14: Stories That Inspired Satyajit Ray

by Bhaskar Chattopadhyay

A rich zamindar dreams that his daughter-in-law is an incarnation of goddess Kali; a housewife steps out of her lower middle-class household into the big city to work as a salesgirl; Goopy and Bagha fight the evil plans of the king of Shundi to rescue the kingdom of Halla; a group of friends run into a self-proclaimed sage who claims to have been friends with Plato, Jesus and Buddha. Nobles at the court of Awadh, the chess-addicts Mir and Mirza, move to an undisclosed location to play undisturbed as their kingdom falls around them.
Short stories were the inspiration for fourteen of master filmmaker Satyajit Ray’s movies, every one of them a classic—Devi, Jalsaghar and Shatranj Ke Khiladi, among them. Fourteen brings together all of those stories in one volume. These tales, by the likes of Rabindranath Tagore, Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay, Prabhat Kumar Mukhopadhyay, Rajshekhar Basu and Premchand, are milestones in Indian literature—quite apart from their cinematic glory. The anthology also contains two stories by Ray himself—‘Atithi’ and ‘Pikoor Diary’—that illustrate his own craft as a writer. From the dramatic to the starkly real, the humorous to the dark, the lyrical to the prosaic, Fourteen sparkles with narrative brilliance. Read together, these stories also provide us with the context for a new insight into the mind of one of India’s most loved and revered filmmakers.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, India, Classics, Anthologies, Literature, Audiobook

305 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 1, 2014

About the author

Bhaskar Chattopadhyay is an author, translator, columnist and screenwriter. He is best known for the Janardan Maity series and for the translation of Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay's iconic novel 'Aranyak'. His primary research interest is the life, literature, art and cinema of Satyajit Ray, and he has written several books on Ray. Bhaskar has also written several screenplays, all of which are in production. He teaches screenwriting to film students and aspiring filmmakers. Bhaskar lives and works in Toronto.

Reviews

[Vikas Singh · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for all fans of Satyajit Ray. For the first time, his fans have an opportunity to get in an anthology 14 stories that were so successfully adapted for screen. The translation by Bhaskar Chattopadhyay is fluid and it manages to capture the essence and soul of the story written in Bengali or Hindi. My personal favourite is Sadgati by Premchand. Extremely moving, dark and horrifying it lays bare the exploitation of the poor in name of caste and traditions. Each story is introduced by the film poster which in most cases was designed by Ray himself.

[Mala · Rating 4 out of 5]

To the lovers of Indian cinema, the name Satyajit Ray; needs no introduction. With his debut film Pather Panchali itself, he made the world sit up & take notice.
It wouldn't be far out to suggest that Ray was perhaps the last of the Renaissance men from Bengal & this when the highly patriotic & creative soil of Bengal never lacked illustrious sons and daughters!

When talking about Ray's cinema, one can't help but recall Akira Kurosawa's memorable eulogy: The quiet but deep observation, understanding and love of the human race, which are characteristic of all his films, have impressed me greatly…Not to have seen the cinema of Ray means existing in the world without seeing the sun or the moon.

For me reading this book was like taking a walk down memory lane because Ray's cinema (along with many other Bengali filmmakers') was part of my cultural diet in order to grow up as a "propah Bengali girl"!
And as is my wont, while reading this anthology, I ended up watching many of his films, some of them are not even part of this collection but as you know, one thing often leads to another.
This film retrospective raised an important issue – Is fidelity to the source material absolutely necessary or even needed? How far can the director exercise his own creative vision once the text is legally his own? After all, cinema is a director's medium.

The translator of these stories, Bhaskar Chattopadhyay, has tackled this subject of cinematic adaptations in the Translator's Note included in the bonus material.*

I think other than Rabindranath Tagore's ( Gurudev's lyrical prose finds perfect expression in Ray's equally lyrical cinematic idiom), & to some extent Munshi Premchand's stories here, Ray has tinkered with most of them in their cinematic form, either in terms of the ending, the narrative sequencing, addition/omission of certain characters & so on. For example, the movie Agantuk ( The Stranger), based on Ray's own story, which was initially written as a children's tale, assumed gravitas as his last film & testament, so much so that Ray told his lead, played by veteran actor Utpal Dutt that he was playing him( Ray) in the movie.

Traditionally, Bengali cinema has been rooted in literature because owing to the Bengal Renaissance; there was a wealth of Bengali literature to turn into celluloid masterpieces.

This collection focusses on the 14 stories that inspired Ray in his long filmmaking career & they range from the highly daring for its progressive theme, Devi (The Goddess), to the acutely nostalgic Jalsaghar (The Music Room), the hugely popular children's musical fantasy based on Ray's grandfather Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury's story, Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne (The Adventures of Goopy and Bagha), which I don't like at all, its forced humour is in sharp contrast to the sophisticated intelligence shown in Rajshekhar Basu's comic tale, Parash Pathar (The Philosopher's Stone), to Ray's perennial literary source i.e. Tagore – Tagore's three chosen stories here present three facets of women & man-woman relationships in The Postmaster, Monihara (The Lost Jewels), and Samapti (The Conclusion), which were combined by Ray as a triptych in Teen Kanya (Three Daughters), two of Ray's own stories Agantuk ( The Stranger), & Pikoo's Diary, Ray's entry into Hindi films via Munshi Premchand's classic tale of excessive self-indulgence & chronic aestheticism of the Nawab of Awadh & his elites in Shatranj Ke Khiladi ( The Chess Players), & another of his heart-rending tale on the inhumanity of the Hindu caste system, Sadgati ( Deliverance) which was made for the national tv network, & so on & you can see the variety here covers quite a lot of Ray's filmography.

