Satyajit Ray
Born on 2nd May 1921, Satyajit Ray studied in Presidency College, Calcutta and then at Santiniketan where he specialized in the arts.
He started work in an advertising agency and continued there till the release of his first film in 1955, the much-acclaimed Pather Panchali. After Pather Panchali, Ray made 22 feature films and four major documentaries. He is known for his humanistic approach to cinema. He has won, at one time or another, practically every major award in the film world. In 1978 the Oxford University conferred the Degree of Doctor of Letters Honoris Causa on Mr. Ray. He is also the recipient of the Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement and the Legion d’Honneur of France.
Ray’s appreciation of the arts in general, especially of graphic arts, has stood him in good stead in his filmmaking. He has also put to rich and effective use his profound knowledge of music, both Indian and Western in his own films as well as in films by others. He also distinguished himself as a writer. Satyajit Ray is universally acclaimed as one of the all-time greats of cinema.
The Chairperson -
Jaya Bachchan
Actress Jaya Bachchan has belied the myth that glamour and beauty are prerequisites to become a film star. She made a mark in Hindi cinema solely on the strength of her exceptional acting talent, enjoying stardom in the 1970s under her maiden name Jaya Bhaduri.
The daughter of journalist Tarun Bhaduri, she chanced upon a film career following a small role in Satyajit Ray’s Bengali feature Mahanagar. The experience kindled an interest in cinema that led her to the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune.
Jaya Bhaduri graduated from the Institute with a gold medal and the lead role in Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Guddi, which was followed by hits such as Uphaar, Jawani Diwani, and Anamika. She also acted in several films with Amitabh Bachchan, including the hit Zanjeer. The two married in the early 1970s.
Jaya Bachchan acted in several other hits - the blockbuster Sholay, Naukar and Silsila - before opting for domesticity. She made a comeback in 1998 with Govind Nihalani’s Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa. Next she played a key role in Fiza. She joined her husband in Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham in 2001 and successfully interpreted Preity Zinta’s mother in Kal Ho Na Ho.
Jaya Bachchan was also a successful television producer and chairperson of the National Centre of Films for Children and Young People. These days, Mrs Bachchan shares her time between film sets all over India and the Parliament of India.
Panelist -
Rituparno Ghosh
Born in Kolkata in 1961, Rituparno Ghosh completed his schooling and went on to pursue his studies in Economics from the esteemed Jadhavpur University in Kolkata.
In a short while, he realized that his calling lay elsewhere. He thus joined Anandalok, a very popular magazine in West Bengal and went on to become its Editor. It was in the early 90’s that he first took up direction. His film Unishe April attracted serious critical attention and won the National Award for Best Film in 1995. Since then, Ghosh has directed a series of critical hits, notably Dahan, Utsab, Chokher Bali and Raincoat. His films, dissecting the minutiae of family and societal relationships, have led some critics to compare him with the great Bengali director Satyajit Ray.
Today, Rituparno Ghosh can boast of having an audience that not only spans the language barrier, but also transcends geographical boundaries. He has to his credit 14 films, 12 of which have won national level awards in India.
His cinema is cause-driven, modern, witty and more often, an astute commentary of the times we live in, at the same time. He finds ardent admirers in the film fraternity and the common man alike. His films have consistently been selected at celebrated international film festivals across the globe; a testimony of the world-class cinema that he creates.
Panelist - Deepa Mehta
Deepa Mehta was born in India and received a degree in philosophy from the University of New Delhi. In 1991, Mehta produced and directed her first feature film
Sam & Me, which won the very first Honorable Mention by the Critics in the Camera D'Or category in the 1991 Cannes Film Festival.
Fire, Mehta’s third feature film, based on an original screenplay, was written, directed and produced by Mehta. The film was released in 1996 and won fourteen international festival awards. From Mehta's trilogy of the elements, Fire, Earth and Water, Earth won the Prix Premiere du Public at the Festival du Film Asiatique de Deauville, France in March 1999 and the Critics' Award at the Schermi d'Amore International Film Festival, Italy in April of the same year.
In 2002 Mehta’s film, Bollywood Hollywood, became one of the top ten grossing English Canadian movies. In 2003, she won the prestigious CineAsia “Best Director” Award - an acclaim awarded to Steven Spielberg in 2002.
Water, the third film in the “elements” trilogy, opened the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival and was released in Canada in the fall of 2005, grossing over $2.2 million. Water has played many film festivals in North America and internationally, winning festival awards in Sudbury, Edmonton, Spain, Bangkok and San Francisco. Water received the Taormina Arte Awards for Cinematic Excellence in 2006 and the Golden Kinnaree Awards for best picture from the Bangkok International Film Festival. The film was nominated for nine Genie Awards, winning three.
