Ten classic Satyajit Ray films you should not miss

Every discussion on cinema will remain incomplete unless you mention the legendary director Satyajit Ray; one of the very few Indian filmmakers to win an Academy Award (Oscar). Ray’s works always came with a new lesson for aspiring filmmakers. He made 36 movies in a career spanning 37 years. Some say Ray thought he had no other choice but to keep directing movies so that his team is never left unemployed and their families are well taken care of. Every single movie is distinguished in its own way that it’s impossible to pick one over the other. Still, here are 10 Satyajit Ray movies you should not miss.

‘Pather Panchali’ (A Song of the Little Road) marked Satyajit Ray’s debut as a director in 1955. This masterpiece is a social drama, inspired by a famous novel of the same name by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay. The film's plot revolves around a young boy Apu from a poor family and his daily life in a rural Indian village. The film was produced by the then West Bengal government as the legendary filmmaker ran out of money after only shooting half of the movie. 'Pather Panchali' happens to be the first film in ‘The Apu Trilogy’.

‘Aparjito’ (The Unvanquished), the second film in ‘The Apu Trilogy’, closely follows Apu’s family. After his father Harihar’s demise, his mother Sarabjaya works as a maid. In the meantime, Apu earns a scholarship to go to school. Despite being sad, his mother understands that she has to send Apu to Calcutta. He eventually settles in there and starts working for a printing press. Back in the Bengal village, a lonely Sarabjaya becomes seriously ill. Soon Apu hears the news but when he arrives home, it is too late as his mother passed away without any treatment.

‘Apur Sansar’ (The World of Apu) is the last film in Ray’s ‘The Apu Trilogy’ that released in 1959. An unemployed Apu, aspiring to become a writer, marries Aparna and returns to Calcutta. But his wife dies while giving birth to their son and he believes the child is responsible for his wife's death. He then leaves his child to his maternal grandparents and starts his journey as a traveller. An old friend reaches out to a vagabond Apu convincing him to get back to his son. Finally, the film sees Apu reuniting with his son.

‘Jalsaghar’ (The Music Room) is all about a dissolute zamindar counting his last days. The zamindar character, played by Chabi Biswas, still spends time listening to music and hosting spectacles instead of protecting his assets and property. Things take a turn for the worse when his properties are devastated by the flood while the abolition of zamindari system also has its repercussions. Chabi Biswas, for his outstanding performance in this Ray classic, became a legend in Bengali cinema.

‘Devi’ (The Goddess) tells the story of a girl Dayamoyee (played by Sharmila Tagore), who was forcefully married to Umaprasad (played by Soumitra Chatterjee). She takes care of her father-in-law Kalikinkar Choudhuri who believes that she is actually an incarnation of Goddess Kaali and has to be worshipped. Soon, the whole village also begins to worship Dayamoyee. Her husband Umaprasad, a school teacher outside the village, can’t seem to convince her as she too begins believing that she is the incarnation of the Goddess. But her belief soon becomes a tragedy.

One of the finest writer-director collaborations world cinema has ever seen - Satyajit Ray adapting Rabindranath Tagore stories on screen. Tagore was the first non-European to be awarded a Nobel prize for literature. ‘Teen Kanya’ combines 3 segments of a story with common central characters joining all three stories. This film even won the Presidents Silver Medal for Best Film. The international release saw only two episodes – ‘The Postmaster’ and ‘Samapti’. Indian audience had a third episode called ‘Monihara’.

‘Charulata’ (The Lonely House Wife) revolves around a lonely housewife Charu, who is married to a wealthy man Bhupati. However, Bhupati spends most of his time in his local newspaper office so he asks his cousin Amal to give his wife company. Amal is an aspiring writer, who helps Charu in polishing her own writing skills and eventually fall in love. Charu openly speaks about her feelings to Amal but despite having the same feeling, he doesn’t want to destroy her marriage to Bhupati.

‘Nayak’ is special for so many reasons. Ray and Uttam Kumar worked together for the first time in this film. When it was released in 1966, Kumar had already become an icon of mainstream Bengali cinema, while Ray represented the new age of Indian cinema. ‘Nayak’ is a brilliant character study where the thick line between conventional and unconventional narrative blended smoothly. Also, after the success of ‘Charulata’, Ray tried his hand in a male character study for the first time. A major part of this Bengali classic shows a train journey and it becomes a perfect analogy for changing the background in each character’s life.

‘Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne’ is touted to be one of the most interesting decisions Ray took, considering his filmography which dealt with movies with a social message. It’s a fantasy adventure involving the titular characters and inspired by a story written by Satyajit Ray’s grandfather Upendra Kishor Roychoudhary. With ‘Goopi Gyne Bagha Byne’ Ray, for the first time after ‘Parash Pathar’, explored the comedy genre. Interestingly, he made this film following a request from young Sandip Ray, who went on to become a national award-winning director himself.

The detective genre was an unexplored area in Indian cinema at that time and ‘Sonar Kella’ became a significant milestone for its unique subject and its scope. Ray used Indian history to explore the mystery genre. Based on a novel of the same name by Satyajit Ray himself, it deals with detective Feluda’s adventures. He gave Bengali literature a series of short stories involving Feluda and his cousin Topshe. Any cinephile who loves classical detective storytelling will become a fan of Ray after watching this pleasing yet thrilling mystery adventure.