Oh I forgot, there are two stories here whose film versions featured Madhabi Mukherjee, the beautiful Charulata ( which happens to be Ray's fav among his own creations), & they are Mahanagar ( The Big City), & Kapurush (The Coward), part of the two-film ensemble Kapurush–O–Mahapurush (The Coward & The Holy Man).
Btw, she was the only lady who rocked the placid marital boat of the Rays...

Back to films:
Vittorio De Sica's Bicycle Thieves & other neo-realist films had a great influence on Ray. Deeply humanistic in nature, whether set in rural or urban milieu; Ray's films capture a society in transition – caught between obstructionist old ways, religious orthodoxy, superstitions, casteism, & gender inequality on one hand, & the desire for a progressive, rational, & egalitarian society on the other, they effortlessly chronicle both the turbulent reformist period in Bengal history & the moral ambiguities of a later modern day Indian metropolis.
My favourite story in this anthology, Jalsaghar ( The Music Room), for example, is a poignant rendition of the lost glory days of a seventh-generation feudal lord in the 1880s rural Bengal, his fondness for musical soirees desperately leading him on a last self-destructive bid of one-upmanship with his nouveau riche neighbour.
This movie was a French fav as the subject was close to their heart – a lament on the passing away of the age of connoisseurs, the fall of aristocracy & the rise of the bourgeois.
The Europeans hailed Ray long before Hollywood came calling with the long-delayed Life Time Achievement Oscar in 1992, which, a seriously ailing Ray, accepted from his hospital bed. He died a month later.

Though cinema has a universal language, there are cultural elements that are not so easily transferrable/comprehensible across culture. While making Devi (The Goddess), Ray wanted the pathos & grimness of a Greek tragedy, but many cultural & social references were lost to the western audience.The film's leading lady, the gorgeous Sharmila Tagore, a Ray discovery, eloquently describes this in her write-up on this film:

Devi is truly a courageous foray into the realm of blind faith and superstition. It is Ray's most Hindu film. The film wasn't properly understood in the West and confused many critics. While everyone in Bengal was familiar with Kali worship and was aware of the nature of the orthodox Hindu family structure, its dos and don'ts, the Western audience was not, and therefore experienced a great deal of difficulty in following the course of events which grew out of the orthodox Bengali nature of the theme.
Even in India, there was a lot of trouble at the time of its release. The film became quite controversial as it was seen as an attack on Hinduism.

Fifty-four years later, this film still hasn't lost its emotional impact!
Ray's cinema is not showy, don't come here expecting Godard's flashiness, you'll be disappointed. The Auteur theory fits Ray to a T– not just in the sense of having expertise in almost every aspect of filmmaking but mainly as leaving the stamp of his personality on almost every thing he touched – his movies convey his dignified restraint, his elegance, & his complex simplicity. Ray has been compared to Renoir, & Kurosawa, if that helps. I wrap this up with a quote from Pauline Kael:

Like Renoir and De Sica, Ray sees that life itself is good no matter how bad it is. It is difficult to discuss art which is an affirmation of life, without fear of becoming maudlin. But is there any other kind of art, on screen or elsewhere? “In cinema” Ray says, “we must select everything for the camera according to the richness of its power to reveal.” Ray is sometimes (for us Westerners, and perhaps for Easterners also?) a little boring, but what major artist outside film and drama isn't? What he has to give us is so rich, so contemplative in approach (and this we are completely unused to in the film medium except perhaps in documentary), that we begin to accept our lapses of attention during the tedious moments with the same kind of relaxation and confidence and affection that we feel for the boring sketches in the great novels, the epic poems.

My movie recs for the Ray newbie:

Charulata ( The Lonely Wife)
Pather Panchali ( The Song/Lament of the Road)
Jalsaghar ( The Music Room)
Aranyer Din Ratri ( Days and Nights in the Forest)
Mahanagar ( The Big City)
Nayak ( The Hero)
Jana Aranya (The Middle Man)
Seemabaddha (Company Limited)

* * *
(*) An attractive feature of this book is the P.S. section comprising Insights & Interviews with eminent film personalities.

A Note on the Translation
There is a wealth of Bengali literature that deserves a wider readership & the extreme importance of their translation into other languages cannot be overemphasised. Bhaskar Chattopadhyay is a writer and translator. He owns India's largest online art gallery, ArtSquare.

Ray's Humanism:

In his autobiography Songs My Mother Taught Me, Chapter Sixty, Marlon Brando recounts his meeting with Ray in Calcutta. Brando had been helping out as UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in the then famine-ravaged Indian state of Bihar in 1967. This is what he had to say: "I no longer feel that I have a mission to save the world. It can’t be done, I’ve learned. I didn’t realize it then, but I think my attitude started to change when I made that film about the famine in India. On my way home, I stopped in Calcutta to visit Satyajit Ray, the Indian movie director, and we went out to lunch. When we left the restaurant, a sea of children in tattered clothing, broken, blinded, twisted and sick, engulfed us to ask for baksheesh. I was aware as we drifted through this swarm of broken kids that Satyajit was completely unconcerned, even unaware, and gently swept them aside absentmindedly. It was as though he were brushing his way gently through a wheat field. I asked him how he was able to do it, and he replied, “If you live in India, you see this every day of your life. If I sold everything I had to help these children, it wouldn’t amount to a billionth of one rupee for any one of them, and they would all be back tomorrow. There is nothing I can do to solve this problem; some problems are unsolvable.”
All my life, I had been a do-gooder, but I finally learned that what Satyajit said about the children of Calcutta was true: there are some problems that I can’t do anything about."
Well, what do you think of that?
* * *
For those interested in Ray, a few interesting links:

Satyajit Ray World:

http://www.satyajitrayworld.com/rayso...

Satyajit Ray Interview - a must see:

http://youtu.be/VfZjx0YSRHQ

Worth reading:

http://www.filmcomment.com/article/ma...

A good article, if you can ignore the typos!

