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.
Finished all the books of Feluda at a long go. Reread many of the books though forgot all the twists. However, feluda will always be one of the best heroes of Bangaly literature and sattyajit roy my most favourite writer of the same. Hope to reread all the books again when I鈥檒l be retiring from the tiring jobs and spend my pastime in a basking sun while inhaling the pages of Feluda Somogro.
Mr. Robertson has arrived in India to return a ruby that his great-grandfather looted from India. In his letter, Mr. Robertson expressed his desire to return the ruby to India. Now, his great-grandson wants to fulfill his great-grandfather's wish. Robertson has come with his friend, Maxwell. They have met Feluda and his team at Shantiniketan.Meanwhile, many wealthy Indian collectors have offered him a huge amount of money to sell the ruby, but he has refused all of them and wants to hand it over to the Kolkata Museum. Among the collectors is Mr. Thanthania, who has invited Robertson to his house. Robertson has accepted the invitation. At Robertson's request, Feluda and his team have also accompanied him. There, they meet Mr. Thanthania's acquaintance, Mr. Choubey, a police officer.Maxwell is a very rash person and a racist. Choubey reminds them that many years ago, there was an indigo businessman named Maxwell who was also like that. He killed his servant by kicking him. He was also an obnoxious person. Then Jatayu asks about any punitive measures. Feluda explains that the businessman had to adopt the servant's son. However , he changed the boy's religion, and educated him in the Christian educational institutions. One day, in anger, Maxwell reveals that he is in fact the great-grandson of that indigo businessman and justifies his ancestor's actions.During a tribal festival and dance, Maxwell is attacked and the ruby is stolen.Feluda starts his investigation. Two days later, in the morning, Choubey comes to Robertson to return the stolen ruby. He claims it has been stolen by a collector named Jagannath Chatterjee.Feluda meets Mr. Choubey privately. He asks about the veracity of the information. Choubey is unprepared. He says, "I saw it at your great-grandfather's tomb. You are a Christian and your great-grandfather was killed by Maxwell and wanted to mete out punishment to his descendant."Choubey nods his head, corroborating Feluda's deduction.
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.