Ganguly's meticulously researched study of the master, beautifully illustrated with examples of the brilliant camerawork of Ray's films, will be of immense help to the reader in situating his complex cinematic characters in the cultural context to which they belong.

Scope: An Online Journal of Film and Television Studies

Recommended.

Choice Reviews

...provides a solid introduction to the themes and stylistics of the great Bengali director...Ganguly's useful bibliography makes this an excellent place for undergraduates to start.

Choice Reviews

Satyajit Ray (1921-1992) revolutionized Indian film and is widely considered to be one of the great filmmakers of all time. In this work, Ganguly (U. of Colorado) examines Ray's negotiations with history and modernity in the six major films he made between 1955 and 1970: Pather Panchali, Aparajito, Apur Sansar, Charulata, Aranyer Din Ratri, and Pratidwandi. Overall, Ganguly sets himself the task of examining how Ray's films convey the filmmaker's belief that the modern is best understood as a total experience in relation to how people express themselves in a changing society, although more specific concerns such as Ray's preoccupation with subjectivity in contexts such as education, urban culture, and the management of grief; the nature of action in a society suspended between apathy and revolution; and writing as a form of female discourse frequently intrude. This is a paperbound edition of a work first published in 2000.

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