‘Satya Jit(Victory Of Truth), Remembering The Maestro Of Indian Cinema, Satyajit Ray
By D N Singh
“The only solutions that are ever worth anything are the solutions that people find themselves.” the line came from none other than the legendary filmmaker, Bharat Ratna, Satyajit Ray.
And today is the birth anniversary of that man who emerged from his intellectual cinematic hibernation with ‘Pather Panchali’.
The pathbreaking filmmaker who shot up himself with making films where the cameras played out the excellent blend of surrealism with doses of fictions plucked from the society, hardly people knew that he was also a brilliant illustrator and an expert on graphic designing.
Notably, ‘Pather Panchali’ was an outcome of his own illustration and his journey in the creative film making had never knew since then the limits of quality and he grew a notch higher with each films those followed like ‘Satranj Ke Khiladi’ or ‘ Devi’.
Remembering the legend on his 101 birth anniversary, we enamor a quality living in Kolkata’s 4-Lefroy Road, who with his over 36 landmark films remained in discussion at the International cinema circle comprised of greats of that time like Bergman and Kurosawa and became a reference point for the world cinema.
He was given the honorary Oxford Degree besides a galaxy of honours heaped on him like won eleven international prizes, including the inaugural Best Human Document award at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. This film, along with Aparajito (1956) and Apur Sansar (The World of Apu) (1959), form The Apu Trilogy. Ray did the scripting, casting, scoring, and editing, and designed his own credit titles and publicity material.
The maker of ‘Charulata’ and ‘Aparajito’ the Maestro of cinema was also known for his horror stories and at the same time applauded for titles like’ Apur Sansar’.
36 National Film Awards, a Golden Lion, a Golden Bear, 2 Silver Bears, and an Academy Honorary Award in 1992. Recognitions often came from home and abroad till the time he breathed his last.
But, he always thrived for the greater truth in cinema and that made him unique.
