Satyajit Ray is internationally acknowledged as one of the great masters of world cinema. From his extraordinarily accomplished debut 'Pather Panchali', his films - many of them masterpieces - have won him legions of admirers, among them Akira Kurosawa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, V.S. Naipaul and Martin Scorsese. Mahanagar (The Big City): Set in the mid' 50s, Ray's often humorous story of conflicting social values in India's lower-middle class stars Madhabi Mukherjee as a housewife whose growing independence alarms her traditionalist family. Charulata (The Lonely Wife) Neglected by her ambitious journalist husband, the lonely Charulata (Madhabi Mukherjee) befriends his cousin (Soumitra Chatterjee), a sensitive aspiring writer, and almost inevitably their feelings for each other begin to deepen. Adapted from a story by Rabindranath Tagore, Ray considered this sensitively realized drama one of his finest achievements. Nayak (The Hero) This beautifully observed character study was one of Ray's earliest original screenplays. En route to an award ceremony, a famous and egocentric Bengali movie star finds that he is compelled to re-evaluate his life after encountering a disapproving young journalist (Sharmila Tagore).
 

Mahanagar (1963) - There's a lot of meat in "The Big City.'' Through his story and his images, Ray always presents Arati in a positive light. No matter how bad things become at home, the viewer understands her good intentions, intelligence, quick-wittedness and resolve. She's also beautiful, as are her Bengali co- workers.

Ray's admiration and respect for women comes through clearly. His black-and-white images are clean and graceful, and he loves close-ups that allow viewers to see emotions flicker across the faces of his characters. Equally appealing is the opportunity to listen to the Bengali language, with English phrases tossed in, mostly in the course of office dialogue (a ``none of my business'' here, a ``strictly speaking'' there).

Somewhat more difficult to accept, for me at least, was the pace of the movie, which moves along in such a quiet and stately manner that I was squirming in my seat. There are so many ways in which Ray is entitled to demand respect that I felt absolutely naughty wanting something to happen quickly.

Excerpt from the San Francisco Chronicle located HERE

Charulata (1964) - Satyajit Ray's fascination with Rabindranath Tagore culminated in CHARULATA, his twelfth film and arguably his greatest achievement. Based on a short story by Tagore, it is a surprisingly modern tale of love, lust, fidelity, and a woman's growing self-awareness against the backdrop of the Bengal Renaissance, a vibrant intellectual awakening in 19th-century India.

Charulata (Madhabi Mukherjee), the childless wife of a wealthy Bengali intellectual, lives in seclusion in her spacious and ornate home in Calcutta, while winds of change are blowing away the cobwebs outside. Her husband, Bhupati (Sailen Mukherjee), inspired by Mill and Bentham, spends his inherited wealth in the pursuit of freedom and equality, by editing an English-language liberal political weekly. But he has no time for Charu, who has little to do in a home run like a well-oiled machine by a fleet of old retainers.

With its beauty, structural perfection and conceptual purity, CHARULATA remains a triumph of Ray's craftsmanship and cinematic vision. The exquisite interiors created by art director Bansi Chandragupta were among the best of his work, as were the subtle use of lights and the sensitivity of Subrata Mitra's camera. The costumes, the faces, and the detailed structuring of the film created a superbly colourful piece of monochrome cinema. CHARULATA has the quality of a miniature painting, where minute details are revealed by a stroke of the finest brush, and the unspoken is made visual by a mere suggestion.

Excerpt from TV Guide located HERE

Nayak  (1966) - Satyajit Ray's 1966 feature comes at the tail end of his early realist period, which included most of the films (the Apu trilogy, Devi, Charulata) that won him his reputation in the West. A popular actor reveals his life to a woman journalist, whose initial cynicism turns to sympathy as she comes to understand the young man's celebrity entrapment. With Uttam Kumar and the flowering perennial of Ray's major work, Sharmila Tagore.

Excerpt from Pat Graham's review at The Chicago Reader located HERE