The Cinema Of Satyajit Ray

This powerful psychological drama follows a young executive's climb up the corporate ladder and his slow immersion into corruption, seen through the eyes of his young sister-in-law.
Shyamal (Barun Chanda) is an ambitious Marketing Manager in a British firm in Calcutta, manufacturing fans. He's married to Dolan, and lives in a company flat. He aspires to become the company director. For this he has to compete with a colleague who has a relative in the board of directors.
His sister-in-law Tutul (Sharmila Tagore) arrives from Patna to spend a few days with them. She has been a great admirer of the ideologist Shyamal and was envious of her sister's marriage with him. Tutul is Shyamal’s conscience. Shyamal shows her the delights of city life - the cocktail parties, the clubs and horse racing.
Life goes on smoothly for Shyamal until he learns that a consignment of fans meant for exports is defective. There is not much time to rectify the fans. It could result in cancellation of the export contract and an end to his dream of becoming a director.
Hopeless, Shyamal takes Tutul in confidence though not his wife. Late at night, he hatches a plan with the labor officer to provoke a strike at the factory. A factory watchman is badly injured and a lockout is declared. The export contract is saved.
Shyamal becomes a director but he has fallen low both in the eyes of Tutul and his own.
This is the second film of the Calcutta Trilogy. The other two were and Pratidwandi (The Adversary, 1971) and Jana Aranya (The Middle Man, 1975). All the three films study the effect the big city of Calcutta has on the educated youth and the price it extracts from them.
With an effortless conviction, Ray builds up the narrative, and characters including the minor ones. The film has a poetic and understated ending. As triumphant Shyamal returns home after being named a director, the elevator is out of order. A joyous Shyamal begins to climb the stairs. As he ascends his steps become slower. When he reaches the top, both physically and metaphorically, his joy has vanished. Tutul who has witnessed fall of her hero, sits beside him, they exchange glances. Without making a sound Tutul removes the watch that he had gifted her. She places it on the table. We see Shyamal from above a ceiling fan, with his head bowed in his hand and Tutul fading away.

Aparajito picks up where the first film leaves off, with Apu and his family having moved away from the country to live in the bustling holy city of Varanasi (then known as Benares). As Apu progresses from wide-eyed child to intellectually curious teenager, eventually studying in Kolkata, we witness his academic and moral education, as well as the growing complexity of his relationship with his mother. This tenderly expressive, often heart-wrenching film, which won three top prizes at the Venice Film Festival, including the Golden Lion, not only extends but also spiritually deepens the tale of Apu. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 1996.

1972 documentary film by Satyajit Ray

Gangacharan is the new Brahmin of a village, where he assumes various duties: teaching, organizing religious events, and trying to prevent epidemics. But in that year 1943, war is raging (as reminded by the planes occasionally heard flying over the countryside), and a major famine is under way. As food shortages reach catastrophic proportions, Gangacharan attempts to preserve his privileged situation, while his generous wife, Ananga, conversely tries to help and support the community.

A young boy becomes a target for crooks, after he claims to remember his past life and mentions precious jewels in a golden fortress.

A bright and idealistic young graduate steels himself for a dog-eat-dog world, only to flounder in a job market packed with thousands of other hopefuls. When he eventually decides to start his own business as a middle-man, he discovers that the world of business does not live up to his lofty ideals.

1976 documentary film by Satyajit Ray

This is the second film about the detective Feluda (Soumitra Chatterjee) set in the holy city of Benares, where he (along with his cousin, Topshe and friend, Lalmohan Ganguly) goes for a holiday. But the theft of a priceless deity of Lord Ganesh (the Elephant God) from a local household forces him to start investigation. Feluda comes in direct confrontation with Maganlal Meghraj (Utpal Dutt), a ruthless trader. Maganlal makes the mild-mannered Lalmohan a knife-thrower's target and threatens Felu to stop investigation. But there are several other suspects as an innocent artisan is brutally murdered, a shady 'holy man' holds court on the banks of the Ganges and an adventure-loving little boy (and his grand-father), brought up on crime thrillers. The climax is a shoot-out on the Ganges, followed by the unraveling of the mystery.

