Latest news with #SatyajitRay
The Hindu
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Prime Video introduces NFDC – Cinemas of India as an add-on subscription
Prime Video said it has on-boarded National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) – Cinemas of India, as an add-on subscription. NFDC offers an extensive library featuring iconic films by renowned and internationally acclaimed directors such as Satyajit Ray, Shyam Benegal, Mira Nair and Kalpana Lajmi, to name a few. 'With this add-on subscription, customers in India can enjoy evergreen classics from multiple Indian languages at ₹199 per year,' Prime Video said. 'NFDC has been the cornerstone of India's finest cinema, nurturing path-breaking films for decades. We're excited to announce NFDC – Cinemas of India as our newest add-on subscription, featuring an exclusively curated collection of cinematic masterpieces,' said Gaurav Bhasin, head of marketplace (add-on subscriptions and movie rentals), Prime Video. 'The collection showcases the rich heritage of Indian cinema across our linguistically diverse entertainment industry. Whether you're a cinephile or just beginning to explore Indian cinema, NFDC's catalogue offers an unparalleled window into our country's most acclaimed and culturally significant films,' he added. 'For decades, NFDC has supported pioneering filmmakers and impactful narratives that showcase India's cultural diversity. With Prime Video's massive reach across the country, we are confident that these timeless, thought-provoking, stories will reach and be enjoyed by new audiences, and enable us to take Indian cinema far and wide,' said Prakash Magdum, MD, NFDC Ltd.
Mint
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Mint
Gandhi to Salaam Bombay: Now watch critically-acclaimed films on OTT, here's how to watch
In a major boost to cinephiles and cultural archivists, Prime Video has launched NFDC – Cinemas of India as a new add-on subscription, offering a rich library of some of India's most iconic and critically acclaimed films. For just ₹ 199 per year, subscribers can now access a treasure trove of titles that shaped the very foundation of Indian cinema. The newly launched collection includes cinematic landmarks from legendary filmmakers such as Satyajit Ray, Shyam Benegal, Mira Nair, Kalpana Lajmi, and many others. Among the standout titles are Gandhi, Salaam Bombay!, Rudaali, Agantuk, Mirch Masala, and Ghare Baire—films that have not only earned accolades at home but have also left a mark on the global festival circuit. While commercial Bollywood fare dominates the digital landscape, the addition of NFDC's catalogue offers a much-needed counterpoint—a curated collection of films that defined India's parallel and regional cinema movements. Many of these works, once confined to festival circuits or Doordarshan reruns, are now digitally available to a new generation. The catalogue spans multiple Indian languages, including Bengali (Agantuk, Ghare Baire), Marathi (Bangarwadi, Doghi), Malayalam (Parinamam, Bioscope), Tamil (Marupakkam, Jameela), Telugu (Stri, Tiladaanam), and Gujarati (Percy), among others. Critically decorated, globally recognised Several of the featured films are globally awarded: Gandhi (Hindi) won Oscars, BAFTAs, and Golden Globes Salaam Bombay! received the Caméra d'Or at Cannes and an Oscar nomination Qissa (Punjabi) won the NETPAC Award at TIFF Paar (Hindi) earned the UNESCO Award at Venice The collection also includes multiple National Film Award winners, offering viewers a wide range of themes—from caste and gender to displacement and memory. 'Whether you're a cinephile or just beginning to explore Indian cinema, NFDC's catalogue offers an unparalleled window into our country's most acclaimed and culturally significant films,' said Gaurav Bhasin, head of marketplace at Prime Video. The move also aligns with NFDC's long-standing mission to democratise access to meaningful cinema.
