Who Came Out of Nothing, Changed Everything.

 Who came out of nothing, changed everything.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Considered by many, one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Satyajit Ray, a Bengali film director pitched up to heaven by altering Bengali cinemas for an eternity. After being "deeply moved" by Pather Panchali, the 1928 classic Bildungsroman of Bengali Literature, he decided to adapt it into his first film that went by the same name. In fact, while working on this film, rather than writing a script, he made it from his drawings and notes. Ray gathered an inexperienced crew, although both his cameraman Subrata Mitra and art director Bansi Chandragupta would go on to achieve great acclaim. After failing to convince various producers to invest in his film, he began to shoot it in 1952 with his own savings with an unknown and amateur cast. However, after some footage, in the later stages of production, he received funding that helped him to complete the film successfully and it was initially released in 1955.                                                                                                                                                                                                              The film, ''Pather Panchali'' was based on a young boy, Apu, and his sister who belonged to a Brahmin family in a village in Bengal. Their father, a poet, and a priest, couldn't earn enough to keep his family going so he left to find work, The two children were left alone to be taken care of by the mother. All in all, this film depicted the hardships of a poor Bengali family who were struggling to make ends meet.                                                                                                                                                                          Ray continued his legacy in 1958 by extending his first film by introducing a sequel that went by the name ''Aparijito'', which took place years after Apus's sister had died. In this film, after the death of his father, 10-year-old Apu and his mother moved to a relative's where he got admitted to a local school. By the time he graduated, he had a scholarship to study at a college in Calcutta which meant he had to leave his mother behind.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      With the success of ''Aparajito'', his international career began in Earnest. Upon release, this film won the Golden Lion at the Venice film festival bringing him considerable acclaim, He was praised for being able to capture emotion and bled it with proper storytelling. His sense of blending music into his film was also praised. In the same year, he also released films like ''Jalshagor'' and ''Parash Pathar'' which also turned out to be massive successes.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            While working on ''Aparajito'', even though he never planned to make a trilogy, the idea arose when he was asked about it in Venice. By 1959, he had finished the last film of the trilogy m ''The World of Apu''. He introduced two of his favorite actors in this film, Soumitra Chatterjee and Sharmila Tagore. This film opened with Apu living in a small place in Calcutta and struggling to make ends meet, things took a unique turn when he had gotten involved in an unusual marriage with Aparna. The scenes of their life together will always be classic in the hearts of cinematic lovers. Yet, like most of the good things, their marriage didn't last long as Aparna died while giving birth. their son was left to be taken off by Apu.                                                                                                                                                                                            During this period, Ray made films about the British Raj period, a documentary on Tagore, a comic film (Mahapurush) and his first film from an original screenplay ('Kanchenjungha'). He also made a series of films that, taken together, are considered by critics among the most deeply felt portrayals of Indian women on screen.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      In 1960, Devi (The Goddess), a film in which he examined the superstitions in society. Sharmila Tagore starred as Doyamoyee, a young wife who is deified by her father-in-law. Ray was worried that the Central Board of Film Certification might block his film, or at least make him re-cut it, but Devi was spared. Upon international distribution, the critic from Chicago Reader described the film as "full of sensuality and ironic undertones"                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Satyajit Ray gave us many countless other films like ''Nayak'', ''Charulata' etc. On top of this, wrote and invented iconic characters like Feluda, Tapesh Ranjan Mitra etc. In 1983, while working on Ghare Baire (Home and the World), Ray suffered a heart attack; it would severely limit his productivity in the remaining nine years of his life. Ghare Baire, an adaptation of the novel of the same name, was completed in 1984 with the help of Ray's son, who served as a camera operator from then onward. It is about the dangers of fervent nationalism; he wrote the first draft of a script for it in the 1940s. Despite rough patches due to Ray's illness, the film did receive some acclaim; critic Vincent Canby gave the film a maximum rating of five stars and praised the performances of the three lead actors. It also featured the first kiss scene portrayed in Ray's films.

In 1987, Ray recovered to an extent to direct the 1990 film Shakha Proshakha (Branches of the Tree). It depicts an old man, who has lived a life of honesty, and learns of the corruption of three of his sons. The final scene shows the father finding solace only in the companionship of his fourth son, who is uncorrupted but mentally ill due to a head injury sustained while he was studying in England.                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Ray's last film, Agantuk (The Stranger), is lighter in mood but not in theme; when a long-lost uncle arrives to visit his niece in Calcutta, he arouses suspicion as to his motive. It provokes far-ranging questions in the film about civilization. Critic Hal Hinson was impressed, and thought Agantuk shows "all the virtues of a master artist in full maturity".                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Satyajit Ray, before he died, received an honorary Oscar for his great work and contribution to the betterment of films. Finally, in 23 April 1992, he passed away leaving behind legendary works made purely from passion and dedication.