Satyajit Ray is known for his independent filmmaking, he was one of the greatest filmmakers from India, Satyajit Ray was a Film director, producer, screenwriter, writer, music director and, lyricist.
He was the first Indian who won the Academy Honorary Award in 1992.
Today we are sharing some of his great artwork in Film Making.
List of All Time Best Movies of Satyajit Ray
Pather Panchali/Song of the Little Road (1955)
The whole story is based on a novel, Pather Panchali by Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay which was written in 1929 starring Karuna Banerjee, Uma Dasgupta, Subir Banerjee, Chunibala Devi, Kanu Banerjee and Tulsi Chakrabarti.
The music is given by renowned sitarist, Pt. Ravi Shankar. In English “Pather Panchali” is known as ‘Song of the Little Road’. The story is all about the poor family as well as village life and childhood of Subir Banerjee as ‘Apu’ along with his elder sister Uma Dasgupta as ‘Durga’.
This film is purely based on Satyajit Ray’s notes and drawings as it did not had any script of its own. Satyajit Ray released an Apu Trilogy and this movie was the first part of the same.
Aparajito/The Unvanquished(1956)
The movie Aparajito is the second part of Ray’s Apu Trilogy which revolves around the Apu’s life since childhood to his college.
In English, Aparajito simply means “The Unvanquished” and won 11 international awards. The story is adapted from the last-fifth of Pather Panchali and first-third of Aparajita. This movie closely resembles with its literary source.
Jalsaghar/The Music Room (1958)
This movie is basically known as Jalsaghar in Hindi starring Pinaki Sen Gupta, Chhabi Biswas, Ustad Waheed Khan, Begum Akhtar, Padma Devi, Tulsi Lahari and many more.
The music is given by Vilayat Khan. The story revolves a landlord and his family who are affected by economic adversity and still the landlord gives his best efforts to uphold the whole family. This movie won Presidential Award despite of its innumerable poor reviews and critics.
Apur Sansar/The World of Apu (1959)
This movie is the third part of Apu Trilogy and is known to be ‘The World of Apu’ in English. The story revolves around the childhood and early adulthood days of Apu.
The whole story is based on the last 23rd of Aparajito. It basically focuses on the adulthood of Apu and won several international awards as well.
Devi/The Goddess (1960)
Devi simply means ‘The Goddess’. The movie Devi starring Sharmila Tagore and Soumitra Chatterjee is influenced by a short story of Provatkumar Mukhopadhyay.
The whole story revolves around the character of Sharmila Tagore, Dayamoyee that she is being an avatar of Goddess Kali which soon turns into a tragedy.
Charulata/The Lonely Wife (1964)
The movie Charulata is based on a novella by Rabindranath Tagore, Nastanirh which means The Broken Nest.
In English, Charulata knew as The Lonely Wife and this movie star Madhabi Mukherjee, Sailen Mukherjee and Soumitra Mukherjee in lead roles. The story revolves around a lonely wife and workaholic husband who asks his cousin to give company to his wife.
But eventually the story revolves around the lust and attraction of the wife towards cousin and finally, she is left alone as a forsaken woman.
Teen Kanya/Three Girls (1961)
Teen Kanya is an anthology which is based on short stories by Rabindranath Tagore. This movie contains three stories i.e. The Postmaster, Mohihara which means The Lost Jewels and Samapti which means The Conclusion. This film received an award for Best Feature Film in Bengali.
Nayak/The Hero (1966)
The movie Nayak was a second original screenplay of Satyajit Ray starring Uttam Kumar and Sharmila Tagore.
The story revolves around a deeply lonely man who is now a matinee idol going to receive an award reveals about his insecurities in a 24-hour train journey.
Shatranj Ke Khilari/The Chess Players (1977)
This movie is based on short stories by Munshi Premchand, Shatranj Ke Khilari in English known as The Chess Players staring Amjad Khan, Richard Attenborough, Sanjeev Kumar, and Shabana Azmi.
The story is portrayed in the life and customs during the 19th century on the Indian rebellion eve in 1857. Shatranj Ke Khilari is the only Hindi film directed by Satyajit Ray.
Agantuk/The Stranger (1991)
Agantuk in English as The Stranger and it was the last film based on short stories followed the death of Satyajit Ray the next year.
It portrayed the story of Atithi (The Guest). This film stars Mamata Shankar, Utpal Dutt, Promod Ganguli, Deepankar De and many more. this movie won accolades from critics and received awards too.
Sonar Kella/The Golden Fortress (1971)
Sonar Kella is based on the novel Shonar Kella written by Satyajit Ray. Satyajit Ray created the 2nd most famous Bengali detective character Feluda.
Stories of Feluda is about crime and investigation, there are plenty of adaptation and remakes has been made till now.
It stars Soumitra Chatterjee, Santosh Dutta, Siddartha Chatterjee, and Kushal Chakraborty, and the film is written and directed by Satyajit Ray.
Your Turn!
These are our favorite films of Satyajit Ray, do mention your favorite list of Satyajit Ray Films in the comment section.
