TIFF 2022: Satyajit Ray’s films to be screened to celebrate birth centenary

The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is celebrating the centenary of legendary Indian filmmaker, Satyajit Ray, from 4-27 August.

The celebration will be taking place a year late, due to the pandemic. Ray was born on 2 May 1921 in Kolkata (then Calcutta).

A total of ten films exploring life and struggle in post-Independence India, will be screened as part of the showcase titled Satyajit Ray: His Contemporaries and Legacy.

A note on the festival website read, “With his brilliant debut feature, Pather Panchali (1955), Ray catapulted himself onto the international stage. He directed 37 works, including fiction, documentaries, and shorts, mainly in Bengali. A polymath and leader of India’s parallel cinema movement in the 1950s, he questioned the nation’s post-Independence legacy, including poverty, patriarchy, and corruption — yet his films remained deeply humanist, and usually hopeful.”

The programme includes Ray’s personal favourite, Charulata (1964), Devi (1960), Nayak (1966), and Shatranj Ke Khilari (1977). Also showcased are films by four Ray contemporaries: Ritwik Ghatak’s Partition masterpiece Subarnarekha (1965); Aparna Sen’s Mr and Mrs Iyer (2002), Jago Hua Savera (1959), directed by Pakistani filmmaker AJ Kardar, and Mani Kaul’s Siddheshwari (1989). Works by latter-day directors include Amit Dutta’s Nainsukh (2010), and Anik Dutta’s Aparajito (2022).

Satyajit Ray: His Contemporaries and Legacy is curated by independent programmer Meenakshi Shedde which marks her fourth time as a curator/consultant for TIFF Cinematheque. The event is presented in partnership with the Indian ministry of information and broadcasting and the consulate general of India, Toronto.