SR was great and all but come one. We all know he did not have it in him to work with the best in the business. He always went for B greaders to boost his ego. And besides the stroies of his film are not all that good. Characters are interesting like Feluda et all and I enjoy that.
People in our country dont know how to appreciate and celeberate life of a living legend e.g SRK in today's era. He is the biggest the best the most genius of them all.
Re: HIJJADA SRK fans gone mad
by Jay Sen on Apr 15, 2009 01:01 PM
Relax Remo.
The invasion by the SRK fans is nothing new. Believe me, fan clubs of all such stars are the same (specially the newer ones). Wait for Salmaan's to strike this thread now.
I think we should just ignore them. The trick is in not reacting to these jokers - if we react and call them names, they have succeeded in diverting you from the topic of discussion (Ray).
On a larger perspective, it is indeed very concerning and alarming to see the rate of dumbing of the younger generation in our country. Every gen says so about the next gen, but what i see around me is disturbing.
We have a whole upcoming generation of rather shallow people, who grow up watching TV serials and reality shows, have little information on any topic (let alone informed opinion), little capability to engage in a discussion or debate, pathetic GK, little sensitivity and most dangerously, a rather skewed value system.
The attacks by SRK fans on this thread is just one manifestation of this dumbing down.
I dont think people have problems in these guys being SRK fans. What is disturbing is their absolute lack of manners and insensitivity of the context of discussion.
I ardently wish what I have opined is NOT ENTIRELY TRUE and possibly applies to only a section of the young populace.
Film Direction, Scriptwriting, Cinematography, music, costume, art direction: he was end-to-end across the Cinema medium.
Apart from this, a super illustrator (check out his visualization of Abol Tabol), editor, short-story writer, a type-setter with IP(created two types faces -Ray Roman, Ray Bizarre) - the man was a awesome genius and an epitome of versatility. You very rarely find people who excel in WHATEVER they engage with.
Ray worked (was forced to) mostly with obsolete equipment in his time - yet look at the superb quality of output. So innovative was the man!!!
These attributes apart, I think what makes him sublime was his humanism - his focus on stating the reality of India people as it was. It takes a man with a great heart, along with enormous love and sensitivity for his countrymen, to be able to come up with such good cinema.
And in humour, who can beat movies like Parash Pathar and Goopy Gyne?
Apart from Ray, Bengal has also been blessed with other masters like Ritwik Ghatak, Mrinal Sen, Tapan Sinha, Buddhadev Dasgupta, Gautam Ghosh, Aparna Sen, Utpalendu ..... it would be nice if we can have a discussion thread on their works, life and times too.
Re: My two cents
by Motley Fool on Apr 15, 2009 01:02 PM
Its sickening to watch todays generation of bengali cinema and tv serials. cheap copying of bollywood stuff, rickshawalla-centric target audience. Highly detestable. ofcourse this trend is in everything not only in movies. A slow degeneration of our culture, beliefs, things we stood for. Pathetic.
Re: Re: My two cents
by Billu Plumber on Apr 15, 2009 06:25 PM
@Motley Fool
I agree with most of what you wrote but lets not be too cynical about present era. Afterall SRK belongs tto current generation and he is way bigger than anyone else in the past present or future.
Satyajit Ray was not a mere another film maker. It will be foolish to rate his films in terms of profit or loss. Even when the modern movie trends started, he gave a masterpiece called "Agantuk".
But from literary side, without underminig his skills, I think he fell short of creativity when compared with his father Sukumar Ray.
Satyajit Ray is the most talented filmaker of India till to date.His range of films and their variation of subject simply keeps one spellbound.Of late we are finding his films on DVD preserved by some enthusiasts from Hollywood and London.Still a lot of his films are not available today.Will our Film Society's pay some attention to this fact!
It would have been interesting to watch what type of movies would he have made in today's trend, because those days there definitely was a large chunk of audience who used to love and enjoy cinema as an art, students who used to learn true cinema, not like today when there is hardly people to appreciate realistic artistic movies of Ray, Benegal, Naseer, Om Puri, Shabana, Nandita etc.
Re: why
by sarbojit banerjee on Apr 15, 2009 12:15 PM
Slumdog Millionare won it on U.K. lobby. Similar films made on proverty like Salaam Bombay didn't bag the award since it was directed by Mira Nair who is an Indian. Don't blame Satyajit Ray as their was no international film community backing him then. Giving SM 8 Oscars(surprisingly exorbitant) is U.S. film fraternity's gateway to capture lucrative Indian film market.
1. Satyajit Ray never showed poverty. Those who say Pather Panchali is about poverty they do not understand India. The story depicts the fate of a poor bramhin boy from bengal where his only way to survival is study. He loses everything but never the ideology for the egerness of knowledge.
2. See the camera work, u will never find a single mistake in grammar. Amazing. When I learnt perspective from my teacher, he told see the works of Satyajit Ray.
3. His music has distinct class and style. L. Anderson a famous critic of music wrote in a famous bengali journal Desh that he introduced a unique class of composition like Ilaiya Raja. Which we often see in the works of Rehman.
4. His literature specially short stories can be compared to that of Jack London. Again, this guy followed the definition of short story proposed by Tagore accurately.
5. A true perfectionist like Aamir Khan. Only person you can think of following his ideologies of working. He used to speak english like british, write bengali like Tagore, draw comics like Sukumar Ray who is the creator of "indian world of Disney".
Therefore a miltifacet personality with the great vision of society's inner being.
See Agantuk, and you will know where lies the strength of a modern indian.
Re: Re: Why Satyajit Ray is a modern face of India
by USG on Apr 15, 2009 12:26 PM
Perfect and precise..Good analyis Anirban ....He is an amazing story teller ...Every shot of Pather panchali is unique yet the story flows smoothly like a river ....Could anyone tell me of any Ray fanclub sites or where I could get good copies of his films?
Re: Why Satyajit Ray is a modern face of India
by sarbojit banerjee on Apr 15, 2009 12:19 PM
Excellent Anirban.. bulls eye . You shared important and best facts of Ray.
