Directed by Satyajit Ray

Directed by Satyajit Ray

18 Episodes

“Not to have seen the cinema of Satyajit Ray means existing in the world without seeing the sun or the moon,” observed Akira Kurosawa with regards to the Indian master who would have turned one hundred this May. Influenced by the poetic humanism of Jean Renoir and the Italian neorealist movement, Ray self-financed his landmark debut PATHER PANCHALI—the first installment of his internationally celebrated APU TRILOGY, a cycle of richly humane masterworks that traces its title character’s journey from boyhood to maturity. Over the course of a long, remarkably varied career that encompassed forays into a wide array of genres—including period pieces, comedies, detective mysteries, and documentaries—Ray applied his compassionate, lyrical vision to explorations of female liberation (THE BIG CITY, CHARULATA), the clash between tradition and modernity (THE MUSIC ROOM), and the impact of British colonialism (THE CHESS PLAYERS). Overflowing with humanity, humor, and some of the most exquisite images in all of cinema, Ray’s films are nothing short of essential.

Subscribe Share
Directed by Satyajit Ray

18 Episodes

  • Satyajit Ray at 100 Teaser
    01:03
    Satyajit Ray at 100 Teaser
    Episode 1

    Satyajit Ray at 100 Teaser

    Episode 1

  • Satyajit Ray at 100
    06:08
    Satyajit Ray at 100
    Episode 2

    Satyajit Ray at 100

    Episode 2

    This introduction to Satyajit Ray was produced in 2021.

  • Pather Panchali
    2:05:52
    Pather Panchali
    Episode 3

    Pather Panchali

    Episode 3

    Directed by Satyajit Ray • 1955 • India
    Starring Subir Banerjee, Kanu Banerjee, Karuna Banerjee

    With the release in 1955 of Satyajit Ray’s debut, PATHER PANCHALI, an eloquent and important new cinematic voice made itself heard all over the world. A depiction of rural Bengali life in a style insp...

  • Aparajito
    1:50:06
    Aparajito
    Episode 4

    Aparajito

    Episode 4

    Directed by Satyajit Ray • 1956 • India
    Starring Pinaki Sengupta, Kanu Banerjee, Karuna Banerjee

    Satyajit Ray had not planned to make a sequel to PATHER PANCHALI, but after the film’s international success, he decided to continue Apu’s narrative. APARAJITO picks up where the first film leaves of...

  • The Music Room
    1:38:52
    The Music Room
    Episode 5

    The Music Room

    Episode 5

    Directed by Satyajit Ray • 1958 • India
    Starring Chhabi Biswas, Padma Devi, Pinaki Sen Gupta

    With THE MUSIC ROOM (JALSAGHAR), Satyajit Ray brilliantly evokes the crumbling opulence of the world of a fallen aristocrat (the beloved actor Chhabi Biswas) desperately clinging to a fading way of life....

  • Apur Sansar
    1:46:13
    Apur Sansar
    Episode 6

    Apur Sansar

    Episode 6

    Directed by Satyajit Ray • 1959 • India
    Starring Soumitra Chatterjee, Sharmila Tagore, Alok Chakraborty

    By the time APUR SANSAR was released, Satyajit Ray had directed not only the first two Apu films but also the masterpiece THE MUSIC ROOM, and was well on his way to becoming a legend. This ext...

  • Devi
    1:39:24
    Devi
    Episode 7

    Devi

    Episode 7

    Directed by Satyajit Ray • 1960 • India
    Starring Sharmila Tagore, Chhabi Biswas, Soumitra Chatterjee

    Master filmmaker Satyajit Ray explores the conflict between fanaticism and free will in DEVI (“The Goddess”), issuing a subversively modern challenge to religious orthodoxy and patriarchal power ...

  • Rabindranath Tagore
    54:00
    Rabindranath Tagore
    Episode 8

    Rabindranath Tagore

    Episode 8

    Directed by Satyajit Ray • 1961 • India

    Renowned Bengali poet, writer, composer, philosopher, activist, and painter Rabindranath Tagore was one of the most transformative cultural figures in Indian history: a polymath who became the first non-European to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature ...

