Satyajit Ray Filmography

Parvaz-E Zanbur

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Muhammadjon Shodi, Mastura Ortik, Taghoymurod Rozik, Fakhriddin Fakhriddin, Beknazar Kabirov

Synopsis: A fine example of the kind of poetic realism espoused in the films of East Indian director Satyajit Ray (to whom the film is dedicated), this low-key fable is set in a remote mountain village and tells the story of a teacher who takes matters into his own hands when local authorities refuse to Read More

Target

Crew: Screenwriter

Synopsis: The unjust discrimination that comes with the caste system in rural India provides the basis of this socially conscious drama that centers on the relationship between a cruel, exploitative landowner and his workers who belong to a caste of pariahs. Singh is the lord of his estate. His favorite Read More

The Broken Journey

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Soumitra Chatterjee, Sadhu Meher, Subhalakshmi Munshi, Debotosh Ghosh, Bina

Synopsis: This Indian drama offers a subtle examination of urban values and of the struggles of peasants to survive. The story is centered around a wealthy Calcutta physician, Dr. Nihar Sengupta who deals exclusively with wealthy patients. He has lost touch with his former values and ignores his wife's Read More

The Stranger

Crew: Composer (Music Score), Director, Producer

Actors: Utpal Dutt, Dhritiman Chatterjee

Synopsis: Satyajit Ray's final film is a deceptively simple modern fable about a mysterious and world-weary old man (Utpal Dutt), who comes to stay with a middle-class Calcutta family, claiming to be the wife's long-lost uncle, Manmohan Mitra. Anila (Mamata Shankar), the wife, wants to believe him, but her Read More

The Return of Goopy and Bagha

Crew: Composer (Music Score), Short Story Author

Actors: Tapen Chatterjee, Rabi Ghosh

Shakha Proshakha

Crew: Composer (Music Score), Director

Actors: Soumitra Chatterjee

Synopsis: This bittersweet story is one of the last two films directed by acclaimed Bengali Satyajit Ray (1921-1992). In the story, Probodh (Haradhan Banerjee) is the very moral and upright 70-year-old patriarch of a family, with four grown sons. His father and one of his sons live at home with him Read More

An Enemy of the People

Crew: Composer (Music Score), Director

Actors: Soumitra Chatterjee, Dhritiman Chatterjee

Synopsis: Legendary Indian film director Satyajit Ray developed this project based on a classic play by Henryk Ibsen because his doctor wanted him to only shoot films in a studio. The story has been transferred to Bengal, and Bengali is the language used in the film. In the story, Dr. Ashoke Gupta (Soumitra Chatterji Read More

Sukumar Ray

Crew: Director

The Home and the World

Crew: Composer (Music Score), Director, Screen Story, Screenwriter

Actors: Soumitra Chatterjee, Swatilekha Chatterjee, Jennifer Kapoor

Synopsis: Released in India as Ghare Baire, Home and the World offers a rare collaboration between that country's top director Satyajit Ray and versatile Indian film-personality Victor Banerjee. The latter plays a well-educated Hindu living in colonial East Bengal in 1908. When British governor-general Lord Read More

Phatikchand

Crew: Composer (Music Score), Screen Story, Screenwriter

Actors: Kamu Mukherjee, Biplab Chatterjee

Synopsis: In this slow-paced story (not one of Satyajit Ray's best works), a wealthy young boy is kidnapped, but then escapes without any memory of his past when the kidnappers' car crashes. The boy is adopted by a caring street entertainer and obtains work in a teashop waiting tables. While there, the Read More

Sadgati

Crew: Composer (Music Score), Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Om Puri, Smita Patil, Mohan Agashe

Synopsis: Noted Indian director Satyajit Ray scripted and arranged the music, as well as directed this brief look into one moment in the caste system in India. When an untouchable (an out-caste, played by Om Puri) approaches the ranking village Brahman (the highest caste, known for learning and wisdom) to Read More

Hirok Rajar Deshe

Crew: Composer (Music Score), Director, Screenwriter, Songwriter

Actors: Soumitra Chatterjee, Utpal Dutt, Tapen Chatterjee, Rabi Ghosh, Santosh Dutta

Synopsis: A charming children's film with adult references to politics and human nature, this story takes up where Adventures of Goodpy and Bagha left off. Two men were able to marry local princesses because of a pair of magic shoes they acquired. But they are getting a little restless with the good life Read More

Joi Baba Felunath

Crew: Composer (Music Score), Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Soumitra Chatterjee

Synopsis: Felu (Soumitra Chatterjee) is a detective whose vacation is interrupted when a priceless statue of an elephant god is stolen. Suspects include a local gangster, a nervous bodyguard, a disgruntled servant, and a fence who masquerades as a holy man. Chatterjee plays the character with reserve and Read More

The Chess Players

Crew: Composer (Music Score), Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Richard Attenborough, Amjad Khan, Sanjeev Kumar, Saeed Jaffrey, Shabana Azmi

Synopsis: Based on a story by Munshi Premchand, and much influenced by Vsevolod Pudovkin's 1925 film Chess Fever, this satirical film by noted Indian director Satyajit Ray is set in colonial India in 1856. The British Resident of the East India Company (Richard Attenborough) has observed that the monarch of Read More

