Thursday 7 August 2014

Review - “14 Stories that Inspired Satyajit Ray”

Editor and Translator - Bhaskar Chattopadhyay

Stories By - Satyajit Ray, Prabhat Kumar Mukhopadhyay, Premendra Maitra, Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury, Rajshekhar Basu, Narendranath Maitra, Rabindranath Tagore, Munshi Premchand, Tarashankar Bandyopadhyay

Published By - Harper Perennial   www.harpercollins.co.in

Price - 350



Satyajit Ray had always been one of my favorite film makers. I have watched quite a few of his films whether they have been in Bengali or Hindi and each film has pulled a chord in my heart as each story has been different and very well-crafted into movies. When I saw this book in Crossword during my weekly visit, I just could not resist buying it. Having spent my growing years watching his movies I felt I needed to know about the authors who inspired this great film-maker to create masterpieces.

This book contains 9 stories by the authors listed above. Most of the stories are set in Bengal and cover a variety of tales from there. As you turn the pages of the book it is like taking a walk into the homes of the characters and actually living their lives. There is a story that talks about the freedom of women, the choices they have to make in order to go out and work; while another about how people can become blind in the name of religion. Another talks about the state of untouchables in India and then again we have a story that speaks about the fading away of glory that landlords were bestowed with. The variety of stories Satyajit Ray chose to make into movies is phenomenal, with my personal favorite being the ones by Rabindranath Tagore.

This book is a must buy because the language is simple, the descriptions beautiful, the settings easy to imagine and the characters real, just like you and me. Sharmila Tagore has rightly stated – “A wonderful way to introduce readers not only to some superb stories, but also to the genius of Satyajit Ray, who, from these stories, created great cinema.”

2 comments:

  1. I'd loove to read this book, Rachna. If u have some PDF version, lemme kno:)

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  2. Sorry Vishal I do not have a PDF version, but I can lend it to you when you are in India next :-)

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