Kolkatta: 14-years after his death, a comprehensive 250-page website (www.worldofray.com) on the life and times of Satyajit Ray, was launched recently by the Satyajit Ray Society. It contains all the information, anecdotes and rare photos one could possibly wish for on the cinematic genius. Sandesh, the four-generation-old children’s magazine synonymous with Ray’s family also makes its appearence.

Ray had joined the British advertising agency D J Keymer in Kolkata in 1943 as a junior designer, a job that nurtured his growth into a graphic artist, typographer, book-jacket designer and illustrator. He went to London in 1950. He had always been a movie buff and while returning from London by sea, Ray illustrated a children’s edition of Pather Panchali– a semi autobiographical novel by noted Bengali author Bibhuti Bhushan Banerjee. The original sketches became the storyboard of his groundbreaking film Pather Panchali in 1955. The website offers many such rare glimpses.

As anybody worth their salt in the industry know, his two sequels of character Apu Aparajito and Apur Sansar changed the language of Indian cinema forever. Satyajit’s son, Sandip Ray, is the secretary of The Satyajit Ray Society. Before the launch of the site, they had made an earnest appeal to the West Bengal government for a piece of land or an existing structure that could be turned into a Ray Museum.

D.N. Ghosh, the president of the society outlined an agenda for the restoration of Ray’s works. Seventeen films from an archive of thirty-six have been restored under the existing arrangements with the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science. The Society will be given one copy of the restored print, provided they have a vault that meets stringent international standards.

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