‘Satyajit Ray captured decay in the country’s social life through his works’

Though Satyajit Ray did not deal with political themes as undertaken by filmmakers such as Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen in their movies, he was able to capture the decay in the country’s social life across various generations through his works, according to P.F. Mathews, scriptwriter.

Ray was misunderstood by many, but it was realised later that he had dealt with Indian modernity, he said at the release of the book Prapancham Prathiphalikkunna Jalakanam, a book on Satyajit Ray’s films penned by critic C.S. Venkiteswaran as part of the Satyajit Ray centenary show at the Durbar Hall Art Gallery on Thursday.

Mr. Mathews recalled that Doordarshan had set a condition that Ray should complete the feature film Sadgati in 50 minutes. He hit the 50-minute mark at the first cut itself. This was how he earned a position similar to the stature of international filmmakers like Alfred Hitchcock. “His technical brilliance in tune with international standards must be taken into account when we analyse Ray’s works,” Mr. Mathews said.

Poet V.M. Girija received the first copy of the book from critic I. Shanmughadas.