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.
Circus, Ring master, Tiger, six cardinal passions, three ( + 1 鈥� 1 ) sons, 2 murders, and an old riddler 鈥� yes, Feluda again. But an overdose of the character? Not at all. Chinnamastar Abhishap is only a fitting addition to me.
This was an amazing story. The reveal was extremely obvious but journey is more important than the destination, am I right? Initially it seemed like the story was going in a thousand different directions but it definitely got together in the end. Each character was loveable and unique. Definitely a fun ride!
This book has it all. Murder, curse, circus and Tiger!
If I have to give Stars to Feluda Series I have to give hundred stars.
Undoubtedly, Feluda is the best Bengali detective series. Satyajit Ray is an honor to the whole Bengal. I cannot praise his creation enough.
"Chinnomostar Ovishap" is one of the best stories of Feluda. In this book, we met two other brilliant characters (Mahesh and Karandikaur) who were a match to the great Bengali detective.
Laal Mohan with his usual charm filled the book with humor, which took the book to a whole new level.
It is a book full of romance, suspense and excitement!
Priorities of all bengalis (in descending order): - Tagore - Satyajit - Fish
A murder mystery usually focuses on one mystery but this somehow focused on 5-6 at the same time. All fitting all that in just 100 pages is so impressive.
Feluda was a such common name growing up that it felt nice to understand why bengalis are so obsessed with the character. Also felt so nice to discuss stuff about Feluda stories (both books and movies) with my parents and grandparents who have read basically all feluda stories out there (including all other Ray books and films).
That being said, Lal Mohan babu is so so funny. My parents said his portrayal in the movies is just hilarious so can't wait to watch a feluda movie soon. Ofc bc of the characters but also because I've never watched a Ray film before.
Despite this glorious review, I wasn't a big fan of the number of characters in the plot. Sure, that's needed to make the story interesting but too many, too fast.
Expect the unexpected in the end. Feluda's adventures would keep you engrossed through out, they would make you think and guess who the real culprit is till the end, something else only would come out, that's the trademark of Feluda's adventures.
Once i got lucky in finding Felu Da in english then there is no stopping! So finished the second book and enjoyed every bit of it.
Slowly his unique style is getting familiar to me and growing on me as well :-)
I read and got to know that Satyajit Ray had deep interests in crime fiction and he read all Sherlock Holmes fictions in his school days and when Ray himself started writing crime fictions, unsurprisingly, the character Sherlock Holmes inspired his writings. Feluda's character resembles Sherlock Holmes and Tapesh/Topshe's character resembles Dr. Watson so now I know :-)
The mystery/Detective works of Satyajit Ray are delightful treat for the readers. I am no exception. I enjoyed all his his stories. This one that deals with the mystery solving regarding the lost son of a father.
Nice, the plot is very twisted, the Although too much attention has been given to circus tiger which found to be no significance, also the title of story is not justifiable, but this book will keeps you engaged.