  • Three Daughters
    2:40:05
    Three Daughters
    Episode 9

    Three Daughters

    Episode 9

    Directed by Satyajit Ray • 1961 • India
    Starring Soumitra Chatterjee, Chandana Banerjee, Kali Banerjee

    For this masterful anthology film—made to honor the centenary of Bengali cultural luminary Rabindranath Tagore—Satyajit Ray adapted three stories by the celebrated writer, each centered around ...

  • The Big City
    2:16:03
    The Big City
    Episode 10

    The Big City

    Episode 10

    Directed by Satyajit Ray • 1963 • India
    Starring Madhabi Mukherjee, Anil Chatterjee, Jaya Bhaduri

    THE BIG CITY, the great Satyajit Ray’s first portrayal of contemporary life in his native Kolkata, follows the personal triumphs and frustrations of Arati (Madhabi Mukherjee), who decides, despite t...

  • Charulata
    1:59:29
    Charulata
    Episode 11

    Charulata

    Episode 11

    Directed by Satyajit Ray • 1964 • India
    Starring Madhabi Mukherjee, Soumitra Chatterjee, Shailen Mukherjee

    Satyajit Ray’s exquisite story of a woman’s artistic and romantic yearning takes place in late nineteenth-century, pre-independence India, in the gracious home of a liberal-minded, workahol...

  • The Coward
    1:09:45
    The Coward
    Episode 12

    The Coward

    Episode 12

    Directed by Satyajit Ray • 1965 • India
    Starring Soumitra Chatterjee, Madhabi Mukherjee

    Satyajit Ray explores the ache of desire in this exquisitely brief, emotionally layered chamber piece, in which Amitabha (Soumitra Chatterjee), a screenwriter from Kolkata, finds himself unexpectedly reunited...

  • The Holy Man
    1:06:46
    The Holy Man
    Episode 13

    The Holy Man

    Episode 13

    Directed by Satyajit Ray • 1965 • India
    Starring Charuprakash Ghosh, Prasad Mukherjee, Gitali Roy

    Satyajit Ray pokes fun at spiritual charlatanism in this farcical social satire. Following the death of his wife, Gurupada (Prasad Mukherjee) and his daughter (Gitali Roy) find themselves under the ...

  • The Hero
    1:57:19
    The Hero
    Episode 14

    The Hero

    Episode 14

    Directed by Satyajit Ray • 1966 • India
    Starring Uttam Kumar, Sharmila Tagore, Bireswar Sen

    In this psychologically rich character study, written and directed by Satyajit Ray, Bengali film star Uttam Kumar draws on his real-world celebrity to play Arindam Mukherjee, a matinee idol on the brink o...

  • The Elephant God
    2:01:38
    The Elephant God
    Episode 15

    The Elephant God

    Episode 15

    Directed by Satyajit Ray • 1979 • India
    Starring Soumitra Chatterjee, Siddhartha Chatterjee

    The second film Satyajit Ray made about the Sherlock Holmes-like detective Feluda—a character the filmmaker originated in a popular series of novels—is a cleverly entertaining mystery set in the holy city...

  • The Home and the World
    2:18:23
    The Home and the World
    Episode 16

    The Home and the World

    Episode 16

    Directed by Satyajit Ray • 1984 • India

    Both a romantic-triangle tale and a philosophical take on violence in times of revolution, The Home and the World, set in early twentieth-century Bengal, concerns an aristocratic but progressive man who, in insisting on broadening his more traditional wife...

  • An Enemy of the People
    1:39:38
    An Enemy of the People
    Episode 17

    An Enemy of the People

    Episode 17

    Directed by Satyajit Ray • 1989 • India

    In Satyajit Ray's absorbing contemporary adaptation of a play by Henrik Ibsen, a good-hearted doctor discovers that the serious illness befalling the citizens of his small Bengali town may be due to a contamination of the holy water at the local temple. Hi...

  • The Stranger
    2:00:11
    The Stranger
    Episode 18

    The Stranger

    Episode 18

    Directed by Satyajit Ray • 1991 • India, France

    Satyajit Ray's valedictory film is a multifaceted character study that contains both humor and melancholy rumination. Based on the filmmaker's own story,The Stranger involves a bourgeois couple who are taken off guard when a man claiming to be the ...

×