Bala

Crew: Director

Jana Aranya

Crew: Composer (Music Score), Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Pradip Mukherjee, Utpal Dutt

Synopsis: The unfortunate young man in this movie grew up in a moderately well-off Indian family which has now fallen on hard times. His ambitions for a career were dashed when his high grades were changed at the instigation of a vindictive professor at his school. Through a series of accidents, he finds a Read More

Sonar Kella

Crew: Composer (Music Score), Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Santosh Dutta

Synopsis: In this children's film, India's foremost director Satyajit Ray tells the story of Mukul, whose prolific drawings appear to relate to a previous life as they depict things and places he has never seen. Together with a parapsychologist, he attempts to discover the site of this previous incarnation. Read More

Distant Thunder

Crew: Composer (Music Score), Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Soumitra Chatterjee, Babita

Synopsis: Satyajit Ray's drama about the Bengal famine of 1942-1943 stars frequent Ray collaborator Soumitra Chatterjee as Gangacharan, a Brahmin who sets up a school in a remote Bengali village. As World War II drains India's resources, the price of rice begins to rise, and soon the villagers can no longer Read More

The Inner Eye

Crew: Composer (Music Score), Director, Screenwriter, Sound/Sound Designer

Company Limited

Crew: Composer (Music Score), Director, Screenwriter

Synopsis: Famed Indian film director Satyajit Ray made a number of films which addressed issues of social and economic inequality: Simbaddha is one of these. Nowhere is the gulf between rich and poor more poignantly on view than in Calcutta, the setting for this film. Chatterji is an ambitious and self-made Read More

The Adversary

Crew: Composer (Music Score), Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Devraj Roy, Jaysree Roy

Synopsis: The Adversary stars Dhritiman Chatterjee as an Indian university student. Upon the death of his father, Chatterjee is compelled to drop out of school and support his family by taking a series of "grunt" jobs. Surrounded for the first time in his life by the squalor and poverty of Calcutta, the Read More

Sikkim

Crew: Composer (Music Score), Director, Screenwriter, Sound/Sound Designer

Days and Nights in the Forest

Crew: Composer (Music Score), Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Soumitra Chatterjee, Subhendu Chatterjee, Samit Bhanja, Sharmila Tagore

Synopsis: Days and Nights in the Forest was initially released in India as Aranyer din Ratri. The loose-hinged plot concerns four bachelors who go on holiday in the forest. While enjoying a break from the hurlyburly of city life, each man undergoes profound character developments and transformations. Also Read More

Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne

Crew: Composer (Music Score), Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Tapen Chatterjee, Rabi Gosh, Santosh Dutta

Synopsis: Acclaimed Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray directed this children's fantasy, which mixes genres and styles freely with great success. Goopy (Tapen Chatterjee) and Bagha (Robi Ghosh) are traveling musicians who come across the King of Ghosts (Santosh Dutta), a generous magical figure who gives them a Read More

Chiriakhana

Crew: Composer (Music Score), Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Uttam Kumar

Nayak

Crew: Director, Editor, Screenwriter

Actors: Uttam Kumar, Sharmila Tagore

Synopsis: Aditi (Sharmila Tagore) is a pretty journalist who interviews the film star Arindam Mukherjee (Uttam Kumar Chatterjee) on a train trip to Delhi, and flashbacks are used to illustrate the main events in the actor's life. After she has completed the interview, Aditi tears up her notes and refuses to Read More

Shakespeare Wallah

Crew: Composer (Music Score)

Actors: Shashi Kapoor, Felicity Kendal, Geoffrey Kendal, Laura Liddell, Madhur Jaffrey

Synopsis: Lizzie (Felicity Kendal) is an actress in a Shakespearean theater troupe that has seen better days. The troupe tours India to dwindling crowds who are less interested in all things British in the wake of Indian independence. When she has an affair with the Indian playboy Sanju (Shashi Kapoor) Read More

Kapurush

Crew: Director

Actors: Soumitra Chatterjee, Madhabi Mukherjee

Synopsis: This short feature by Satyajit Ray, based on a story by Premendra Mitra, stars Soumitra Chatterjee as Amitabha Roy, a Calcutta screenwriter whose car breaks down during a research trip out in the country. A local tea baron offers him a place to stay for the night, and Amitabha is surprised to find Read More

Mahapurush

Crew: Director

Actors: Charu Ghosh

Synopsis: Charaprakash Ghosh plays a bogus holy man in this comedy drama from celebrated Indian director Satyajit Ray. The Holy Man is adopted by a wealthy man who hopes to find a husband for his marriageable daughter. A poor but honest swain exposes the bogus Holy Man and wins the heart of the wealthy Read More

Charulata

Crew: Composer (Music Score), Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Soumitra Chatterjee, Madhabi Mukherjee

Synopsis: This film by Satyajit Ray, India's most renowned filmmaker, tells the story of Charu (Madhabi Mukherjee), a woman in late 19th-century Calcutta. She is neglected by her busy husband, Bhupati (Shailen Mukherjee), a politically active newspaper publisher. When Bhupati's younger cousin Amal (Soumitra Chatterjee Read More