The Hindu
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Meditations, an art exhibition in Thiruvananthapuram, showcases colourful fragments of dissimilar visions
Chapter one of Meditations, an art exhibition by Dr Boban Ramesan, currently on at Vylopilly Samskrithi Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram, presents a glimpse into what truly affects the artist — consciously and subconsciously. From depictions of frames inspired by legendary filmmakers Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak to images of death and decay reflecting the ongoing conflict in Gaza, the exhibition explores the personal and the public in a series of untitled works. This chapter features 68 works and chapter two features 42 works. Originally from Petta, Boban has been working as a family physician in Brisbane, Australia, for a decade. He uses Italian Fabriano paper as his preferred canvas. His paint mediums include oil paint, charcoal, pastels, pens, gouache (a water-based paint), chalk and graphite. 'I have been using oil paint for the last 10 years. Before that, my preferred mediums were charcoal and graphite. I also started using pastels a few years ago. I never used colours when I began painting as I was used to monochromatic art,' says Boban. 'I left the works untitled so that people can interpret it. I do have some ideas in my mind. If I feel differently tomorrow, I'll change it,' says Boban, showcasing artworks compiled over the past 12 months. The self-taught artist describes his work as 'mostly spontaneous', putting down his thoughts through his paintings, almost like journalling on canvas. These include his perceptions of places, experiences, and events. For instance, in one of his works, he portrays a rural area in West Bengal; despite not having travelled to the place, he has created a piece inspired by the movies of Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak. Boban displays a shore and people on it, invoking an image of the fisherfolk. Alienation appears to be a recurring theme. With charcoal as a medium, Boban has portrayed a grim, lonely setting in England. The work features a tram next to a solitary person. Subjects embracing other people further highlight a sense of loneliness or an absence of intimacy that many people often crave. 'A lot of lonely figures can be found in my work now; it appears as if I am confined to that space,' he says. 'Last year, I lost my sister, and a lot of those emotions reflect in my work. It helps me cope with sadness, as it is also said that art is therapeutic.' These artworks are dominated by shades of yellow and despite the nature of the colour representing happiness, they display loss and yearning for his sister. Personal relationships or their absence become the leitmotif for the exhibition, which does not have a central theme of any nature. Boban also attempts to revisit his dreams through his art. The abstract works feature animals, objects and even the artist himself; they represent involuntary and incoherent fragments of the artist's psyche, he believes. These dream sequences are colourful and contain recurring elements that set out the idea that the works are interwoven. A section of four works in charcoal portrays violent imagery of conflicts happening across the world, especially in Gaza, says the artist. Lamenting mothers and sights of decay presented in shades of black are direct references to the grim reality. On a closer look, the dancing figures present a group of people profiting from such violence. The exhibition and its second chapter at KCS Panicker Gallery, Museum, is on till June 22, 10 am to 5 pm.
Scroll.in
15-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Scroll.in
Sunday book pick: Ghost stories by Satyajit Ray in ‘Ghosts, Supernatural and Tales of the Uncanny'
In one 'ghost' story by Satyajit Ray, a well-to-do writer – an intellectual – is stranded by a farm on a deserted road. The scarecrow guarding the crops makes for an eerie company. The longer the writer looks at the scarecrow, the more human it appears to be. Especially the clothes that it has been made to wear. The shirt, torn and discoloured, looks familiar too. When the writer eventually dozes off, he dreams of the servant he had fired on charges of thievery. He used to wear a similar shirt. The servant had denied stealing his master's watch but the writer was not interested in hearing him out. In the dream, the servant tells him where he suspects the watch has disappeared to. The writer wakes up and eventually makes his way home. On searching the spot that the servant had spoken of in his dream, he finds his watch safe and secure, ticking away. A haunted past Satyajit Ray's ghost stories – written with the young reader in mind – have been recently published as Ghosts, Supernatural, and Tales of the Uncanny by Puffin. The fifteen stories in the collection (translated primarily by Gopa Majumdar, with two by Indrani Majumdar and another two by the author) are neither gory nor horrifying, but delightfully spooky. Well-suited for children (and readers of all ages, really), the stories speak to how class conflicts, colonial hangover, animal cruelty, bad childhood memories, and guilt create horror later in our lives. There are no possessed children in these stories – the young are blemish-free, but as years pile on, callousness and cruelty become second nature, turning each of us into perpetrators of horror. First published in the Bengali children's magazine Sandesh, each of the stories is accompanied by Ray's beautiful illustrations. I must have spent a minute or two admiring the ingenuity of his calligraphy and sketches. Two stories in the collection, 'Anath Babu's Terror' and 'Mr Brown's Cottage', were adapted for the screen by Sandip Ray for his 2012 movie, Jekhane Bhooter Bhoy. In 'Anath Babu's Terror', a ghost hunter goes to a haunted house in search of an elusive ghost. The ghost does appear but will Anath Babu live to tell the tale? 