NEW DELHI, May 2: Legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray was honoured on his 92nd birthday today by search engine Google with a special doodle that shows the famous train scene from master director’s iconic first film ‘Pather Panchali’.
The monochrome image shows film’s young protagonists — Apu and Durga — running through Kaash flower field to catch a glimpse of a coming train.
‘Pather Panchali’ was based on the novel by Bengali writer Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay. Released in 1955, the film helped cement Ray’s reputation in international arena.
Born on May 2 in 1921, Ray, son of famous Bengali poet and writer Sukumar Ray, is hailed as one of the greatest directors in world cinema, whose matchless oeuvre is celebrated around the globe.
The Google search trends also show the universal popularity of the legendary filmmaker as people across countries like UK, US, Canada and France searched for queries related to ‘Satyajit Ray’. Top searched queries were ‘Satyajit Ray Movies’, ‘Satyajit Ray Institute’ and his widely loved fictional character ‘Feluda’.
Interestingly, Ray’s birthday falls just a day before the centenary day of Indian cinema tomorrow.
The filmmaker was a multi-talented genius and actually started his career as an artist in an advertising agency called D J Keymer.
And it was while working as a visualising artist in the field that the idea of ‘Pather Panchali’ took shape in his mind. The job of designing the cover for the Bibhutibhusan’s eponymous novel ‘Pather Panchali’ for the Signet Press led him to realise the cinematic potential of the book.
“It was only during the course of designing the jacket cover and illustrating the book that I started reading it and realised the cinematic potential it held,” Ray later recalled in the documentary ‘Satyajit Ray, The Filmmaker’, made on his life by Shyam Benegal in 1984.
Writer, publisher, illustrator and film critic, Ray continued to wear many hats through out his illustrious career.
Apart from his landmark ‘Apu trilogy’, his other iconic works include ‘Devi’, ‘Charulata’, ‘Seemabadha’, ‘Nayak’, ‘Sonar Kella’ among others.
The auteur was given a Lifetime Achievement Oscar in 1992, the same year he was given India’s highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna.
His love for the cinema also made him establish the Calcutta Film Society in 1948. He also did a documentary on Rabrindanath Tagore and one on his father as well, among other non-fiction works.
Ray continues to be a major influence on filmmakers world over. (PTI)
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