Satyajit Ray : The Man Who Knew Too Much

About The Book

Satyajit Ray’s Seemabaddha (1971), a stinging indictment of the corporate rat race, remains one of the iconic film-maker’s most feted works. It starred debutant Barun Chanda, who won a special prize for his performance. Now, fifty years later, Barun Chanda documents his experience of working in the film and being directed by Satyajit Ray, someone he describes as ‘the man who knew too much’. But Satyajit Ray: The Man Who Knew Too Much is more than just an account of the making of a film.The author also presents a detailed and informative study of the various avatars of Ray as a film-maker: his sense of script and ear for dialogue, his instinctive grasp of the nuances of music, his penchant for casting non-actors and ability to get the perfect face for a role, his genius in designing a film’s title sequence. Insightful and informed by a rare understanding of the master’s works, this is an invaluable addition to the corpus of work on Satyajit Ray.

About Barun Chanda

After obtaining a master’s in English, Barun Chanda taught for a while in a college, before moving over to advertising which he confesses was an absolutely exhilarating experience. In between he appeared in Satyajit Ray’s Seemabaddha as its protagonist. Early in 2000 he decided to quit advertising and become a whole-time writer. Film offers started coming in again after his self-imposed exile for almost twenty years. He has four Bengali and two English books to his credit, the last two being Coke and Murder in the Monastery, both crime thrillers.This book on Ray is his first non-fiction work.