10 Satyajit Ray Films That Should Be Re-released - Rediff

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10 Satyajit Ray films that should be re-releasedMay 04, 2016 10:34 IST

One of India's top filmmakers Satyajit Raj would have been 95 on May 2.

We celebrate him by re-publishing a special series of articles through the week.

Image: A scene from Mahanagar

Satyajit Ray’s striking 1963 film Mahanagar has been digitally restored and re-released in British theatres. While criticsthere wax enviably about The Big City, we wanted to look back at Ray films that would be best suited for a theatrical releaseall over again.

So this, then, is not a Best-Of-Ray, but rather a selection that showcases his range, a set of movies that show off his effortlessmastery of the craft but also movies that simply and irresistibly appeal to us all.

Movies that would work wonders for any generation lucky enough to see them on the big screen.

Aranyer Din Ratri

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Image: Simi Garewal in Aranyer Din Ratri

Translated as Days And Nights In The Forest, this well-loved 1970 Ray film focusses on a group of friends escaping thebustle of the city by heading to a tribal outpost in Bihar.

They stumble across women -- of every imaginable kind, nearly -- and while things start off sunnily enough, it is a film with aninevitably dark centre.

Hirak Raja'r Deshe


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Image: The Hirak Raja'r Deshe poster

A sequel to the fantastical Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne, Ray's political allegory against the Congress -- at the time of theEmergency -- remains scathing.

There is much drollery but this anti-censorship tale rings more relevant with each passing (election) year.

Nayak

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Image: A scene from Nayak

Deciding to cast Bengal's biggest star, Uttam Kumar, in a film about superstardom, Ray proceeded to blow the bloodydoors off conventionality.

A ha untingly surreal film set during a train journey, it chattily shoots the breeze before plunging headlong into nightmares.

Shatranj Ke Khiladi


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Image: Sanjeev Kumar and Sayeed Jafferi in Shatranj Ke Khiladi

Ray's only Hindi feature -- not counting the made-for-television Sadgati -- this immaculately crafted film was based on aPremchand story of the same name.

Nuanced, beautifully written and acted, it can provide an ideal gateway to the master's work.

Devi


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Image: Sharmila Tagore in Devi

A household is disrupted when the patriarch dreams that his daughter is a reincarnation of the goddess Kali.Convinced that the dream is true, he starts believing in it -- along with several people around him, including her.

A mag nificently acted film, Devi boasts of a subject with universal appeal.

Charulata


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Image: Madhabi Mukherjee in Charulata

One of Ray’s most popular and loved films, this masterful adaptation of a Tagore novella is wistful, poetic and almostbreathlessly romantic.

A go rgeous film with many a memorabl e -- and indeed, quotable -- moment, this is o ne of the most irresistible Ray films.

And one of the very few he himself considered a triumph.

Pratidwandi


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Image: A scene from Pratidwandi

The first in Ray’s acclaimed City Trilogy, Pratidwandi -- The Adversary is a highly stylistic and edgy film, full of jump-cutsand visual innuendo not seen in the rest of the director’s ouerve.

A drama set against the N axalite uprising in Bengal, this makes for very compell ing viewing indeed.

Sonar Kella


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Image: The Sonar Kella poster

At a time when Byomkesh Bakshis are running amok, it would be fun to revisit Ray’s own detective Feluda at his brighteshour.

The Golden Fortress is a gloriously entertaining adventure, and while Ray’s Byomkesh attempt, Chiriyakhana, didn’t worktoo well, his take on his own character is expectedly smashing.

Teen Kanya


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Image: The Teen Kanya poster

Ray took three very different Tagore stories and made three short films, clubbing them together in this collection calledThree Daughters -- but often released as Two Daughters because one story hasn’t been digitally restored.

The films are dramatic, funny and even eerie, and it’s amazing to see how Ray hits all the beats right.

Jalsaghar


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Image: A scene from Jalsaghar

My absolute favourite Ray film, this drama about an aging zamindar clinging on to the last vestiges of his glory -- or hisinflated sense of glory -- is a drama so good it can work as a horror film to the more narcissistic among us.

The recent Criterion Collection restoration of the film is marvellous, and the film packs the most potent of cinematic wallops.

Raja Sen in Mumbai
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10 Satyajit Ray Films That Should Be Re-released - Rediff