Satyajit Ray’s birth centenary has seen many tributes to his life and work. The four short films inspired by his stories on Netflix, new t...
Satyajit Ray’s birth centenary has seen many tributes to his life and work. The four short films inspired by his stories on Netflix, new translations of his works, and countless essays about his multi-faceted ouevre in Bengali and English. But the tribute to Ray through the recently inaugurated web portal exploreray.org is a strikingly original and lasting contribution to Ray’s genius.
Under the aegis of the TCG Centers for Research and Education in Science and Technology, a not-for-profit entity based out of Kolkata, a group headed by Ayananshu Banerjee and Anubrata Chakrabarti has digitised Ray’s kheror khata for the film Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne (1969). The project also brought together Sandip Ray and Kunal Sen, the sons of Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen respectively, as advisors into the project. The renowned physicist Sabyasachi Bhattacharya and Purnima Dutta, whose family has long been associated with Bengali cinema and especially Ray’s films are also part of the project.
Exploreray.org is an exemplary endeavor in the emerging field of the digital humanities and new media studies. Through the tools and insights made possible by digital technology it allows us to revisit a much-debated question in cinema: who is an auteur? Films we know are a product of a collective. The producer, director, music composer, choreographer,...
