My Years With Apu

The absorbing story of how one of the greatest directors of our time began his film-making career 'Ray's fascinating account of how he made the (Apu) trilogy and how his passion for cinema was first kindled.' -India Today 'Written in an impeccable style it brings back memories of an era when film-making was an art born out of a love for the medium and not merely a means to make money. -Sunday Mail 'My Years With Apu prompts wistful thoughts of those other books, the other Ray masterpieces that remained unwritten at the time of the director's death.' -Indian Review of Books 'A swift, detailed, precise narrative...the story and its many links still retain, as a powerful myth of artistic genesis, their freshness, and may have acquired a new significance with the passing of time.' -The Telegraph

This book brings together Satyajit Ray s major writings and talks on film makers, and presents them in two sections. Our Films is devoted mainly to his own experiences and contains many interesting anecdotes, but also has observations to offer on trends in Indian films. Their Films deals with some films abroad that have become landmarks in the history of cinema from the silent era to the present day and offers glimpses of great directors like Renoir, John Ford, Kurosawa and Charlie Chaplin, who are Ray s personal favourites.

Frank and funny, these stories written originally for the Bengali children's magazine Sandesh, are an essential read for all Ray enthusiasts as well as those who want to know Ray, the writer and film-maker, better. In this volume, Ray also shares some of his experiences while shooting Pather Panchali—his epic debut, and subsequent films, particularly for children. He describes how an entire field of kaash flowers was eaten up by cows before he could shoot his famous scene with the train in Pather Panchali; and how a circus tiger let loose in a bamboo grove chased away a group of curious onlookers in the blink of an eye.

"I can never forget the excitement in my mind after seeing 'Pather Panchali'", noted Akira Kurosawa. Satyajit Ray's three films about the boyhood, adolescence and manhood of Apu, 'Pather Panchali' (1955), 'Aparajito' (1956) and 'The World of Apu' (1959) - collectively known as The Apu Trilogy - are established classics of world cinema. The Trilogy was the chief reason for Satyajit Ray's receiving a Hollywood Oscar for lifetime achievement in 1992, just before his death. This book by Ray's biographer and world authority Andrew Robinson is the first full study of the Trilogy. Robinson - who came to know the director well during the last decade of his career - covers the literary and cultural background to the films, their production, their music composed by Ravi Shankar, their aesthetic value, and their complex critical reception in the East and the West, from 1955 up to the present day. Extensively and beautifully illustrated and a pleasure to read, 'The Apu Trilogy' will appeal to anyone captivated by the unique world created by Satyajit Ray.

It is unusual to come across a life so rich in varied experiences as the one that Bijoya Ray, wife and constant companion to the renowned film-maker Satyajit Ray, has lived. Despite being closely related, Satyajit—‘Manik’ to his friends and family—and Bijoya fell in love and embarked on a life together years before Ray’s groundbreaking film Pather Panchali was made, and their long, happy married life lasted right until Ray’s death in 1992. Bijoya Ray never felt the urge to write her memoirs, but was finally persuaded to pick up the pen when she was well into her eighties. Manik and I brims over with hitherto unknown stories of her life with Satyajit Ray, told in candid, vivid detail.

Satyajit Ray is India's greatest filmmaker and his importance in the international world of cinema has long been recognised. Darius Cooper's study of Ray is the first to examine his rich and varied work from a social and historical perspective, and to situate it within Indian aesthetics. Providing analyses of selected films, including those that comprise The Apu Trilogy, Chess Players, and Jalsaghhar, among others, Cooper outlines Western influences on Ray's work, such as the plight of women functioning within a patriarchal society, Ray's political vision of the 'doubly colonised', and his attack and critique of the Bengali/Indian middle class of today. The most comprehensive treatment of Ray's work, The Cinema of Satyajit Ray makes accessible the oeuvre of one of the most prolific and creative filmmakers of the twentieth century.

With the Apu Trilogy - Pather Panchali, Aparajito and Apur Sansar - in the fifties, Satyajit Ray caught the attention of film enthusiasts all over the world. The trilogy is the story of growing up in India. It traces Apus growth from childhood - cruelly poor but brightened by a passion for creativity and learning - to battered maturity. This 50th Anniversary volume, containing a foreword and working sketches by Ray presents the first authorized publication of these scripts in their entirety along with extensive interviews with Ray himself. Fresh material special to this edition includes an expansive interview with Ray by Shyam Benegal, himself a leading filmmaker with several award winning films to his credit. In the interaction between the two directors, Ray talks about early influences, the experience of making the Apu Trilogy, the importance of music and the portrayal of women in his film as well as other aspects of his craft. This edition also includes a complete filmography."

Presents India's greatest film-maker on the art and craft of films. Speaking of Films brings together some of Ray's most memorable writings on film and film-making. With the masterly precision and clarity that characterize his films, Ray discusses a wide array of subjects: the structure and language of cinema with special reference to his adaptations of Tagore and Bibhuti Bhushan Bandopadhyay, the appropriate use of background music and dialogue in films, the relationship between a film-maker and a film critic, and important developments in cinema like the advent of sound and colour. He also writes about his own experiences, the challenges of working with rank amateurs, and the innovations called for when making a film in the face of technological, financial and logistical constraints. In the process, Ray provides fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpses of the people who worked with him - the intricacies of getting Chhabi Biswas, who had no ear for music, to play a patron of classical music in Jalsaghar, the incredible memory of the seventy-five-year-old Chunibala Devi, Indir Thakrun of Pather Panchali, and her remarkable attention to details.