May 1, 2021
By Naman Ramachandran
(Variety) -- India is celebrating the birth centenary of one of her greatest sons, Satyajit Ray, in a variety of ways.
Sunday (May 2, 2021), marks the centenary of Ray, the Indian master who won an honorary Oscar in 1992, shortly before his death, and remains the country’s best known filmmaker internationally.
Ray debuted with “Pather Panchali” (1955) the first part of the magisterial Apu Trilogy, which won best human document at Cannes. The Trilogy includes “Aparajito” (1956) and “Apur Sansar” (1959). Berlin was a particularly happy venue for him and he won top awards at the festival numerous times, for “Pather Panchali,” “Aparajito,” “Mahanagar” (1963), “Charulata” (1964), “Nayak” (1966) and “Ashani Sanket” (1973).
At Venice he won for “Aparajito” and “Seemabaddha” (1971), culminating in a career Golden Lion in 1982. He also won a British Institute Fellowship in 1983 to go with the London Film Festival’s Sutherland Trophy for “Apur Sansar.” In 1987, the government of France made Ray a Commander of the Legion of Honor.
In India, Ray’s films won 36 times at India’s National Film Awards and he was also accorded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award and the Bharat Ratna, the country’s highest film and civilian awards respectively.
The Indian government has newly instituted a Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Cinema, and the country’s various film bodies are organizing year-long centenary celebrations, necessarily virtual-physical hybrids because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