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2000/2000...

[Reading_ Tamishly · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most perfect short story collection I have ever read!!!
How come this book has been so underrated?!
I loved all the 14 short stories, each story was flawless!
Each story was full of wit, charm and wisdom👍 but based on emotions and unavoidable circumstances.
There was this ultimate love in the end between a growing up young tomboyish girl who got married to a man who loved her inspite her hatred towards marriage.
There was this spooky story of a wife who wouldn't give up on her jewellery who disappeared without a trace.
These are just a few glimpses of two such stories!
How much I adored each of the story while reading them😍

*Totally recommended👍
*You are missing out on something precious if you have not read this amazing book!

The best collection ever.

[Makrand · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting Anthology that includes stories by some of India's greatest writers like Rabindranath Tagore, Munshi premchand and ofcourse, Satyajit Ray
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It was pleasurable and quite honourable to read the book - 14 stories that inspired Satyajit Ray. Satyajit Ray was one of the greatest filmmakers in his time. Infact, he is admired even now for his contributions to filmmaking.
Bhaskar Chattopadhyay has done a great job at translating these 14 stories which otherwise many of us would not have gotten a chance to get introduced to.

All the stories are quite interesting to read and bears uniqueness which is probably why Satyajit Ray chose to make a Film on it.
Devi and Birinchi baba, for instance dwells on the superstitions that were extremely common to Indian households
The Guest shows the folly of mankind and it's restricted thoughts
Philosopher's Stone and Goopi Gyne Baaga Byne brings out the magical and mystic element that makes one scratch their head
The Coward shows the lack of commitment one has towards their lover
The prologue talks about how the society's thoughts and demands from a woman Manimalika and The Postmaster shows Rabrinath Tagore's greatness and the grip he has over his readers
Sadgati is another gem from Premchand which describes the plight of a poor man which is quite realistic.
The book ends with two masterpieces - Shatranj k Khiladi which describes two friends and their madness for Chess and The Music room which shows how a once rich family zamindar is on the brink of losing everything he has owned so far to music.

All the stories are masterpieces in itself which is probably the reason why Satyajit Ray decided to make films on them. Piku is one such story of an innocent yet Lonely child trapped in his house with no one except his grandfather to talk to.

It is very very hard to choose one among the 14 stories compiled in the book!

This book must be read by all movie lovers especially Bengali's since all stories except two are already famous Bengali films.

The book contains interview excerpts, newspaper articles by Satyajit Ray, Sharmila Tagore which is a treat to read!

[Saipriya N · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book with 14 short stories, almost all of them are very heartwarming. My favourite of all of them is "Devi", I just froze when I completed reading it. All the stories have got something to teach which depicts the very nature of humans. Well-written by all the authors.

[Akshay Dasgupta · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an amazing collection of stories! it is at times like these, that I wish I had the skill to read them in Bengali. Nevertheless, the translation was fantastic and didn't diminish the essence of the stories one bit. Each story is a gem in itself.

We all know what a master film maker Satyajit Ray was, but reading the stories that actually inspired him to make those films was a whole new experience. My favorite ones were 'Devi' , 'The Prologue' and 'Jalsaghar'. Though these stories were written probably half a century ago they still manage to hold a tight grip on the reader today. Recommended for anyone with an interest in Bengali classical literature.

[Ankita Chauhan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Meaningful Collection Loved every bit of it.

[Anushree · Rating 4 out of 5]

At once haunting, poignant and redolent with the fragility of the human condition, these stories linger on as afterthoughts long after the book has been reluctantly parted with. With the exception of two stories - Brinchi baba and Pikoo's Diary, I loved this collection to the very bones. The narration across these stories is reliable, evocative and firm like a ground I can stand on or a swing I can trust to ferry me (safely) back and forth cutting through the air; it is a benchmark in itself, something I feel is amiss among the modern short stories that are more experimental, curious and uncertain. As a writer, it gave me much to think about. If I had to, I could caption this: "a fine embodiment of sturdy story-telling!"

[Madhulika Liddle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Satyajit Ray is a name that appears inevitably on any list of great Indian film directors. And often enough (or at least, it should, as far as I’m concerned) on lists of great film directors, regardless of nation or language. For me, half the joy of watching a Satyajit Ray film is not in in the breathtaking beauty of camera angles or the performances he managed to coax out of actors; it’s in the stories he told through his films. Stories very varied, stories that range all the way from whodunits to romances, to tales of human frailty, injustice, and more. You can never say of Satyajit Ray’s films that if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.

Edited and translated by Bhaskar Chattopadhyay, 14 Stories That Inspired Satyajit Ray (Harper Collins; ISBN: 978-93-5136-193-0; 266 pages excluding appendices; ₹350) consists of twelve stories originally written in Bengali, and two stories - both by the brilliant Munshi Premchand—originally in Hindi. The stories range from the magical, funny children's story, Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne (by Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury) to Narendranath Mitra's poignant and so very real Abotaranika (The Prologue, adapted by Satyajit Ray as Mahanagar), about a middle class family's endless tussles between traditional 'values' and dire necessity, exemplified in the daughter-in-law's going out to work as a salesgirl. There are three stories by Rabindranath Tagore, all three of which Ray brought together in his film Teen Kanya: Monihara, Postmaster, and Samapti (The Conclusion) stories that focus on females, ranging from an orphaned servant who develops a deep affection for the master who teaches her to read and write; to a woman so attached to her jewels that they become more precious to her than anything else—to a tomboy who finds herself married, much against her wishes.

