Khagam by satyajit ray biography

The Penguin Satyajit Ray library is like a new Sun emerging out of your terrace. It is a cultural masterpiece, a rare subject of art in today’s changing climate.

The books – there a large number of them – are brilliantly designed and have loads of photographs and sketches by Ray himself. The entire collection is comparable to the hardbound Encyclopedia Britannica series that many buy because classics are meant to be stored even if millennials today increasingly veer towards Kindle versions.

There are too many of them to be reviewed and analysed and as a Bengali – as journalist and erudite author Sohini Chattopadhyay once remarked – I often wonder why I should read translations when I have read the originals in Bengali language multiple times. 

But like we often remind ourselves that a Ray film is a Ray film is a Ray film, his works are brilliant pieces of work. I have seen a new India through his movies, seen him at work once in Kolkata’s Tollygunge studio where he filmed Sakha Proshaka (branches and twigs) and loved almost all of his Feluda novels. So I love the Penguin library and feel it has great relevance, great significance.

Yet, I would not start with the classic Pather Panchali or Feluda series but touch upon some of Ray’s other interesting works. Khagam is a horror story by Ray about an atheist turned into a snake because he killed a pet serpent of a sadhu. Friends of the atheist had initially refused to believe that the man had been turned into a snake but eventually saw a huge skin with two arms and two legs hanging from a tree. In another story – set in Darjeeling that appears to be Ray’s favourite haunt outside Calcutta (not Kolkata for him) – Ray describes an unnamed man who collects insignificant objects which have a terrifying history of a violent death. He calls the character Batikbabu (Mr Idiosyncrasy) and paints a brilliant story

The Collected Short Stories by Satyajit Ray is a collection of 49 short stories that explore a diverse number of genres including and not limited to comics, magic, science fiction, horror, mystery, reality, suspense, thriller, crime, and kids stories. His stories, considered contemporary are heavily characterized, filled with cinematic thrills and twists. Ray is such a clever writer who has mastered writing about the human condition. His choice of words is kind and impactful as he explores friendships, human emotions, and justice. The wording of the book is very interesting without being too complicated. It’s very light and easy to comprehend.

Bonku Babu’s Friend

Ang, an alien from planet Craneus kidnaps Bonkubihari Datta for a short while. The story begins to unfold in a wild and unnatural manner that has life-changing consequences for both the alien and Bonkubihari.

Fritz

Jayanti is a 37-year-old man who had a daunting childhood that had traumatized him his whole life. He decides to face this problem by going back to his childhood home in Bundi. Jayanti seeks to uncover the mystery that he cannot recall his childhood. He finds Fritz, a Swiss-made doll that he used to play with as a child. The doll however is more than just a doll as Jayanti uncovers a haunting ghost that had possessed it and attached itself to him.

The Case of Mriganko Babu

Mriganko Babu is a man who specializes in the evolution of man. He makes a bold discovery while researching his primordial evolution. This discovery is so huge that it stands to alter all that is known about human evolution.

The Pterodactyl’s Egg

This story is about time travel and the wonders it unfolds. Badan Babu meets a stranger who goes on to narrate to him his experiences of time travel throughout history. Through the story, he uncovers significant informat

In literary circles, Satyajit Ray is considered to be a writer of stories primarily targeted at children and adolescents. But as with all good literature for children anywhere in the world, his books can be enjoyed by children and adults alike. Ray never treated his young readers as either less intelligent or less receptive than adults. In fact, as evident from his many interviews on the subject, he always liked to believe that children have a significantly more fertile imagination than older readers, and hence, contrary to popular perception, they are far more welcoming of chills and thrills than their older counterparts.

Nothing exemplifies this better than the way Ray wrote his horror stories. Not once did he stop short of creating the most brutal shock, the ultimate horror. And yet, without exception, keeping his young readers in mind, there was always a self-imposed restraint that kept him away from explicit gore. He did the job with situational horror alone. Ray never believed in frightening the senses – he always chose to frighten the mind instead.

In his cinema, Ray dealt with horror in just one film – Monihara (The Lost Jewels) from 1961, his adaptation of Rabindranath Tagore’s tragic story about a lonely housewife obsessed with her jewels. His literary contributions to the genre, however, are far richer, at least by numbers. In all, Ray wrote at least 26 short stories which can be inarguably classified as horror. But the fascinating thing is that he tackled such a wide array of subgenres that you have to wonder how he could have even conceived such stories for children. It takes a lot of courage to offer such seemingly complicated subjects to young readers.

Shapeshifting

Take the subject of metamorphosis or transformation. In what is perhaps his best known horror short story – Khagam – Ray has a man killing a full-grown cobra with malicious intent, only to transfor

Satyajit Ray (1921–1992), a Bengalifilm director from India, is well known for his contributions to Bengali literature. He created two of the most famous characters in Feluda the sleuth and Professor Shanku the scientist. He wrote several short novels and stories in addition to those based on these two characters. His fiction was targeted mainly at younger readers, though it became popular among children and adults alike.

Most of his novels and stories in Bengali have been published by Ananda Publishers, Kolkata; and most of his screenplays have been published in Bengali in the literary journal Ekshan, edited by his close friend Nirmalya Acharya. During the mid-1990s, Ray's film essays and an anthology of short stories were also published in the West. Many of the stories have been translated into English and published.

Feluda stories

Main article: Feluda

Feluda, whose real name is Pradosh Chandra Mitra, is a fictional Kolkata-based private detective. He is usually accompanied by 2 sidekicks: Topshe (his cousin–Tapesh Ranjan Mitra) and Lalmohan Ganguly, usually described as Lalmohan Babu (who himself writes under the pseudonym of Jatayu), a bumbling writer of crime fiction. Satyajit Ray wrote thirty-five Feluda stories, most of which were extremely popular, and made two of the Feluda stories into films: Sonar Kella (The Golden Fortress) (1974) and Joi Baba Felunath (The Elephant God) (1978).

Professor Shanku stories

Main article: Professor Shanku

Professor Shanku (Professor Shonku), or Trilokeshwar Shanku, is a fictional scientist appearing in a series of science-fiction books. He lives in Giridih beside the river Usri. He has a male servant named Prahllad and a cat named Newton living in the house. He was a child prodigy and achieved several academic distinctions. He has his own laboratory in his house, where he