'Mr Brown's Cottage' is another haunted house story set in the erstwhile remote Fraser Town in Bangalore. After learning about a certain Simon from Mr Brown's cheaply purchased diary, the protagonist sets off for the cottage, wondering who this Simon might be. In both stories, the men are propelled by curiosity as they try to uncover mysteries that have lain buried for many years. My introduction to 'Mr Brown's Cottage' was as a radio play, and I remember being adequately thrilled when the big revelation came. The story about the scarecrow and the writer was adapted as 'Kagtarua' by Sandip Ray in 2014 for the movie Chaar. Play Satyajit Ray was a young man when India gained independence. He had witnessed some of the worst atrocities of colonialism and later, he also saw how difficult it was to rouse from the colonial hangover. This makes for an interesting subject in ghost stories. In 'Indigo', Ray imagines what the coloniser's guilt might look like, whereas in 'The First-Class Compartment', an Indian man who derides everything Indian is reminded of his place when the ghost of a white sahib calls him a 'nigger' and threatens to throw him off the coupé he is travelling in. The ghosts of history do not die so easily. Phantoms of the mind Dolls have proven themselves as useful mediums for ghosts. In 'Bhuto' and 'Fritz', the dolls of a child and a ventriloquist are not inanimate objects, but those capable of feeling human emotions. The dolls are subjected to neglect and indifference, and in 'Bhuto', the doll is also a medium of the protagonist's arrogance. In the end, the dolls come alive to teach a lesson that the humans were long overdue. The most remarkable stories in the collection – 'Ratan Babu and That Man' and 'Khagam' – also happen to be translated by Ray. The two stories are as different from each other as they can be. In 'Ratan Babu and That Man', a man is surprised to find another person who is so similar to him in temperament and mannerisms. But soon, it starts to bug him. In 'Khagam', the senseless killing of a snake costs a man dearly. In fact, Ray seems to suggest that animal cruelty is one of the most horrific crimes that a human being is capable of, making it one of the recurring themes in his stories. Another affecting story on animal cruelty is 'A Strange Night for Mr Shasmal'. Other animals turn up at Mr Shasmal's home to make him pay for killing a dog. No ghost story collection is complete without a delectable vampire story. 'The Vicious Vampire' is a story about just that – a vicious vampire. However, the initial tone of the story is somewhat comical. A man, deathly terrified of bats, finds the animal hanging upside down in the house where he is vacationing. But this isn't the end of his troubles, for he will soon cross paths with the local vampire. Ray's ghost stories take the readers to every corner of the country. His protagonists – all men! – encounter these vicious, scary, (and sometimes) anxious ghosts in small towns and villages. From remote sites in Rajasthan to Karnataka and Bihar to West Bengal, the ghosts appear in front of only those who seek them. Deliciously unnerving and pleasurably unsettling, Ray's ghosts are phantoms of the mind – and not so much of material.
India.com
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- India.com
Meet Satyajit Ray's heroine, who was a top actress, later quit films for marriage, moved to US, now works as a..., her brother died when...
With a filmography spanning Telugu, Malayalam, and Bengali films, she charmed audiences with her stunning looks and captivating performances. But there's more to her story than meets the eye… Wondering who is she? She is a south actress, a resident of Kolkata, she has also worked as a director in Satyajit Ray's film while she was studying at her college. She is Suvalakshmi! Her big break came with Ajit's 'Aasai', where she played the role of Yamuna, showcasing her impressive acting skills. 'Aasai' brought her recognition, paving the way for her next project, 'Gokulathil Seethai', alongside Karthik. She eventually made Chennai her home. Suvalakshmi's cinematic journey Suvalakshmi's cinematic journey was nothing short of remarkable, with a string of hits that showcased her talent and versatility. Films like 'Love Today' and 'Nilave Vaa' with Vijay, 'Kaathirundha Kadhal', 'Kannaal Pesava', and 'Dinandhorum' with Murali, and 'Suvayamvaram' and 'Nee Varuvai En' with Parthiban, cemented her status as a talented actress. Notably, she maintained a consistent approach to her roles, shying away from glamour and instead opting for strong, meaningful characters. Suvalakshmi went through a tough phase According to several media reports, while everything was moving smoothly, she went through a tough phase at that time, as her brother died in an accident, which broke her down. Suvalakshmi pursued a career in law Reportedly, as opportunities began to dwindle, Suvalakshmi decided to leave the film industry in 2001 to study law. Suvalakshmi's comeback However, the allure of the silver screen proved hard to resist, and she returned for the film 'Nadhi Karaiyinile'. Her journey then transitioned to television, where she became a part of several popular shows. Suvalakshmi is married to… In 2002, she married her long-time friend, Swagato Banerjee, and eventually settled in the US, where she now manages her husband's business. Though she's no longer actively involved in cinema, Suvalakshmi's films continue to be cherished by her fans.