There are historical stories here (Premchand's classic Shatranj ke Khiladi is set in a turbulent Awadh, about to switch hands and come under British rule); there are stories that are firmly set in the 20th century (Rajshekhar Basu's delightful Birinchi Baba, adapted as Mahapurush, pokes fun at god men and their gullible victims, while Pikoor Diary, written by Satyajit Ray himself, is a telling of a wealthy family's life—adulterous mother, her overly generous lover, an older brother who has set off on his own—from the point of view of a little boy). There is, in these stories, an immense variety of subjects and themes. There is entertainment, there is pain and poignancy. There are stories that made me smile, stories that gave me a lump in the throat. Stories that made me think, "Yes, this could have happened to anyone."

My favourites? Abotaranika, Janoiko Kapurusher Kahini (by Premendra Mitra; Satyajit Ray made it into the excellent Kapurush), Jalsaghar, Sadgati, and Shatranj ke Khiladi. Not to say that the others weren’t good; they were. In fact, they were beyond good—I would not call any of the stories in this collection bad.

14 Stories That Inspired Satyajit Ray is worth a read if you like Satyajit Ray’s films. It’s interesting to read the original stories and compare them with the corresponding films Ray made. Sometime back, I’d written a post on cinematic adaptations, and was reminded of that while I was reading this book, because I was struck by the fact that Ray’s films were (and I write, obviously, only of those stories for which I have seen Ray’s adaptations) invariably so good at capturing the story. Either in its entirety—as in the case of shorter films like Mahapurush, Postmaster, or Samapti—or, with subtle changes that retain the spirit of the story while making for a more compelling cinematic experience.

Both Jalsaghar and Kapurush, in this sense, appealed to me more as cinema than they did as literature. Kapurush, as a story, was a good tale of a man’s inability to stand by the woman he loves: he is a coward. Ray invests this character with more nuances, and brings into the story more dimensions. A possibly negligent husband, a possible second chance, a possible—yet impossible?—happy ending. A more textured, more layered telling of a tale than in the original.

Similarly, there’s Jalsaghar, the story of an old zamindar, the last lonely (and impoverished) survivor of a once-wealthy and well-respected clan, who puts his everything into one last, grand display of the wealth and prestige that was once his family’s. In the original story, the protagonist’s character is equal parts arrogance and false pride and foolhardiness. In Ray’s Jalsaghar, he’s all of those—but also a lonely, sad old man left with only his memories for company: a man one cannot help feeling sorry, too.

You need not, though, have seen any of Ray’s films to enjoy this anthology. But it just might—like it did for me—inspire you to watch some Ray. The book, by the way, does have its little tributes to Ray’s films: each story is preceded by a reproduction of the poster for the corresponding film, and at the end of the book is a set of appendices about Satyajit Ray’s films: Ray’s article, for instance, about Chhabi Biswas—written on the occasion of Biswas’s death as a tribute; Sharmila Tagore’s memories of working as the central character in Devi; and interviews with people involved in some way or the other with Satyajit Ray’s work.

(From my review on my blog: http://madhulikaliddle.com/2015/03/04...)

[Rishi Prakash · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title itself was so captivating that I had fallen for the book even before i opened it  It is a collection of 14 stories which were later used for movies by the great Satyajit Ray. I must thank/give full credit to the author for doing such great translation for these stories which were in bengali and hindi. He has chosen stories of different flavour which also reflects on the great SR who never stuck to one genre or a comfort zone. All the stories did justice to the translation and were very crisp.

Every single story took me back to that era and it literally unfolded before me. I was part of the whole crowd which watched the “incarnation” of Goddess in the first story(Devi) and could almost sense the feeling which would have engulfed the entire village. It was the same feeling of being there when Karuna came in “The story of a Coward” and things started unfolding rapidly in a day. I could see the face of the man of the house in “The Guest” with that uneasiness and frown whenever he mentioned about the unannounced/unknown guest of the house. I could feel the anger of Bhombal when Sarojini started enjoying her work in “The Prologue”...I can go on and on which is only because i enjoyed every single story and felt like reading it on and on...wish it could have been 40 stories and not 14!

The original movie banner before every story further added to the aura and charm in the book.
So to conclude, you have to read it. I have already started for all the movies with english subtitles because i am convinced that they will be as good if not better than the stories.

BIG thanks to my dear friend who though and gifted me this lovely book.

[Raghav · Rating 5 out of 5]

14 Stories that Inspired Satyajit Ray works on many levels; it is a great collection of short stories that make for a quick and easy read, the book is also a reminder that Indian literature has had some exceptional story tellers who should be celebrated at every occasion possible, and lastly motion picture enthusiasts would appreciate the stories from a cinematic point of view.

Full review - http://tickertalks.blogspot.in/2014/0...

[Redwan Orittro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a brilliant compilation of all the short stories that Ray adapted into movies. The translation is spot on, and I can't wait to read the original bengali ones. The stories will make you stop and think and look around at the strange world we live in, full of superstition, character flaws and self realization of all the things we take for granted that we really should not.

[Nidhi Jha dua · Rating 3 out of 5]

An insight to the Bengali culture and cinema.

[Rosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fabulous collection of Indian regional short stories from masters such as Tagore, Premchand and many more such stalwarts. There are two stories from Satyajit Ray himself. Quite a few haven't aged well, so you will see signs of misogyny and chauvinism in abundance. But don't let this cloud your experience. Most of the stories are fascinating and give a great glimpse into human character and the interplay of fate and intent. It is no wonder that Satyajit Ray used these stories as the foundation for his movies. The translation is wonderful. Go for it.

The narrator of the audiobook is superb. His dramatisation and use of voices is absolutely wonderful. But he makes a few errors in pronouncing words. I hope he works on the right pronunciation because he is absolutely perfect in all other departments of narration.

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[Vivek Sathvic · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a great collection of short stories written by renowned Bengali writers, who inspired the master filmmaker to base his movies stories on, it makes for a quick and easy read and it worked for me on many levels. You get little insight into the Bengali culture and a slight perception of British India. Each story has a lesson if one is looking for it. These stories were very intricate with the Bengali culture, I sometimes wished for the book to never run out of stories. Told in an amazing concoction of sarcasm, wit, dry humour and setting of Indian society in 20th century. The pages turn themselves.

