Choose three “bad guys”from satayjit rays stories. Write who they are and where they appear. Write
briefly what makes them villains. Identify something that you find common
among these three characters and write what is unique about each of them.
Answers
A little more than 60 years ago, on 26 August 1955, a Friday, my father, then a young bachelor, stepped out of his office in the Hindustan Building in central Calcutta at 5pm, and walked over to meet up with his cousin and friend Nihar, working in the nearby Geological Survey of India. It was a weekly release from their work pressures. Every Friday, the two of them would catch an evening show (6pm) of a film—either English or Bengali. This was a ritual that lasted for years and ended only when my father got married.
However, on this day, they had a disagreement. Two Bengali films had released, the latest Suchitra Sen starrer and the first film directed by a former advertising executive and illustrator. Nihar was determined to watch the Suchitra Sen film while my father was committed to watching the other one. “It’s directed by Sukumar Ray’s son," he explained. “And it’s based on one of the classics of Bengali literature. This film could be interesting."
But Nihar would not budge—he was a staunch Suchitra Sen fan. Finally, conflict unresolved, the two friends—for the only time in their decade-long cinema camaraderie—parted ways, and watched two different films, each on his own.
Decades later, my father and his cousin were still laughing about that day. Neither could remember the name of the Suchitra Sen film, but the world had refused to forget—and will never do so—the film my father had gone to watch: Pather Panchali (The Song of the Road), directed by Satyajit Ray. In fact, quite by chance, my father had been one of the first few hundred people to watch a film that would be one of the greatest landmarks in Indian film history, put our cinema on the world map, and launch a filmmaking career of astonishing creativity that would inspire and open the doors of perception for several generations of film directors.
Answer:
A little more than 60 years ago, on 26 August 1955, a Friday, my father, then a young bachelor, stepped out of his office in the Hindustan Building in central Calcutta at 5pm, and walked over to meet up with his cousin and friend Nihar, working in the nearby Geological Survey of India. It was a weekly release from their work pressures. Every Friday, the two of them would catch an evening show (6pm) of a film—either English or Bengali. This was a ritual that lasted for years and ended only when my father got married.
However, on this day, they had a disagreement. Two Bengali films had released, the latest Suchitra Sen starrer and the first film directed by a former advertising executive and illustrator. Nihar was determined to watch the Suchitra Sen film while my father was committed to watching the other one. “It’s directed by Sukumar Ray’s son," he explained. “And it’s based on one of the classics of Bengali literature. This film could be interesting."