Bengali filmmaker, Satyajit Ray is widely regarded as the man who created modern Indian cinema. One of the greatest auteurs of the last century, he made some 37 films, won a stack of awards – including an Honorary Academy Award – and has a legion of fans, including the likes of Martin Scorsese and Wes Anderson.
Two of his most important films are finally getting a DVD release. The first, Company Limited (Seemabaddha), part of the Calcutta trilogy, has been painstakingly restored; while the second, The Stranger (Agantuk), one of his few colour movies, which he completed shortly before his death in 1992.
In Seemabaddha, an executive at a fan company is expecting a promotion, but his life takes a spin when he becomes distracted by the arrival of his wife’s alluring sister just as a labour crisis hits the factory.
In Agantuk, a well-off family get an unwanted visit by a man claiming to be a long lost relative. But suspicion is soon swept aside by the man’s travel tales, which are at odds with the family’s middle-class values.
For anyone not familiar with Ray, and wanting something that’s a million miles away from the Bollywood fantasies we’ve grown to love in the West, these DVD releases are a great introduction to a truly original filmmaker.
Released 15 February
Ray made a number of color films — Kanchenjungha, The Golden Fortress, Ghare Baire, Ganashatru…to name a few.
Quite so ppm. I should of said ‘few’, as out of his 37 features a majority of them were black and white, the first colour being Kanchenjungha in 1962. I’ve corrected it, though. So thanks for that.