Satyajit Ray (1921-1992) was a Bengali motion picture director, writer and an illustrator who brought Indian cinema to world recognition with his debut film ‘Pather Panchali (1955). It was based on a middle-class Bengali film that won him eleven international awards. He wrote stories, their screenplay, and music and directed them to the minutest details.
As a director, Ray was noted for his humanism, versatility and detailed control over his films and their music. Considered as one of the greater filmmakers of the 20th century, his films spanned on an unusually wide gamut of mood, milieu, period and genres, treating all the classes of Bengali society during his period with numerous films to his account. His films. ‘Devi’ and ‘Charulata’ are acclaimed as two of the best art films ever made anywhere in the world.
Ray also established a parallel career in Bengali as a writer and an illustrator, making a significant contribution to children’s literature. He revived the children’s magazine ‘Sandesh’, which was started by his grandfather in 1913, and edited until his death.
His detective stories and novels are particularly popular with teenage children. Ray created two of the most famous fictional characters ever in Bengali children’s, literature – ‘Feulda; a sleuth in Holmesian tradition, and Profession Shonku, a genius scientist. His stories are unpretentious and entertaining.