It was fun to read a story which I had watched as a play few months back.

I think I got a hang of the taste of short stories, first it was Murakami's birthday stories then it was Manto and now its Satyajit Ray's.

[Arpit Agrawal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I am somewhat ashamed to admit that two months into this year, this is the first book I completed this year, I'm glad I finally made it. When I first saw this at the book fair, I expected this to be like any other collection of short stories, a mixed bag of some good and not-so-good stories not connected by any theme or genre. I had read lots of short stories by Tagore last year so I thought I had a fair idea of the plots I must expect since most of these stories too would based in the same region but I was pleasantly surprised. Reading through these stories I could vividly see how Bengali culture, morality and sensibility changed after partition. Also this collection of short stories had stronger messages on 'issues that matter' than Tagore's collection which I would term as more recreational. Caste, class, gender, religion, capitalism, normativeness, you name it, this single collection of 14 stories has representation of every establishment of the society.

[Hitesh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Treasure Trove of 14 Rich Stories, that made their ways to the Silver Screen.

Frankly i picked up this book as it had two stories of my liking. One was " Gopi Gyne Bagha Byne" and Another was "Shatranj Ke Khilade" AKA Chess Players.

But all stories were good.

Can be Reread !!

Loved the book !!!

[Avishi · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful glimpse into delightful musings which sparked the great mind of Satyajit ray - each story is distinctly nuanced with lessons in simple yet fundamental truths about human life often forgotten nowadays. One is instantly transported into 14 different places as one gleans through 14 stories thanks to the rich and effortless writing and translation!

[Dhiraj Sharma · Rating 4 out of 5]

For novices like me the book title should have read “14 Stories that Inspired Satyajit Ray to make movies out of them”

Ray wrote two of the stories while the rest have been penned by various authors like Munshi Premichand, Ray’s own father and other Bengali authors.

Each of the story has been made into a Bengali movie as per the details provided on the cover index. Do not expect quirky, surprising stories on the lines of Indigo (Ray’s other short story collection).

I had watched “Goopi Gayen Bagha Bayen” and “Shartanj ke Khiladi” many years back on DD. I always used to think these two movies must have been based on full-fledged novels and not short stories.

These 14 tales vividly broach the underlying human emotions, the social structure of the prevalent times, the unrequited love between man and woman, the trappings of the society. My personal favorites are the ones made into their screen avatar as “Mahanagar” and “Teen Kanya trilogy”. If I can I would love to watch how these particular two stories were transformed into movies. Perhaps they will give subtitles because my limited knowledge of Bengali may not be sufficient to fully grasp the nuances of Manik da’s celluloid magic.

[Sundarraj Kaushik · Rating 3 out of 5]

The name of the book states the book has 14 short stories based on which Satyajit Ray made movies.
The first one is The Goddess by Prabhat Kumar Mukhopadhyay. This was made into a movie called Devi. This is about a recently married girl of 16 years. Her father-in-law starts worshipping her as a Goddess and soon the whole village starts believing in her as Goddess. She is first inclined to run away with her husband to a larger city so that she is rid of this role, but before her husband could make arrangements she starts believing in her powers and refuses to go with her husband. One day her nephew falls ill and she is asked to cure him. She refuses the mother's plea to get doctors and tries to cure him herself. The child dies and she commits suicide. Satyajit Ray made the movie Devi based on this short story. The role of the girl was played by Sharmila Tagore.

The second one is The Story of a Coward by Premendra Mitra. The story is about a person who happens to be a guest at a place where he finds his ex-flame whom he had refused to elope with earlier in his life. He finds her settled with her husband. She treats him as if there was nothing between them. Her husband leaves for a few days leaving them alone and she takes him out for shopping. But he is never able to bring himself to ask her, her real feelings for him and he leaves her once again.

The third one is The Guest by Satyajit Ray himself. He made the film Agantuk based on this novel. The story is about a lady who gets a letter from her maternal uncle that he would be coming and staying at her place after a long time. This maternal uncle had run away to become a sanyasi at a young age. The lady and her husband were worried as to what they will feed him since he is possibly a sanyasi. When he comes home he says he would eat anything they feed him allaying their fears of what to feed him and he does not appear to be a Sanyasi either. They are not convinced that he is genuine although he does is normal. Both the lady and her husband treat him with a cold shoulder. Only their young son engages him and spends time with him. The lady does not even address him as uncle. After a few days he leaves and both of them heave a sigh of relief. Only the boy feels his absence. Soon they have another visitor from the lady's hometown. He tells that the person was really her maternal uncle who had traveled world over and had come expecting to share his experiences with them. He had been sorely disappointed with their cold shouldering him. He had send over some gifts for their son.

The fourth is Goopi Gyne Bagha Byne by Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury. This is the story of a boy whose songs nobody can hear and another boy whose dhol nobody can hear. They both run off to the jungle and start living in each other's company. After goofing around they manage to end up winning the favour of a king an lead a happy life.

The fifth is The Philosopher's Stone by Rajshekar Basu. This was made into the movie Paras Pather. In this story a person finds a philosopher's stone which converts all iron to gold. He soon becomes a rich person. The gold prices drop across the world as he starts converting more and more iron into gold and the demand for gold drops. The whole world economy is in turmoil. Finally he gives the stone to someone who eat it. As the stone gets dissolved in the person's stomach all the gold that he has created slowly starts returning back to its original form and becomes metallic.

