Making The Ordinary Magnificent

Satyajit Ray would have turned 100 on May 2. Celebrating the master’s birth centenary, filmmaker Shoojit Sircar explains why he will always be Ray’s apprentice

- Suhani Singh

Ray, for me, is a mythical being and that mythical quality reflects in his films. I discovered him quite late in life and am still understanding him. It was his Pather Panchali (1955) which changed my life and made me fall in love with cinema. The first time I tried watching it, I was in Class 5. My father had taken me to a theatre in Ichapur in 24 Parganas. I slept through it. During my second attempt, in Delhi, I, like my classmates, left the screening midway. Back then my passion lay more in sports.

It was, finally, at the third attempt that I watched the film. That was at Siri Fort. I was howling by the end, especially when Durga died. I went home dazed, wondering how a film could be so simple yet magical.