The magically musical duo of Goopy Gyne and Bagha Byne make a comeback in this sequel, where they are invited to the court of the Hirak Raja (The Diamond King), for their musical skills. They are to perform at the kingdom's Jubilee Celebrations.
Goopy and Bagha are bored with their lives as crown princes of Shundi and Halla. They are looking for a change, which comes in the form of a chance to visit Hirak Rajya (Land of Diamonds), known for its huge diamond mines. They jocundly set out for Hirak Rajya. But little do they know of the machinations of Hirok Raja (Utpal Dutt). The king is a tyrant. Diamonds and riches get pent up in his treasuries, while his subjects starve and suffer. Those who protest are taken care of in the 'Jantarmantar', a chamber for brainwashing devised by the scientist (Santosh Dutta), whose full name is Gobeshok Gobochondro Gyanotirtho Gyanorotno Gyanambudhi Gyanochuramoni. His ministers are mere puppets. The only enemy the king has in his land is Udayan Pandit (Soumitra Chatterjee). He is a school teacher and, more than that, he is a believer of values. The king forcefully closes his school down. Udayan flees to hide in the mountains.
Meanwhile, Goopy and Bagha are on their way to Hirok Rajya. By coincidence, they meet Udayan, who intimates them of the king's true nature. The two impress Udayan with their magical powers, who plans to use them against the tyrant. Goopy and Bagha agree. The duo then head into Hirok Rajya, where they are welcomed with grandeur. They entertain the rogue king,fooling him into believing that they think he is great. They rob the treasury (which was guarded by a tiger) using their migical music, for bribing the guards.
The king has his tricks, too. He captures Udayan and all his students, and takes them to the Jantarmantar for brainwashing. But Goopy Bagha have already reached there using their magical powers. They have also bribed the Gobeshok onto their side, with the guards. On reaching the laboratory, the king and his ministers are stunned magically by Goopy's singing and then pushed into the Brainwashing machine.

what a beautiful picture, what a great puzzle of poetry. there are many things that can be said about 'Sadgati'.
first of all, men try to succeed but fail in doing so, while women accomplish everything they want to do. women are happy, but become sad because of men. does this mean women do things better than men? this thought is shown with the use of insects: every time a woman does something in the film, we see grand things, like a big pile of mud and an expensive house. every time a man tries something in the film, he is put in the picture with insects close to the work he tries to do. does this mean men are insects? the dust can be Representative for the awareness of the women, who know something bad is going to happen. the big house of the 'bad' woman is full of richness and luxury. does this mean money kills emotion? could be, because the owners of the big house sleep in separate beds. so there's no mention of love in money? money is bad? but if money is bad, why do the poor men die? is poverty a richness? could be, because the real problems are left for the rich men, who will now have to explain why everything went wrong. however, the last image of the film shows us the real 'bad guy': the work itself. there will always be poor people and rich people because of the differences of work. that's not fair. because of that, accidents do happen as in the end of the film. if they should accept each other for who they are and without profits from work, everything would be fine.
with the difference of work, changes in character are important to the story too. the ant works hard and the grasshopper does nothing. it would be great if the ant and the grasshopper would be the same.
because that's the meaning of the picture: acceptance of who we are, knowledge of each others differences and the love of understanding.

1980 film by Satyajit Ray

When the movie opens, a woman is recalling the events that molded her perspective on the world. Years ago, her husband, a wealthy Western-educated landowner, challenged tradition by providing her with schooling, and inviting her out of the seclusion in which married women were kept, to the consternation of more conservative relatives. Meeting her husband's visiting friend from college, a leader of an economic rebellion against the British, she takes up his political cause, despite her husbands warnings. As the story progresses, the relationship between the woman and the visitor becomes more than platonic, and the political battles, pitting rich against poor and Hindu against Moslem, turn out not to be quite as simple as she had first thought.

The film presents the life and work of the writer Sukumar Ray, Satyajit Ray's father. Ray made this film as a tribute to celebrate the centenary of his birth.

The film is an adaptation of a play by Henrik Ibsen: An Enemy of the People.It is set in a small town in Bengal. Dr. Ashoke Gupta (Soumitra Chatterjee) is the head of a town hospital. Gupta's younger brother, Nisith (Dhritiman Chatterjee), is the head of the committees running the hospital and a temple. Both were built by a local Industrialist. The temple is also a big tourist attraction.
Dr. Gupta is convinced that the holy water of the temple is contaminated due to faulty pipe-laying. It is causing an epidemic in the town. He warns his brother Nisith.
Nisith, the Industrialist and other town officials reject the idea that holy water might be the cause of the epidemic. They refuse to close the temple to carry out the repairs.
Dr. Gupta wants to write an article in the newspaper to warn people, but giving-in to the pressure from the powerful people, the editor refuses to publish it.
Left with no alternative, Dr. Gupta organises a public meeting that is also sabotaged. And Dr. Gupta is proclaimed an enemy of the people.

Ananda Majumdar, a wealthy, retired industrialist, suddenly falls ill during a ceremony in honor of his seventieth birthday. Three of his sons rush immediately to his bedside. The fourth son, Proshanto, already lives with his father. Considered the family failure, he spends his time listening to music and is considered to be mentally ill.
The two eldest sons, who are businessmen, live corrupt lives and do not want their father, an uncompromising moralist who believes in work and honesty, to find out. The youngest of the four, weary of office life, would love to become an actor. During a family meal and a picnic, tensions are accentuated. Waiting for resolution of their father's health crisis, the four brothers and their families reminisce and relive ideological differences.

An well-off Indian family is paid an unexpected, and rather unwanted, visit by a man claiming to be the woman's long lost uncle. The initial suspicion with which they greet the man slowly dissolves as he regales them with stories of his travels, tales that are at odds with their conventional middle class perspective on the world.