Satyajit Ray and my life

Since Balan and Prem have mentioned about Satyajit Ray movie... i recall the fisrt time i watch Satyajit movie....

I only came across Satyajit name when i was studying in Academic TV3. But before i know who is Satyajit... i have watch his movie....

Well as you guys know i have studied in Universiti Malaya in Language and Linguistic..... so i have so intrested in poem.... My father have keep a book called "Gitaanjali"...(The Gitanjali or `song offerings' by Rabindranath Tagore (1861--1941), Nobel prize for literature 1913, with an introduction by William B. Yeats (1865--1939), Nobel prize for literature 1923. First published in 1913. )

So when the first time i read it.. I felt this is the most beautiful thing that i ever read, Gitanjali was the most honest poem that really open my eyes....

so make the story short, my father also have a VHS of the movie "Rabindranath Tagore"... the author of Gitanjali.... so because of my interested I watch this movie.

This movie is like a docu drama movie about the life and work of the Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941). He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913 “because of his profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse, by which, with consummate skill, he has made his poetic thought, expressed in his own English words, a part of the literature of the West.”

The story start as Rabindranath Tagore was the youngest son of Debendranath Tagore, born in Calcutta. He was educated at home. At seventeen he was sent to England for formal schooling, which he did not complete. Tagore was knighted by the ruling British Government in 1915, but within a few years he resigned the honor as a protest against British policies in India.

That time when I watch the movie it was quite a boring movie, as you know it was a black and white movie very slow pace movie… But I watched for Rabindranath Tagore as he was my mentor at that time.

So I was doing a thesis on Tagore and his GITANJALI … and I have to go thru the vhs again to know more details on him… then only I came a cross Satyajit Ray…. He was the director of the movie….

Then the next day I went to the UM library and search for the name Satyajit Ray…. I found a book called ‘Our films Their films’ written by Satyajit Ray.

Calling it excellent is certainly an understatement. It ranks high among my favorite books. This book is so good that I feel only someone like Arnav is fit to give a decent review of it. If his movies are even half as good as he writes –please don’t hang me for this- then certainly he is the best thing that happened to Indian cinema. That very book have inspired me to study about film and that how I ended up in Academic TV3.

Than after that I was searching for other movies of him ,my II semester, once my friend – (Ramesh… I guess )and I started discussing the legend that Satyajit Ray was. Neither of us had seen any of his movies and just knew tits and bits about him. We talked and to be able to declare that he is over hyped, decided to see his ‘Pather Panchali’. We searched all the video parlors that we could cover in an evening but couldn’t get any of his movie. Most parlor-owners hadn’t heard of him and the one who had, declared that the CDs/DVDs of his movies are yet to be made. So we came to the conclusion that Ray IS actually over hyped and called it a day. Over the time I realized Ray was in fact, a multi-faceted creative soul. I read his Feluda series and few articles about him. Still I couldn’t form an opinion about his movies or style etc.

Then getting more expose about other film and director…. Especially my favorite director Stanley Kubrick, I have forgotten about Satyajit Ray… I wish a can get some of his movie and there was one time RTM have played one of his movie i can't remmeber the name it was long time ago....