The sixth is The Prologue by Narendranath Mitra. This was the movie Mahanagar. This story is about an orthodox family where the wife starts working so that the family can makes their ends meet. The in-laws are not very happy about it but start accepting it. Her husband also starts asking her to leave the job. But she refuses. His husband one day comes to her office ask him to let her early home, but he end up talking to him and fails to put in his request. One day the manager calls the Anglo Indian lady a lady of loose morals. This enrages the wife and she quits her job. She goes home and tells her husband everything that has transpired. The next day when his wife stays back at home the husband comments that while the culprit (Anglo Indian lady) would be going to office while his wife is at home. This bring tears to the eyes of his wife and she asks him you think the same way too?

The seventh is Birinchi Baba by Rajesheka Babu. In this a group of Bengali intellectuals get together and expose a false godman who has been exploiting the naivety of one of their relatives. A wonderful theory is espoused by one of the characters. He calls this the law of "conservation of virtue", only when one man commits a crime does another man hope to earn his virtue. This is told in the context where he finds a man selling caged crows. When he asks the man why he is selling these crows the man says that the crows are unhappy at being imprisoned and he could earn some virtue by paying him some money to set the crows free. A very interesting theory.

Manimalika by Rabindranath Tagore is the eighth. The story is about a stranger coming to a village. He sits along the river bank along which is a big deserted mansion. A local tells him about the tale of the mansion involving a beautiful woman and her husband. The story ends with both of them dying. When the local finishes the story he asks the stranger if he believes in the story and the stranger replies saying that his name is the same as the person about whom the stranger had mentioned in his story and his wife's name was the same as the name of the lady about whom the stranger mentioned in the story.

The Postmater by Rabindranath Tagore is the ninth. It is about a postmaster who is posted to a remote place. There he is helped by an orphan girl. The life becomes better for the orphan girl till the postmaster continues. Eventually he decides to go back to his hometown and new postmaster replaces him. The new postmaster does not need the orphan and the orphan loses all that good thing that she had got in her life.

Deliverance by Munshi Premchand is the tenth. This was made into the movie Sadgati by Satyajit Ray. The story is about an untouchable couple who wish to marry off their daughter. The man goes to the village priest to ask for an auspicious day. The priest makes him work the whole day in return for fixing the day for his daughter's marriage. The priest makes him do so much work and does not even offer him some food. The man is exhausted by the end of the day and he dies. Everybody refuses to clear the dead man's body as it is an untouchables and the untouchables refuse to take his body away. Finally after a few days, in the darkness the priest ties the body and takes it to a far off place.

The Conclusion yet another Rabindranath Tagore is the eleventh. This story is about a person who return back to his village to get married after a stay in the city. He finds himself falling in love with the tomboy of the village and forces his mother to ask for her hand. He marries her but she does not warm up to him. He leaves for the city and she moves back to her mother's place. He tells her that he would expect her to call him back. His mother is also angry with him for having brought him a tomboyish daughter-in-law. After a long time she relents goes with her mother-in-law to her son-in-law's place. They invite him and when he comes to see his mother he is surprised to see his wife and is even more surprised when she comes to him with warmth.

The famous Shatranj Ke Khiladi is the twelfth story. This is about two gents in Lucknow who are so engrossed in their chess matches day after day that they continue to play even when they see their nawab being captured by the British. But soon they start an argument on who is a better chess player and they end up fighting and killing each other.

The Music Room by Tarashankar Bandyopadhyay is the thirteenth story. This was made into Jalsaghar. This is about a zamidar who loves music. He has languished in his mansion after the Indian government takes away his land and leaves him broker hearted. He has not moved out of his room for two years. One fine day he decides to step out and go to his neighbour's house where two singers are expected to perform. The two singers have heard about his love of music and request him to let them sing at his place. He arranges for an opulent music party at his place. After the party the musicians stay on and he takes out his esraj and starts playing it and drinks himself to stupor. Next day he wakes up and takes his favourite stallion for a ride. He rides hard and finds himself in a village from where he used to collect taxes in the earlier years. He is unable to stay there and rides back hard. When he returns he finds that he has pulled the reins so hard that the stallion is bleeding at its mouth. In frustration he asks the music room to be shut down.

Pikoo's Diary by Satyajit Ray is the last story. This is about the diary of a young boy in which writes about his daily experiences. He is inspired by his grandfather who inculcated this habit of writing a diary. His diary ends with the pages in the book coming to an end. This was made into the movie Pikoor Diary.

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude." – Friedrich Nietzsche

সত্যজিৎ রায় ভারতীয় চলচ্চিত্রের ইতিহাসে এক অনন্য প্রতিভা, যিনি শুধু চিত্রনাট্য রচনা ও পরিচালনাতেই সিদ্ধহস্ত ছিলেন না, বরং গল্প বলার এক নান্দনিক ও গভীরতর দৃষ্টিভঙ্গিও আমাদের উপহার দিয়েছেন। ভাস্কর চট্টোপাধ্যায়ের '14 Stories that Inspired Satyajit Ray' গ্রন্থটি এই মহান পরিচালকের সিনেমার পেছনের অনুপ্রেরণা খোঁজার এক অনন্য প্রচেষ্টা।

এখানে সংকলিত গল্পগুলোর মধ্য দিয়ে আমরা জানতে পারি কীভাবে বিভিন্ন সাহিত্যিকের সৃষ্ট চরিত্র ও কাহিনি সত্যজিতের কল্পনাকে উজ্জীবিত করেছিল।

"History is philosophy teaching by example." – Thucydides

গ্রন্থটিতে অন্তর্ভুক্ত ১৪টি গল্পই সত্যজিৎ রায়ের বিভিন্ন চলচ্চিত্রের ভিত্তি হিসেবে কাজ করেছে। এই গল্পগুলো মূলত বাংলার বিভিন্ন স্বনামধন্য লেখকের সৃষ্ট, যাঁদের রচনাগুলি সমাজ, মনস্তত্ত্ব ও মানবজীবনের অন্তর্নিহিত সত্যকে উন্মোচন করে।

