One of India's Finest Actors Talks His Most Iconic Roles Soumitra Chatterjee became internationally famous with his debut in Satyajit Ray's Apur Sansar. In an era when Uttam Kumar ruled the minds and hearts of Bengali film audiences, Chatterjee carved a niche for himself, emerging as one of the finest actors, not only in India, but also in the world. Beyond Apu - 20 Favourite Film Roles of Soumitra Chatterjee looks at the cinematic life of this thespian through twenty of the most iconic characters he has essayed. Handpicked by the star himself, and brimming over with vintage anecdotes, this is a fascinating read on the art and craft of a master at work. Including insightful essays on his theatre and other artistic achievements, this book not only introduces the reader to an icon of Indian cinema but also offers a unique insight into the mind of a genius.

The two were like Radha-Krishna on the silver screen. Madhabi Mukherjee She is a lovely human being with a fine sense of humour. I believe she has the right to choose her friends. She is very hospitable too, and if, in spite of all this, she chooses to guard her privacy, I don t think there is anything wrong in that. Gulzar Suchitra Sen is a great artiste. For the first time, in her, I came across an ideal blend of beauty and brains in a single woman. She is extraordinary. Dilip Kumar The opportunity to work with him came much later. By that time, Uttam Kumar had already become something of a legend. Every other Bengali film had him in the lead, usually paired with Suchitra Sen. This was a romantic team which for durability and width of acceptance had few equals in world cinema. Uttam was certainly a star in the true Hollywood sense of the term. Satyajit Ray When I was in college, I remember, the Uttam-Suchitra pair was a hit already. While my friends admired Suchitra Sen and her capabilities as an actress, I was an Uttam Kumar admirer. Soumitra Chatterjee

Despite performances that mesmerized the world for close to fifty years, Soumitra Chatterjee won his first National Award for Best Actor only in 2006. The film: Podokkhep. The director: Suman Ghosh. It marked the beginning of a professional relationship that resulted in some of the best films of the legendary actor’s final phase. And a personal bonding whereby the veteran thespian went on to become a friend, philosopher and guide to the young film-maker. In Soumitra Chatterjee: A Film-maker Remembers, Suman Ghosh goes down memory lane to provide a fascinating insight into his interactions with the actor. From the time he first met Soumitra Chatterjee on the sets of Goutam Ghose’s Dekha, where Suman was an observer, to creating remarkable cinematic moments in their five films together, to engaging with the actor on numerous addas on myriad subjects, the author paints a remarkable portrait of a relationship. How did Soumitra Chatterjee prepare for his role of an old man who becomes childlike in Podokkhep? What were his inputs that elevated the climaxes of Peace Haven and Basu Poribar? How did Soumitra Chatterjee and Mithun Chakraborty collaborate in Nobel Chor to overcome the problem the director faced with impending rain threatening to upset the day’s schedule? What was a typical adda session with the legend like? What triggered the bizarre idea around a film on death that both wanted to work on but which never materialized? As much a perceptive account of the dynamics of an actor-director association as a story of the friendship between two creative individuals, this is a heart-warming tribute to a legend of Indian cinema.

Buddhadeb Dasgupta has established himself as one of India s finest filmmakers and won international acclaim for his thirteen feature films characterised by technical excellence and artistic beauty and noted for their extraordinary originality in both style and substance. In this book, every one of the feature films are discussed in detail the films about the vulnerability of dedication, the struggle against poverty, the integrity of the modern day artist, notions of sanity and insanity and falling out of history, the transcending of human society and its various constraints on creativity, and the triumph of beauty over the ugliness of violence. There is a concluding chapter on the relationship between his poetry and his cinema.

Presents India's greatest film-maker on the art and craft of films. Speaking of Films brings together some of Ray's most memorable writings on film and film-making. With the masterly precision and clarity that characterize his films, Ray discusses a wide array of subjects: the structure and language of cinema with special reference to his adaptations of Tagore and Bibhuti Bhushan Bandopadhyay, the appropriate use of background music and dialogue in films, the relationship between a film-maker and a film critic, and important developments in cinema like the advent of sound and colour. He also writes about his own experiences, the challenges of working with rank amateurs, and the innovations called for when making a film in the face of technological, financial and logistical constraints. In the process, Ray provides fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpses of the people who worked with him - the intricacies of getting Chhabi Biswas, who had no ear for music, to play a patron of classical music in Jalsaghar, the incredible memory of the seventy-five-year-old Chunibala Devi, Indir Thakrun of Pather Panchali, and her remarkable attention to details.

Ravan and Eddie are the unlikeliest of companions. For one thing, Ravan is Hindu, while Eddie is Catholic. For another, when Ravan was a baby and fell from a balcony, that fall had a dramatic, and very literal, impact on Eddie’s family. But Ravan and Eddie both live in Central Works Department Chawl No. 17—and if you grow up in the crowded Mumbai chawls, you get to participate in your neighbors' lives, whether you like it or not. As we watch the two unlikely heroes of Kiran Nagarkar's acclaimed novel rocket out of the starting blocks of their lives, leaving earth-mothers and absentee fathers, cataclysms and rock ’n’ roll in their wake, we're compelled to sit up and take notice. Recently selected by The Guardian as one of the ten best novels about Mumbai, Ravan and Eddie is a comic masterpiece about two larger- and truer-than-life characters and their bawdy, Rabelaisian adventures in postcolonial India. It is also a timeless journey of self-discovery, a quest for the meaning of guilt and responsibility, sin and sex, crime and punishment.