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Sunil Khilnani explores the life and work of filmmaker Satyajit Ray.

In the history of Indian cinema, there is a Before Ray, and an After. As Sunil Khilnani says, 鈥渉e鈥檚 the first truly modern filmmaker we have.鈥� But Satyajit Ray鈥檚 career in India might not have continued past its first few films had he not been celebrated in the West.

In his native Bengal, several of his films were popular. More were loathed. In today鈥檚 thriving Bengali film culture, he鈥檚 often held at arm鈥檚 length: the guy who served it up for the West, and served it up a little sweet.

But Ray鈥檚 films made ideas hanging in the air feel fresh, for he brought to them an unusually large range of small gifts: psychological and sensory acuity, humour, humanism, a deep appreciation of family relationships, an ability to withhold judgement, an ear equally adept at dialogue and sound, and the visual imagination of a third-generation illustrator and photographer. These were sufficient to allow him, time and again, to achieve a realism few in Indian cinema wanted to meet.

鈥淚t鈥檚 the truth in a situation that attracts me,鈥� he told his actors. 鈥淎nd if I鈥檝e been able to show it, that's enough for me.鈥�

The result was a body of work of which the director Akira Kurosawa would remark, 鈥淣ot to have seen the cinema of Ray means existing in the world without seeing the sun or the moon.鈥�

Producer: Martin Williams