NEW DELHI: The British Film Institute (BFI) is hosting a special two-month festival of selected films of Satyajit Ray in London and will also put up an exhibition of Ray's design works.
The exhibition, the first to be held in the United Kingdom, will take place at the BFI Southbank from 14 August until mid-October.
Before Ray directed Pather Panchali in 1955, he worked as a graphic designer for an advertising agency in Kolkata. In addition to creating over 30 films throughout his career he also designed many of their sets, costumes, credit sequences and posters.
A selection of the director's poster designs will be on show in the Atrium at the BFI Southbank. It will include both original and facsimile posters, showcasing the best of Ray's creations.
The BFI website said: "Ray's unique graphic style owed as much to Indian art and indigenous folklore as it did to Western traditions. His wide-ranging poster designs encompass surreal photographic collages, ornate portraits as well as bold, typographic experiments, their imagery and lettering borrowing from scenes and motifs in his cinema. Far more than just a beautiful, eye-catching advertisement, each poster offers Ray's own interpretation of his film as he distilled it into one image."
The exhibition has been organised by Isabel Stevens, Maggi Hurt and Claire Smith. The posters have been sourced from the BFI National Archive and the Society for the Preservation of Satyajit Ray Archives and Ray Estate, Kolkata.
The films to be screened as part of Ray season in association with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in August are Pather Panchali, Aparajito,Jalsaghar, Apur Sansar, Devi, TeenKanya, Charulata, Kanchenjungha, Nayak,Kapurush, Chiriakhana, Abhijan and Parash Pathar. Mahanagar is also being screened to mark the 50th anniversary of the film.
Two documentaries directed by Ray- commemorating writer, artist and composer Rabindranath Tagore and Satyajit Ray's father Sukumar Ray will also be screened.
A Masterclass on Pather Panchali by filmmaker and teacher Mamoun Hassan who headed the BFI in 1970s is also a part of the programme.
