‘Satyajit Ray Filmed the Magic of Real Life’: Shoojit Sircar

‘Why are Satyajit Ray’s films timeless? Because he simply filmed the magic of life’, Shoojit Sircar

Filmmaker Shoojit Sircar speaks about Satyajit Ray.

(Photo: Kamran Akhter/The Quint)

(This story was first published on 1 May 2020 and has been reposted from The Quint’s archives)

Video Editor: Prashant Chauhan

Satyajit Ray has influenced the lives of many aspiring filmmakers and film enthusiasts and continues to do so. The Quint celebrates Ray’s birth centenary year with a very special series called ‘My Ray’ – where current generation of filmmakers share their experiences of Ray’s films and how he influenced them.

Filmmaker Shoojit Sircar tells us how all his works, ranging from his first Yahaan (2005) to October (2018) have influences of Ray in them.

Ray’s films reflects realism, inspired by the Italian Neorealism movement, and this is the very aspect that Sircar relates to.

“He brought simple human life, on screen. He was not complicated, his films were fast. His films were simply woven, very cinematic, not verbose. I don’t call his stories, stories as such, I call them magic of life.”

Shoojit Sircar, Filmmaker

Poster of Pather Panchali (Photo Courtesy: IMDB)

While most of Ray’s films are extraordinary pieces of art, Sircar suggests a few must watch films by the legend, including the Apu Trilogy (Pather Panchali, Aparajito and Apur Sansar), where Apu is the central character and Charulata.