এগুলোর মধ্যে রয়েছে প্রেমচন্দ, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর, তারাশঙ্কর বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায়, শরদিন্দু বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায়, এবং আরও অনেকে। চট্টোপাধ্যায় গল্পগুলোর বিশ্লেষণ করেছেন সিনেমার প্রেক্ষিতে, যা পাঠকের জন্য এক নতুন দৃষ্টিভঙ্গি উন্মোচন করে।

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." – Franklin D. Roosevelt

সত্যজিতের সিনেমাগুলি শুধুমাত্র সাহিত্য থেকে অনুপ্রাণিতই হয়নি, বরং সেগুলোকে তিনি এক নতুন ব্যাখ্যা ও আঙ্গিকে রূপ দিয়েছিলেন। গ্রন্থটিতে সেই পরিবর্তনের দিকগুলোও বিশদে আলোচিত হয়েছে। উদাহরণস্বরূপ, 'শতরঞ্জ কে খিলাড়ি' বা 'গুপি গাইন বাঘা বাইন'-এর মতো সিনেমাগুলোর সাহিত্য থেকে চিত্রনাট্যে পরিবর্তনের দিকগুলিকে চমৎকারভাবে ব্যাখ্যা করা হয়েছে। এতে বোঝা যায়, সত্যজিতের কৌশল কেবল অনুকরণ নয়, বরং এক সৃজনশীল রূপান্তর।

"A book is a dream that you hold in your hands." – Neil Gaiman

ভাস্কর চট্টোপাধ্যায়ের লেখার অন্যতম গুণ হলো, তিনি কঠিন বিষয়কেও সহজভাবে উপস্থাপন করতে পারেন। চলচ্চিত্র-গবেষকদের জন্য এই বইটি যেমন জরুরি, তেমনি সাধারণ পাঠকদের জন্যও এটি সমান আকর্ষণীয়।

গল্পের সারাংশ দেওয়ার পাশাপাশি লেখক ব্যাখ্যা করেছেন সত্যজিতের সিনেমায় গল্পগুলোর রূপান্তর কীভাবে ঘটেছে, এবং কিভাবে প্রতিটি গল্পের মূল দর্শন পর্দায় রূপ পেয়েছে।

"The past is never dead. It's not even past." – William Faulkner

এই বই শুধু সিনেমাপ্রেমীদের জন্য নয়, সাহিত্যপিপাসুদের জন্যও এক মূল্যবান সংযোজন। এখানে চলচ্চিত্র ও সাহিত্যের মধ্যকার সম্পর্কের এক গভীর অন্তর্দৃষ্টি দেওয়া হয়েছে। বাংলার সাহিত্য কতটা সমৃদ্ধ এবং তা কীভাবে বিশ্বমানের চলচ্চিত্রে স্থান করে নিতে পারে, তা বোঝার জন্য এই বই এক অব্যর্থ পাঠ।

উপসংহার

"Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time." – Thomas Merton

'14 Stories that Inspired Satyajit Ray' নিছকই একটি সংকলন নয়; এটি চলচ্চিত্র ও সাহিত্যের মধ্যেকার যোগসূত্রকে বোঝার এক শক্তিশালী মাধ্যম। সত্যজিতের সৃষ্টির উৎস এবং তাঁর দৃষ্টিভঙ্গির গঠন কীভাবে সাহিত্যের হাত ধরে পরিপূর্ণতা লাভ করেছে, তা বোঝার জন্য এই বইটি অনন্য। চলচ্চিত্রপ্রেমী, সাহিত্যপ্রেমী এবং গবেষকদের জন্য এটি অবশ্যপাঠ্য এক গ্রন্থ।

[Rakhi · Rating 4 out of 5]

The master story teller- Satyajith Ray; stories that inspired him would have a minimum guarantee of quality and worth. I did not think twice before grabbing the book and did manage to read the book in spite of my fever. To read classics is a boon. To read classic stories that inspired someone who has a world class level of intellect is something that only the luckiest could achieve.

The stories were adapted into short films by the legendary stry teller himself. The stories are the classic works by Rabindranath Tagore, Tarasankar Bandopadhyay, Prabhat Kumar Mukhopadhyay, Rajshekhar Basu and Premchand. Two stories are from the master himself. I am no one to review the literary finesse of these great writers but as a human being and a woman with some ideals, I would like to assess the crux of the stories in the current scenario.

The variant of genres is the highlight of the book. Each story is quite different from the others that it is impossible to compare one with the other. For a voracious reader, the book is the best gift one could get. If asked to find the favorite among these , it would be a nearly impossible task for me but still my heart goes out to Mrinmoy of ' The Conclusion'. Surprisingly Arti of 'Prologue' failed to incite that sympathetic and empathetic wave in me perhaps because the author has shown a misogynistic side while trying to incite sympathy to thee anglo Indian lady. This however failed to influence me and if not for the curiosity to know hat happens next, I would have ditched the story. 'Gopi Gyne Bagha Byne' is a story that I tell my little kids as a bedtime story and they are in love with these two foolish musicians. 'Deliverance' is a reflection of untouchability and the cruelty towards the downtrodden section of the society. 'Manimalika' is more into the symbolic side while 'Philosopher's stone' and 'Birinchi Baba' are serious and funny at the same time.

Each story has a lot of possibilities for a film maker and I am sure the legendary film maker would have utilised the possibilities to the maximum extent of his talent. The readers would get engrossed in the book and would not be able to connect real time with the world around them. The book is a treasure except for one or two stories, not because the literary flaws but due to clash of ideals.

