Satyajit Ray (2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992), Photo courtesy: Nemai Ghosh Films cannot change society. They never have. Show me a film that changed society or brought about any change, said master director Satyajit Ray in an interview for the American magazine Cineaste more than three decades ago.
Poster of Ganashatru
The remarks came from a man who was one of the most politically conscious directors India had ever produced and was never constrained by it. It s a political consciousness derived from the tumultuous years of the Naxalbari movement of the 1960s and 70s and the Emergency in the mid-seventies. It is reflected in Ray s films, such as Jana Aranya (The Middleman) and Pratidwandi (The Adversary). Later, he returned to the political theme in Hirok Rajar Deshey (In the Land of Diamond King) and in a different setting in Ganashatru (An Enemy of the People). Ray s Ghare Bairey (The Home and the World) also makes a strong political statement in pre-independent India,