Source: Hindustan Times
Satyajit Ray received numerous honors and awards for his work: Bharat Ratna in 1992, Dadasaheb Phalke award in 1985 and an Oscar Award for lifetime achievement in 1992. Less than a month later he died on 24th April 1992. Before the 9 day of his 71st birthday. He is the greatest filmmaker of the 20th century.
Satyajit Ray was born to Sukumar and Suprabha Ray on 2 May 1921. His father died when Satyajit was 2 years and 4 month-old. His father Sukumar Ray usually contributed stories, poems, illustrations to "Sandesh ", a children's magazine, which Satyajit's grandfather Upendra Kishore had published and printed. This printing press was situated on the ground floor at 100 Garpar Road in South Kolkata where Satyajit was born and lived there.
In 1927 that ancestral house was sold and Suprabha Ray shifted to her brother’s home "Bakul Bagan" accompanied by her five year old son. His mother was taught needlework to add on household income.
Early Life:
At the age of 8 he began his education in Ballygunge Government high school, Calcutta where he was taught in Bengali and completed his B.A. from Presidency College Calcutta in 1939. When he graduated at the age of eighteen he decided to start a job as a commercial artist. His mother's pressure and his respect for Rabindranath Tagore, he joined the Ravindranath Tagore's founded Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan. Rabindranath Tagore who had been a close friend of Ray's grandfather and father.
Life in Santiniketan:
Satyajit arrived in Santiniketan (1940) in the month of July. His life in Kolkata was cricket, football matches, concerts and he missed the cinema hall because in Santiniketan's life was different there was no outdoor game and rooming around without purpose.
Ravindranath Tagore was mostly unhealthy that time and his remarkable presence in vishva-bharati theater plays, dance and drama rehearsals. Ray was present in many rehearsals and would learn different things from there. He learned miniature painting, oriental art, Indian sculpture, Chinese landscape and Japanese woodcut, before then his knowledge of art was very limited.
Letter from Ray to his mother reveals every event of his life in Kala Bhawan (institute of fine art in Santiniketan) and hostel. Ray admires her mother for sacrifice in bringing up her only child and her hard work as a teacher in Vidyasagar Bani Bhawan( A school established by Jagdish Chandra Bos' wife Lady Abala Bose).He used to write letters to his mother about all news of Santiniketan, he did not like life in Santiniketan but enjoyed the company of his friends. He wrote about the teaching method of Kala bhavana, " a list of work from July to September is given to students, for every topic allotted seven days. I am working hard to advance my course of study so that I can go for puja vacation."
He wrote, On 13th August “When my work will be complete for this course, I shall join the modeling classes. Apart from the listed tasks, I have to do some other work. One of which is a linocut of Rabindranath, where there were some defects in the use of light and the bone structure was not perfect. Master Moshai (principal Nandalal Bose) instructed me to copy some very difficult portraits from the Old Masters so that he could rectify the errors himself. "
November 1940, M.C.Sarkar published the book "Paula dashed" written by Sukumar Ray. At the request of Suprabha Ray, Rabindranath Tagore wrote an introductory note for the book, and Satyajit Ray did its inner and cover illustration, since it was his first illustration for his father's book, he was very excited.
When he wrote a letter for extra money for buying Japanese brushes necessary for the painting, he was aware of the financial hardship of his mother. At the end of August 1940, Kala Bhawan organizati a painting exhibition for their students work, Satyajit also contributed his two paintings but in his opinion they were not good and there is no time for making new paintings because announcement of exhibition was late.
He joined Gouri Bhanja design classes in 1941, he wrote about it to his mother, "There are few photos of alpanas of Gouridi and I shall request her for its copy". Ray thought of becoming a commercial artist so he studied Alpana and design carefully and he attended every class of Gouri Bhanja. This skill displays in Ray's many film sets. He also wrote about his linocut work to his mother "I have finished a linocut and am doing another one. I had done a sketch of Buffalo that was converted to linocut, master Moshai (principal Nandalal Bose) appreciated it. His training for calligraphy, figurative drawing, under the teachings of Benod Bihari Mukherjee and Nandalal Bose made him a good illustrator and graphic designer.
As a student his trips to Ajanta Ellora Caves, Elephanta cave, Khajuraho temple, Sancho stupa helped him to learn and understand Indian art.
On 7 August, Gurudev died in Jorasanko Thakurbari, Kolkata. When Ray was a child, went to Santiniketan with his mother, Rabindranath Tagore wrote a poem for him in Bengali ("But I fail to see with my eyes, just two steps away from my home, on a sheaf of paddy grain, a drop of dew. Attracted by the obvious-the mountain or the ocean- we often fail to notice the beauty in the ordinary") Tagore's personality always influenced Satyajit's work. Abanindranath Tagore took charge of vishva-bharati. During the rehearsals of the play "Valmiki Prativa" Ray realized the brilliant work of Abanindranath.
He did not complete his Santiniketan course. In December 1942 he came back to Kolkata,he was not in touch with city life and missed watching movies for a long time. In the future based on this knowledge he mad 36 movies (29 feature films, 5 Documentaries and 2 short films). He was an intelligent calligrapher, fiction writer, illustrator, graphic designer and music composer.
First job:
In 1943 Ray joined D.J. Keymer advertising agency in Kolkata, a British agency. Ray worked there for 13 years. Through Ray's interest in typography (English and Hindi), he created many experimental advertising campaigns. In 1971 he won international awards for his two works RayRoman and Ray Bizarre.
When Ray joined, brands like Philips, ITC,Dunlop, Lupton were advertised by the company. He earned recognition for his advertising work and in 1950 he became art director. The same year his company sent him to Europe and London to gain world experience for the betterment of the company. The trip with his wife changed his career. As he confessed to his biographer Marin Seaton, ``In four and half months, I saw ninety nine films." He discovered Vittorio DeSica’s realistic extraordinary work, The Bicycle Thieves, influenced him to choose filmmaking as a career.
Before going to London, in 1949 he married Bijoya, she was older than Ray and was his first cousin. Bijoya's barrister father was the eldest half brother of Ray's mother so both were teenage friends and grew up in the same house, initially they were not ready for marriage. After eight years of dating, and convincing family members they got married on 3 March 1949.
Around this time in 1949 Jean Renoir came to India, Ray helped him to scout locations for his move The River. Ray asked many questions about filmmaking which Jane replied calmly and Ray learned the significance of outdoor shooting. Ray told about the idea of Pather Panchali to Jane Renoir and he advised Ray "If you could only shake Hollywood out of your system and evolve your own style you would be making great films here".
Directorial debut:
He start with Pather Panchali (1955), Aparajito (1956), The world of Appu (1959), this three films famous as Appu Trilogy, These films won most of the awards from London, Cannes and Venice between 1956 to 1959, and he created a new age of modern cinema for India.
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