A Famine of Strong Characters | Ashani Sanket (1973) A Famine of Strong Characters Ashani Sanket (1973) is Satyajit Ray’s second colour film after Kanchenjunga (1962) . And once again, I couldn’t help feeling that colour restricts Ray. Black and white brings out the best in him — the sharpness, the moral tension, the quiet drama that breathes between faces and silences. Whenever Ray turns to social themes — Devi , Mahanagar , Jana Aranya — colour seems to work against him. The frames become heavier, the ideas louder, and the characters, oddly thinner. This time, Ray chooses the Bengal Famine of 1943. Rice disappears, prices shoot up, and people die in hordes under British watch. It is a catastrophe that needs no embellishment. And yet, in Ashani Sanket , the subject becomes king. The people living inside it never quite come alive. Gangacharan and Angana: names without force At the ...
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Jana Aranya (1975): Satyajit Ray and the Making of a Corrupt India Jana Aranya (1975): Satyajit Ray and the Making of a Corrupt India By the time Satyajit Ray made Jana Aranya , he seemed done with anger. This is the final film in his Calcutta Trilogy—after Pratidwandi and Seemabaddha —and it feels like the point where outrage gives way to resignation. If Pratidwandi was about frustration and Seemabaddha about compromise, Jana Aranya (The Middleman) is about acceptance. Ray appears to have seen what was coming. Not just corruption as a problem, but corruption as a way of life. Something that would slowly seep into everything, until it no longer feels shocking. Just the reality. The story of Somnath is how Ray shows us this shift. Somnath ( Pradip Mukherji ) starts out where many Ray characters do—educated, idealistic, broke. He wants to be honest, but honesty keeps him poor....
Pratidwandi (1970): A Missable Film, Unfortunately I didn’t like Pratidwandi . Not because it’s political or difficult, but because it never really moves . For a film called The Adversary , I kept asking myself: adversary to what? There’s frustration everywhere, anger in the air, but no clear conflict pushing the story forward. Scenes pile up, moods pile up, but Siddhartha doesn’t arrive anywhere emotionally or morally. He begins restless and ends restless. This is where the film departs sharply from the Satyajit Ray I admire. Even when Ray is quiet, his stories usually move with intent. In Apur Sansar , every scene edges Apu closer to loss and responsibility. In The Postmaster from Teen Kanya , the emotional shift is minimal on the surface but absolutely decisive underneath. Devi steadily tightens its grip until belief itself becomes the conflict. Even a fantasy like Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne is propelled by clear wants, obstacles, and consequences. ...
How to Write a Character | Seemabaddha and Satyajit Ray Using the Syd Field lens on Ray I’ve always wondered how characters are built. Not acted. Not directed. Written . What makes a character feel solid, like they existed before the film began and will continue after it ends? Recently, while reading Syd Field on screenwriting, I found myself wanting to test his ideas on a filmmaker I trust implicitly: Satyajit Ray. Could I take a Ray character and view him through this lens? Seemabaddha (Company Limited), 1971 felt like the perfect test case. Shyamalendu Chatterjee isn’t flamboyant, tragic, or outwardly dramatic. Yet he stays with you. Which usually means the writing is doing something quietly powerful. Field talks about character in fairly simple terms. I’m expanding them a bit here: past, present, future, and then four basic pillars of character construction, to see how Ray builds Shyamal so...
Aranyer Din Ratri (1970) Review | Satyajit Ray’s Jungle Holiday Film Aranyer Din Ratri (1970): A Holiday, a Jungle, and Seven People One of the great pleasures of watching Satyajit Ray is noticing how easily he shifts forms. From domestic drama to political unease, from fantasy to realism, Ray keeps changing lanes. Aranyer Din Ratri is one such shift. On the surface, it is a travel film. Four friends from the city take a holiday in a forest, in a remote part of India. A break from routine. A few days away. But Ray is never interested in tourism. The jungle here is not exotic. It is quiet. It watches. And slowly, it allows people to reveal themselves. Four Friends, Not Three Cinema usually gives us three friends. A neat balance. Ray gives us four. That extra person unsettles the group. Ashim, Sanjoy, Hari, and Shekhar belong to the same urban world, but they carry very different attitudes into the forest. The jungle does not change them immediately...
Two (1964): A Duel of Toys, A Film of Questions | Sachit Murthy Two (1964): A Duel of Toys, A Film of Questions On the surface, Two looks almost disarmingly simple. Two boys. Two homes. Two sets of toys. One child lives in abundance — a large house, manicured lawns, mechanical marvels that move, fly, explode, obey commands. The other lives in visible poverty, in a slum that presses uncomfortably close to this island of privilege. What follows is a duel: toy versus toy, escalation after escalation, until one final act punctures the illusion of victory. It is tempting — and perfectly valid — to read Two as a clean allegory. Rich versus poor. Simplicity versus abundance. Humility versus arrogance. The Cold War reading is almost unavoidable. But I find Two far more unsettling when we stop looking at what it means and start notic...
Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne (1969): A Children’s Fantasy That Knows Adults Are Watching | Sachit Murthy Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne (1969): A Children’s Fantasy That Knows Adults Are Watching After Parash Pathar (1958) , Satyajit Ray returns to fantasy with Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne —his second film in the genre, and one that announces its warmth far more openly. Where the earlier film wielded fantasy as sharp satire, this one embraces music, humour, and moral clarity, without ever losing Ray’s intelligence. The story is clearly meant for children, but Ray never assumes that children require simplification. Like all enduring children’s tales, the film carries meanings that unfold fully only for adult viewers. Beneath the magic and songs lies a meditation on loneliness, exclusion, and the quiet dignity of hope. Ray populates this fairy tale with actors who bring texture rather than cartoonishness. Rabi Ghosh — so unforgettable in Abhijan and Mahapurush —b...