ray was the best movie maker bollywood has ever seen. his bengali and hindi movies had the best story lines ever. movies today are just a waste of time with no story but just filled with fighting. what happened to bollywood-----going down the gutter
I never thought that Ray possessed such a great sense of humour till I saw his 'Shatranj Ke Kiladi'. How can I forget the comical interludes of Farooq Sheikh, Farida Jalal, Sayed Jafrey and the great Sanjeev Kumar. I enjoyed every moment of it.
I feel Shatranj ke khiladi (SKK) is one of Satyajit Ray's most overrated films and also his weakest. It lapses frequently into monotonous verbosity.
I had read somewhere that Ray believed that if the camera can convey a thought or idea then he would prefer that to a dialogue. But most of the scenes with Wajid Ali Shah consist of long monologues.
However, the film does have it's moments. The period recreation is brilliant and some of the scenes between the two players are very well handled.
Overall I don't think SKK measures upto a lot of what we see of Ray in Bengali.