About two years ago I stumbled upon a video on YouTube, it was an Oscar award ceremony video and the Award was given to a man in his 70s who was bed ridden. The man was Sathyajit Ray, he was given an honorary award in the year 1992. I did't know who he was before, after researching and watching a few of his movies I felt terrible that I was watching movies from all over the world but didn't even cared to look at the filmmakers in my own country. Sathyajit Ray's films blew me away, I felt like I found lost treasures. For almost a couple of weeks I drowned myself in the movies he made and it showed me how little I knew about cinema.
The first film I watched was his debut film Pather Panchali made in the year 1955. The film is a tragedy about a family, how the family suffers by living in their ancestral town and all the difficulties they face there. Its a movie with a lot of sentiments about the Indian culture and life of people living in India. The movie was one of its kind and went on win the National Award for Feature film and also Best Human Document award in Cannes film festival. This film opened the film festivals to a lot of upcoming Indian films.
The beauty of Sathyajit Ray's films lies in its simplicity. His movies are about normal everyday life of Indians, and the day to day conflicts they face. His movies are very pleasing to watch, it almost feels like meditation. The dialogues and the music altogether create experiences that are unforgettable.
It was Nayak a movie about a successful actor that made me realize the power of simplicity. In a train journey to receive his award the actor is confronted by a female journalist, who persuades him to give an interview. The interview is a hypnotic journey of the actors past and his important life experiences. When the movie finished, I felt really sad because I wanted to spend more time with the characters, because they were all so interesting. I was experiencing what Ray calls Pure Cinema.
A shot from Bicycle Thieves
The fact that many of the Indian film makers don't know him is very sad. But, his films live forever. In Nayak, Ray showed how a rich and famous people also have problem and dilemmas like ordinary people. When most of the Indian films were making films with songs and commercial movies. Ray was inspired my French neorealist filmmakers like Vittorio De Sica who made classic french film Bicycle Thieves.
Martin Scorsese the legendary Hollywood director was greatly inspired by Ray and his body of work. Sathyajith Ray is known for using long single takes which was later popularized by Steven Spielberg. Even the use of mirrors and reflections in the shot was experimented by Ray in his movies like Charulatha and Nayak. Here's a video of Martin Scorsese talking about Ray.
Even Wes Anderson dedicated his The Darjeeling Limited to Sathyajith Ray, it is similar in theme and the use of mirrors and the camera movements show the influence of Ray.
Akira Kurosawa the legendary Japanese filmmaker told
Not to have seen the cinema of Ray means existing in the world without seeing the sun or the moon.
With this post I want to create more awareness about this legendary director Sathyajit Ray, whose movies have inspired me and my life. His movies are definitely worth your time and will give you a new perspective on cinema and India. A few of his movie which you can start with are:
Nayak, Pather Panchali, Charulatha, Apu trilogy and The Stranger
Thank you for reading, if you have any questions feel free to comment. Cheers!
