“PATHER PANCHALI” WON ACDEMY AWARD, COMMONLY KNOWN AS “THE OSCARS”

“Pather Panchali” (1955) directed by Satyajit Ray. 

A portrait of Satyajit Ray

Born                                      2 May 1921

                                              Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, British India

Died                                      23 April 1992 (aged 70)

                                              Kolkata, West Bengal, India

Occupation                          Film director,

                                           Producer,

                                               

       Screenwriter,

                                               

                                           Writer,

                                           Music director,

                                           Lyricist

Years active                      1950-1992

Signature                       

     

Satyajit Ray (Shôtôjit Rae,  listen : (2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian filmmaker, regarded as one of the greatest auteur of world cinema. Ray was born in the city of Calcutta into a Bengali family prominent in the world of arts and literature. Starting his career as a commercial artist, Ray was drawn into independent filmmaking after meeting French filmmaker Jean Renoir and viewing Vittorio De Sica’s Italian neorealist 1948 film Bicycle Thieves during a visit to London.

Ray directed 36 films, including feature films, documentaries and shorts. He was also a fiction writer, publisher, illustrator, calligrapher, graphic designer and film critic. He authored several short stories and novels, primarily aimed at children and adolescents. Feluda, the sleuth, and Professor Shonku, the scientist in his science fiction stories, are popular fictional characters created by him.

Ray's first film, Pather Panchali (1955), won eleven international prizes, including Best Human Documentary at the Cannes Film Festival. This film, Aparajito (1956), and Apur Sansar (1959) form The Apu Trilogy Ray did the scripting, casting, scoring, and editing, and designed his own credit titles and publicity material. Ray received many major awards in his career, including 32 Indian National Film Awards, a number of awards at international film festivals and award ceremonies, and an Academy Award in 1992. The Government of India honored him with the Bharat Ratna in 1992.

“Pather Panchali” written by

Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay

Born                                      September 12, 1894

                                              Ghoshpara-Muratipur village, Bengal,

                                               

                                              British India (now North 24 Paraganas district, West Bengal, India)

Died                                      November 1, 1950 (aged 55)

                                             Ghatshila, Bihar (now Jharkhand) , India

Occupation                          Writer, novelist

Ethnicity                              Bengali

Nationality                          Indian

Notable award(s)              Rabindra Puraskar (posthumous) (1951)