smuggler who assumed Bilash Majumder's identity. He came to Puri to steal Sen's collection. He is the one who pushed Sen in Kathmandu with the help of his driver, Singh. The real Bilash Majumder had died long ago. Nisith Pramanik had caught Laxman stealing a manuscript, so Laxman killed him. Sarkar also killed Singh, who had come to extort more money from him.
This was my first book by Satyajit Ray. I've enjoyed so many of his films. But I'd never known that he'd also written stories. Apparently he wrote 34 Feluda stories. I have a lot of catching up to do.
Pradosh C Mitter is Feluda, the super sleuth. Tapesh Ranjan Mitter is Topshe, his cousin and the narrator, and Lalmohan Ganguli 'Jatayu' is a writer of popular crime thrillers.
The six stories in this collection were The House of Death, Napoleon's Letter, The Disappearance of Ambar Sen, Crime in Kedarnath, The Acharya Murder Case and Murder in the Mountains.
The character of Feluda was a Bengali version of Sherlock Holmes, with Topshe acting as Dr Watson. Topshe and Jatayu are both foils. All the brainwork is Feluda's.
There were a lot of grammatical and proofing errors in this book. A number of characters had their names spelt differently or even changed completely through the stories.
It was one of the best Feluda stories that I have come across ever. Now, my favourite! :D
Though as with most detectives all the ingenuity is explained in a Poirot fashion at a gathering including the police, the criminals and our beloved Feluda, Topshe and Lalmohon babu at the end, and that's always a bit annoying for me since I would like a more gradual dispension of the suspense a bit alone the lines of Christie's 'And then there were none'. But the story was a lot less predictable as compared to many other Feluda ones where the villain is evident from the beginning, mainly being written for young adults but loved by all Bengali readers.
All in all, it was an enjoyable time spent with 'Hatyapuri'. Happy reading! :)
Was overwhelmed with child-like amazement when I came to know that the Original Bengali title for this story is 'Hatyapuri' and the story is set in Puri, Orissa; and Puri is also Bengali word for 'House'. Small things but interesting trivia. I liked the story, it is always nostalgic to read feluda. While I have read only few of feluda's stories and those too in Marathi, but since I had read during my early days of reading I remember those and the Feluda with very fondness. So, I'll never not like Feluda story. Like others, this also has blood, violence but it's never gory. It's a very relaxing weekend read. A good getway to get back into the habit and excitement of reading if it is something which you have left while growing up.