The Big City

Crew: Composer (Music Score), Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Anil Chatterjee

Synopsis: Satyajit Ray, India's premiere film director, takes a rare foray into social satire with 1963's The Big City. Anil Chaterjee stars as the typically subjugated wife of an Indian bank official. When the banker loses his job, he orders Anil to find work to make ends meet. The wife subsequently runs Read More

Abhijan

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Soumitra Chatterjee, Waheeda Rehman, Ruma Guha Thakurta, Gyanesh Mukherjee, Charu Ghosh

Synopsis: Cabdriver Narsingh (Soumitra Chatterjee) makes the mistake of overtaking the car of the sub-district officer and the infuriated official cancels his permit. Returning to his native village, he agrees to give a ride to Sukhanram (Charu Prokash Ghose) and his "maidservant" Gulabi (Waheeda Rehman). Read More

Kanchenjungha

Crew: Composer (Music Score), Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Chhabi Biswas, Anil Chatterjee

Synopsis: Chhabi Biswas plays a prominent Indian industrialist who takes his family on holiday to Darjeeling. In close contact with one another for the first time in months, the family members vent their various pet peeves. Efforts to solve the family's problems are often stymied by the schism between the Read More

Rabindranath Tagore

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Synopsis: India's famed director Satyaji Ray took time out from his fictional dramas to direct and write this interesting documentary on his fellow Bengali, Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore was born into a family of fourteen children in 1861, and since he first started writing poetry at the age of seven, his Read More

Teen Kanya

Crew: Composer (Music Score), Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Anil Chatterjee, Chandana Bannerjee, Soumitra Chatterjee

Synopsis: The "third daughter" in this excellent, intended trilogy by acclaimed Indian director Satyajit Ray got axed in the final cut when Ray decided to keep his film at its current 116 minutes. The first story in the set, both based on tales by Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore is titled "The Read More

Devi

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Chhabi Biswas, Soumitra Chatterjee, Sharmila Tagore

Synopsis: Director Satyajit Ray adapted his script for Devi from the collected works of Indian authors Prabhatkumar Mukherjee and Rabinranath Tagore. The teen-aged title character Doyamoyee, played by Sharmila Tagore, may not be a "goddess" at all, but try telling that to Kalikinkar Roy (Chhabi Biswas), her Read More

The World of Apu

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Alok Chakravarty, Swapan Mukherji, Soumitra Chatterjee, Sharmila Tagore, Shapan Mukerji, S. Alke Chakravarty

Synopsis: Originally released in India as Apur Sansar, The World of Apu was the last of Satyajit Ray's "Apu Trilogy." Pather Panchali (1955) covered Apu's early years in his native village, while Aparajito (1956) detailed his school years and the tragedy that temporarily brought him back home. Now Apu (Soumitra Chatterjee Read More

Parash Pathar

Crew: Composer (Music Score), Director

Actors: Tulshi Chakraborty, Ganga Pada Basu

Synopsis: Better known as The Philosopher's Stone, Parash Pathar was Satyajit Ray's immediate follow-up to his celebrated Aparajito. The film bears the heavy (but never oppressive) influence of Ray's idol, French filmmaker Jean Renoir. Tulsi Chakravetry plays Parresh Dutt, an elderly clerk who comes into Read More

The Music Room

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Chhabi Biswas, Ganga Pada Basu, Kali Sarkar, Padma Devi

Synopsis: After completing his widely acclaimed Pather Panjali and Aparajito, the first two films in his "Apu Trilogy," Bengali director Satyajit Ray squeezed in time for this modest drama before finishing his trilogy in 1959 with The World of Apu. Possibly analogous to a broader picture of existence or Read More

Aparajito

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Kali Bannerjee, Karuna Bannerjee, Pinaki San Gupta, Kanu Banerji, Smaran Ghosal, Ramani Sen Gupta

Synopsis: The Unvanquished is the second of Indian director Satyajit Ray's "Apu Trilogy" (the first was Pather Panchali). Ray's young protagonist Apu is permitted a formal education over the gentle objections of his mother, who'd wanted him to be priest. Eventually, Apu earns a university scholarship and Read More

Pather Panchali

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Runki Banerji, Kanu Banerji, Subir Banerji, Karuna Bannerjee, Umas Das Gupta

Synopsis: Pather Panchali (Father Panchali), Indian director Satyajit Ray's first feature film, relates the story of an impoverished Bengalese family. When the father (Karuna Bannerjee) leaves for the city to pursue a writing career, the mother (Karuna Banerji) is left with the responsibility of caring for Read More

The River

Crew: First Assistant Director

Actors: Nora Swinburne, Esmond Knight, Arthur Shields, Thomas E. Breen, Suprova Mukerjee, Patricia Walters

Synopsis: The River must be seen in its original Technicolor; it is difficult, if not impossible, to imagine anyone fully enjoying this wonderful film while watching a black-and-white TV print. Adapted by director Jean Renoir and Rumer Godden from Godden's own novel, the film is set on the banks of West Read More