Twenty stories

by Satyajit Ray

This collection of stories features magicians, giant man-eating plants, hypochondriacs and a host of other entertaining characters.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, India

208 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 1992

About the author

Satyajit Ray (Bengali: সত্যজিৎ রায়) was an Indian filmmaker and author of Bengali fiction and regarded as one of the greatest auteurs of world cinema. Ray was born in the city of Calcutta into a Bengali family prominent in the world of arts and literature. Starting his career as a commercial artist, Ray was drawn into independent filmmaking after meeting French filmmaker Jean Renoir and watching Vittorio De Sica's Italian neorealist 1948 film, Bicycle Thieves.

Ray directed 36 films, including feature films, documentaries and shorts. He was also a fiction writer, publisher, illustrator, calligrapher, graphic designer and film critic. He authored several short stories and novels, primarily aimed at children and adolescents.

Ray's first film, Pather Panchali (1955), won eleven international prizes, including Best Human Documentary at the Cannes Film Festival. This film, Aparajito (1956) and Apur Sansar (1959) form The Apu Trilogy. Ray did the scripting, casting, scoring, and editing, and designed his own credit titles and publicity material. Ray received many major awards in his career, including 32 Indian National Film Awards, a number of awards at international film festivals and award ceremonies, and an Academy Award in 1992. The Government of India honoured him with the Bharat Ratna in 1992.

Early Life and Background:
Ray's grandfather, Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury was a writer, illustrator, philosopher, publisher, amateur astronomer and a leader of the Brahmo Samaj, a religious and social movement in nineteenth century Bengal. Sukumar Ray, Upendrakishore's son and father of Satyajit, was a pioneering Bengali author and poet of nonsense rhyme and children's literature, an illustrator and a critic. Ray was born to Sukumar and Suprabha Ray in Calcutta.

Ray completed his B.A. (Hons.) in Economics at Presidency College of the University of Calcutta, though his interest was always in Fine Arts. In 1940, he went to study in Santiniketan where Ray came to appreciate Oriental Art. In 1949, Ray married Bijoya Das and the couple had a son, Sandip ray, who is now a famous film director.

Literary Works:
Ray created two of the most famous fictional characters ever in Bengali children's literature—Feluda, a sleuth in Holmesian tradition, and Professor Shonku, a genius scientist. Ray also wrote many short stories mostly centered on Macabre, Thriller and Paranormal which were published as collections of 12 stories. Ray wrote an autobiography about his childhood years, Jakhan Choto Chilam (1982). He also wrote essays on film, published as the collections: Our Films, Their Films (1976), Bishoy Chalachchitra (1976), and Ekei Bole Shooting (1979).

Awards, Honors and Recognitions:
Ray received many awards, including 32 National Film Awards by the Government of India. At the Moscow Film Festival in 1979, he was awarded for the contribution to cinema. At the Berlin Film Festival, he was one of only three to win the Silver Bear for Best Director more than once and holds the record for the most Golden Bear nominations, with seven. At the Venice Film Festival, he won a Golden Lion for Aparajito(1956), and awarded the Golden Lion Honorary Award in 1982. In 1992 he was posthumously awarded the Akira Kurosawa Award for Lifetime Achievement in Directing at the San Francisco International Film Festival.

Reviews

[Nomita Chakravorty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Each and every story is gripping. The horror stories are not some revengeful zombie or ghost kind. The horror is more to do with the fear instinct in us triggered by the unknown and supernatural phenomena. The characters developed by Ray are quirky, maybe eccentric. There are some other worldly and fantastic elements. Phenomena's that make the heart skip a beat. There are regular neighbors who are sick and those with unusual mannerisms and habits sparking of the element of fear, mystery and curiosity. Yet despite all of that an urge to tread the zone of fear and explore. The fear is laced with humor.
Don't we all trip on fear! There is no soundtrack other than your own imagination and voices inside your head giving that adrenalin rush.

[Chitra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely floored. I had no expectations that Ray was such an absorbing read. He is India's answer to O.Henry. Although many of these stories are preoccupied with the eerie and the sinister, there are no tasteless extremes.

[Shamim Valian · Rating 3 out of 5]

اولین تجربه ی خوندن داستان کوتاه هندی از چیزی که فکر میکردم بهتر بود

[Pradnya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had almost gave up on the book as the initial ones were supernatural but continued and were worth the courage.

[Pasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with any book of short stories, some tales resonated with more more than others; however, as a whole, I thoroughly enjoyed the stories in this collection. Readers not familiar with Bengali culture and terminology may need to look a few things up as they read, but overall, I found this stories to be timeless and universal.

Most of the stories in this book are concerned with the supernatural or inexplicable; and many, such as "The Tale of Shibhu and the Monster" and "The Pterodactyl's Egg" will leave you questioning both the narrator and reality. Others such as "Gagan Chowdhury's Studio" and "Ananth Babu's Terror" deal with ghosts. And still others, such as "The Admirer" and "Barin Bhowmik's Ailment" explore ordinary lives and simple human nature. Overall, the style of writing is spare yet visually evocative, and as I read them, felt that many could be easily translated to the screen.

For those that aren't familiar with him, active during the Satyajit Ray was one of the foremost Indian film directors, and received awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Venice Film Festival, and the Cannes Film Festival, among many others. Perhaps that's why I felt that they'd be perfect for a film adaptation. Regardless, this was a very enjoyable collection, and I'd definitely recommend it.

[Sourojit Das · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd read these stories separately before..or heard them on Radio Mirchi's show on horror..a rather less well-known book..one that presents a world beyond Feluda, Professor Shonku or Goopy Gyne - Bagha Byne.
Picked it up from Blossom's at Bnagalore and finished it on that final flight back home..something to fill in those hours of listless boredom, waiting for that welcome bump which tells me I have come back home

[Ranjini · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant collection of stories from a master story-teller!
Loved loved it ❤️️

[Priya Mariannie-gupta · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think you always lose on translation but a very strong sense of story telling like the stranger which became a movie or the puppet. It is like reading a script. The stories keep you at the edge and are like screen play.

[Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the stories were cute, but Ray's strength is clearly filmmaking, not writing.