Panelist - Cary
Sawhney
Cary Sawheny is on the Committee of Management for the Satyajit Ray Foundation in London who ensure that the work of Satyajit Ray is shown and appreciated and that his particular vision, artistry and humanity remain an example and inspiration to the generations of film-makers and the film-going public.
He is also one of the leading British Asian film curators, and has successfully managed to blur the boundaries between popular mainstream and minority art films. Cary started his career as a freelance photographer and exhibition organizer, successfully organizing the UK’s first touring exhibition, Cinema India, for Museum Of The Moving Image (MOMI), which toured the UK for six years. Cary has also worked with the BBC as researcher on various documentaries.
As Curator of Film at The National Museum of Photography, Film & Television, Bradford, Cary’s role was to interpret film and cinema culture to the public. He conceived and set up the UK’s leading annual Black and Asian film festival ‘Bite The Mango’ which is now in its 11th year, has continued to be an integral part of the Museum’s and Bradford’s program schedule. In 1997, Cary was appointed the Head of Diversity at the British Film Institute (bfi), London, where he conceived and led some of the bfi’s largest ever film festivals dedicated to Black and Asian films including Black World, a celebration of African diaspora film, television and arts and Imagine Asia, the UK’s largest ever festival of Asian film and arts, with an estimated 5.3 million people world-wide engaging with the festival.
Cary Sawhney is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and Manufacturing and a member of Bafta
.
Panelist - Suman Ghosh
Suman Ghosh is Lecturer in Culture, Communication and Media at the Department of Humanities, University of Central Lancashire. He is also course leader of the university’s new Bachelor’s degree programme in Creative and Cultural Industries. He has recently completed writing his Ph.D thesis on a narrative analysis of the screenplays of Satyajit Ray from the Institute for Cultural Research, Lancaster University. This research was aided by a grant from the Satyajit Ray Foundation, London.
Suman has presented papers in many international conferences and published his writings, both academic and general-interest. His articles have been published in some of India’s best known newspapers including The Asian Age, The Hindustan Times and Anandabazar Patrika. Suman’s most recent academic piece on Ray was a chapter on musical narrative structures in Ray’s screenplays, in Apu and After: Re-reading Ray’s Cinema, edited by Moinak Biswas and published by Seagull Books, Kolkata and London. A forthcoming piece titled ‘Urban Baggage: Chronicling 1960s Calcutta’ is to be published in Satyajit Ray: The Art of the Particular, edited by Professor Dilip Basu, Director of the Satyajit Ray Film and Study Collection, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA, and is expected later this year.
Screening of
the Film
Screening at 2.00PM
With the Support of the Satyajit Ray Foundation.
MAHANAGAR (THE BIG CITY), 1963
Producer: R.D.B. and Co. (R.D. Bansal)
Director: Satyajit Ray
Screenplay: From the short story “Abataranika” by Narendranath Mitra
Photography: Subrata Mitra
Editor: Dulal Dutta
Art Director: Bansi Chandragupta
Music: SR
Sound: Debesh Ghosh, Atul Chatterjee, Sujit Sarkar
Running time: 131 mins
Cast: Anil Chatterjee, Madhabi Mukherjee, Jaya Bhaduri, Haren Chatterjee, Sefalika Devi, Prasenjit Sarkar, Haradhan Banerjee, Vicky Redwood.
Awards: Silver Bear - Berlin Film Festival 1964 Silver Medal India 1966
Synopis:
Based on a short story written by Narendranath Mitra, Mahanagar, is set in Calcutta during the 1950s. The evolving independence of a middle-class woman is explored as she takes her first job after her husband is suddenly laid off. Despite opposition from both families, the decision is purely financial, but she subsequently grows to enjoy her new-found financial and psychological independence.
At the age of 15, Jaya Badhuri makes her debut appearance before becoming one of Indian Cinema’s leading actresses in one of the many films from the era that explored the status and independence of women in developing societies.
Ray’s detailed exploration gave Mahanagar prominence in this genre.
Location:
National Media Museum
Pictureville Cinema
Bradford
West Yorkshire
BD1 1NQ
Tel: 0870 70 10 200
Email: talk@nationalmediamuseum.org.uk
About the
National Museum of Media
The National Media Museum is part of the NMSI Museums Group (National Museum of Science and Industry) which also includes the Science Museum (based in London and at Wroughton in Wiltshire), the National Railway Museum (based in York and at Shildon in County Durham).
The National Media Museum exists to engage, inspire and educate by promoting an understanding and appreciation of photography, film, television, radio and the web; using our collection and knowledge to deliver a cultural programme accessibly and authoritatively.
www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk