He wrote, he made films, he composed music, he painted. He was arguably only second to Rabindranath Tagore to leave an indelible impression of Bengali art on the rest of the modern world.

Much before I was introduced to the films of Satyajit Ray, I was an avid fan of his fictional detective “Feluda”. It was only later that I realized that his films had a deep impact on the way he wrote. His writings, like his films, were devoid of flab, of excesses and told a story through a multidimesional plot. Moreover, his literature had a strong visual aspect to it. It was impossible – especially for a teenager – not to try visualizing the story in parallel to reading it. And then Ray had the uncanny ability to create a film out his own story that brought out completely unexplored aspects of the written piece. It was this ability that converted a short story for children called “Atithi (The guest)” to his last and seminial film “Agantuk (The Stranger)”. It would be apt to describe the film as – if our perceptions were not pre-clouded by the phrase – an adult film. In fact, Agantuk went on to tell the story of not only a family under dilemma of accpeting a relative they had never seen but also allowed Ray a medium of communicating his philosophy of life through the main protagonist. The same went for his music, especially the fusion of eastern and western classical music that came about in his composition.

Like Tagore, Ray is relevant even today. It is the responsibility of our generation – the thirty and forty somethings – who grew up on Ray, to propagate his creations to the next generation.

Agantuk Part 1