[Ankan Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful anthology of short stories that peeps into the luminescence of Bengali literature through the eyes of one of Bengal's gifted sons, Satyajit Ray. The sheer brilliance of the book lies in the fact that it includes works of the stalwarts of Indian literature - Rabindranath Tagore, Prabhat Kumar Mukhopadhyay, Prememdra Mitra, Rajshekhar Basu, Premchand and the like - which Satyajit Ray, one of the finest filmmakers in the history of the art, adapted into classics on screen.

Each story is immensely different from the other, and the fact that Ray adapted each into films shows his versatility as a film director. From uncannily dramatic to utterly real or from comic to tragic, every story is perfect in its own craft and nature. There is Indian-ness, especially Bengali-ness, teeming in each. The volume also includes two of Ray's own short stories which go on to prove how multifaceted his talents were. The book was a true encouragement for me to look up for the film adaptations by Ray, and now after having watched them, I feel what gems I was about to miss. The original film posters before every story add a salutatory token of nostalgia. The section of "Insights, interviews and more" at the end of the book talks about the challenges of transforming a story into a film, and the experiences of the actors, who worked with Ray in these films, about Ray's idea of film-making and his art of film direction.

The book to me, comes out as a beautiful amalgamation of the richness of Bengali literature, and fineness of Bengali films. The translator, Bhaskar Chattopadhyay, has done a commendable job of seamless translation. I would like thank him for taking such a beautiful initiative of projecting our culture to a wider audience. My favourite stories from the collection are The Story of a Coward by Premendra Mitra, The Goddess by Prabhat Kumar Mukhopadhyay and Pikoo's Diary by Satyajit Ray.

[Sayali Kasar · Rating 4 out of 5]

"A wonderful way to introduce readers not only to some superb stories, but also to the genius of Satyajit Ray, who, from these very stories, created great cinema."- Sharmila Tagore📚

The name of the book alone was enough for me to be curious and keen to pick it up. My unusual fascination of all things Bengali, coupled with the love for Rabindranath Tagore's and Ray's stories pulled me towards it.

What a fascinating collection of stories! Times like these make me want to be able to read Bengali and then go on to watch all the movies in Bengali. These stories have made me want to watch the respective movies. I have already begun 'Agantuk' and it is spectacular. The movie is much more detailed and one can gauge that it was meant to be a screenplay.

The collection of stories by Tagore, Munshi Premchand, Chattopadhyay makes one realise that the master filmmaker never really stuck to one genre and skillfully expressed in a variety of themes through his cinema.

The original movie posted added in the beginning of each story further adds to the charm of the book. Truly recommended.

[Narayana Krishna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the first book which had a read that spoke volumes about the bengali culture. The moment I saw the name Satyajit Ray I was so much captivated to read those stories that had inspired Satyajit Ray, the all time film maker. As part of the justification of the name that has been given for the book each of the short story was of various diverse genres and each one of the story was so intense with a deep meaning.

Kudos to the translator Bhaskar Chattopadhyay who had helped us for the perfect translation of the stories in a simple and effective way without disturbing the originality and emotion of each of the story.

Highly recommended for book lovers who wants to read some of the stories which were made as the cult classics and also our history of exceptional story tellers that our country had possessed.

[Deep Thought · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first time I'm going into Bengali Literature, and I can say that it's completely unique when compared to the other Literatures I've read. It has its own unique flavour.
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14 stories that inspired Satyajit Ray is a book which is so easy to read, and would hook you with the plotlines in the different stories.
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My Favourite out of these 14 is 'The Prologue' which is made into a Bengali Film called MahaNagar.
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It is the story of Arati, a middle-class woman from Kolkata, who had to take up a job due to Financial Pressure .. Slowly, her husband starts getting insecure about her job, which results in her quitting the job .. This story has many intricacies of a the different relations in a family ..
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Rating: 🌟🌟🌟✨
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[Shikha Pathak Pandey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have grown up watching Satyajit Ray’s movies. From Apur Sansar to Sonar Kella to Pather Panchali, the man has been at the helm of many such legendary movies. And now, to actually read stories that inspired him to set this magical realm is pure bliss for me. Goopi Gyne Bagha Byne is my favorite story here 😍

Any suggestions for short stories are absolutely welcome here !

Listening on @storytel.in

#satyajitray #storytel #audiobooks #readingaudiobook #satyajitraybooks #storiesthatinspiredsatyajitray #inspirationalstories #goopigynebaghabyne #rabindranathtagore #booksforlife #storytelindia

[Nisarga B V · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was on my to-read list for such a long time and I am ecstatic to have finally read it. An eclectic collection of beautiful stories from some of the most prominent writers of our country. Ranging from blind faith, superstitions, adventure, tragedy, and love. Which touch the heart and make you think hard at the same time. They transported me to many different places and time eras and yet I was able to easily relate. Some stories had a severe impact on me like 'Devi' and 'Shatranj Ke Khiladi'. Now that I have read the stories, I definitely want to watch all the movies based on them.

[Titirsha Bhattacharya · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a compilation of stories which inspired satyajit ray to make motion picture in it.
I have been reading this book for one month long. Yes you heard me right. Cause honestly I didn't wanted this book to end. Satyajit Ray hold a very special place in my heart and when I saw this book well you know I couldn't just let it go. just because this is a borrowed book I make sure it stayed with me for longest of time.
These book has some beautiful stories and ofcourse more beautiful movie posters in it.
To read the full review check my blog.

[Sabrina Haque · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lot of Ray's films have been adaptions of Bengali literature, from fiction to autobiographies. Reading the original plot of "Devi" has made me appreciate the movie even more, with it's ambiguous ending being a stark contrast to the morose resolution of the actual story. It feels like an insult to my ancestors and to the great men who have shaped the Bengali language with the intelligence and vitality of Sanskrit by not knowing how to read and write in my own mother tongue. Thank you Bhaskar Chattopadhyay for making these beautiful and well crafted stories accessible to all.