Satyajit Ray: Astrology and Horoscope

Born: May 2, 1921, 12:00 PM (unknown)

in: Kolkata (India)

Sun: 11°18' Taurus    

Moon: 4°24' Pisces    

Dominants:Taurus, Pisces, VirgoNeptune, Uranus, MoonEarth, Water / Fixed

Chinese Astrology: Metal Rooster

Numerology: Birthpath 2

Height: Satyajit Ray is 6' 5" (1m96) tall

Celebrities born the same day: David Beckham, Lorie (singer), Dwayne Johnson, Lily Allen, Albert Delegue, Catherine the Great, Donatella Versace, Engelbert Humperdinck (singer) , David Suchet,Manfred von Richthofen, Catherine Labouré, Edouard Balladur... List of all the celebrities born on May 2.

 

Biography of Satyajit Ray

Satyajit Ray (Bengali: সত্য�জি�ত্য রা�য় or সত্য�জি�ৎ রা�য় About this sound Shottojit Rae सत्या�जी�त रे (help·info); 2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian Bengali filmmaker. He is regarded as one of the greatest auteurs of 20th century cinema. Ray was born in the city of Calcutta (now Kolkata) 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 viewing the Italian neorealist film Bicycle Thieves during a visit to London. 

Ray directed thirty-seven films, including feature films, documentaries and shorts. He was also a fiction writer, publisher, illustrator, graphic designer and film critic. Ray's first film, Pather Panchali (1955), won eleven international prizes, including Best Human Document at the Cannes film festival. Alongside Aparajito (1956) and Apur Sansar (1959), the three films form The Apu Trilogy. Ray did the scripting, casting, scoring, cinematography, art direction, 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 Honorary Award in 1991. 

Early life and background 

Satyajit Ray's ancestry can be traced back for at least ten generations. Ray's grandfather, Upendrakishore Ray 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, was a pioneering Bengali writer of nonsense rhyme and children's literature, an illustrator and a critic. Ray was born to Sukumar and Suprabha Ray in Kolkata. Sukumar Ray died when Satyajit was barely three, and the family survived on Suprabha Ray's meager income. Ray studied at Ballygunge Government High School, Calcutta, and then 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, his mother insisted that he study at the Visva-Bharati University at Santiniketan, founded by Rabindranath Tagore. Ray was reluctant due to his love of Kolkata, and due to the generally low opinion of the intellectual life at Santiniketan. His mother's persuasion and his respect for Tagore finally convinced him to try this route. In Santiniketan, Ray came to appreciate oriental art. He later admitted that he learnt much from the famous painters Nandalal Bose and Benode Behari Mukherjee on whom Ray later produced a documentary film, "The Inner Eye". With visits to Ajanta, Ellora and Elephanta, Ray developed an admiration for Indian art. 

He joined as a "junior visualiser", earning just eighty rupees a month. Although on the one hand, visual design was something close to Ray's heart and, for the most part, he was treated well, there

was palpable tension between the British and Indian employees of the firm (the former were much better paid), and Ray felt that "the clients were generally stupid". Around 1943, Ray became involved with Signet Press, a new publishing house started up by D. K. Gupta. Gupta asked Ray to create cover designs for books published from Signet Press and gave him complete artistic freedom. Ray designed covers for many books, including Jim Corbett's Maneaters of Kumaon, and Jawaharlal Nehru's Discovery of India. He also worked on a children's version of Pather Panchali, a classic Bengali novel by Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay, renamed as Am Antir Bhepu (The mango-seed whistle). Ray was deeply influenced by the work, which became the subject of his first film. In addition to designing the cover, he illustrated the book; many of his illustrations ultimately found their place as shots in his groundbreaking film. 

Along with Chidananda Dasgupta and others, Ray founded the Calcutta Film Society in 1947, through which he was exposed to many foreign films. Throughout this time, Ray continued to watch and study films seriously. He befriended the American GIs stationed in Kolkata during World War II, who would inform him of the latest American films showing in the city. He came to know a RAF employee, Norman Clare, who shared Ray's passion of films, chess and western classical music. 

In 1949, Ray married Bijoya Das, his first cousin and longtime sweetheart. The couple had a son, Sandip, who is now a film director. In the same year, Jean Renoir came to Kolkata to shoot his film The River. Ray helped him to find locations in the countryside. It was then that Ray told Renoir about his idea of filming Pather Panchali, which had been on his mind for some time, and Renoir encouraged him to proceed. In 1950, Ray was sent to London by D.J. Keymer to work at its head office. During his three months in London, he watched 99 films. Among these was the neorealist film Ladri di biciclette Bicycle Thieves (1948) by Vittorio De Sica which had a profound impact on him. Ray later said that he came out of the theater determined to become a filmmaker. The Apu Years (1950–1959) See also: The Apu Trilogy and Filmography of Satyajit Ray 

Ray had now decided that Pather Panchali, the classic bildungsroman of Bengali literature, published in 1928 by Bibhutibhusan Bandopadhyay, would be the subject matter for his first film. This semi-autobiographical novel describes the growing up of Apu, a small boy in a Bengal village. 

Ray gathered an inexperienced crew, although both his cameraman Subrata Mitra and art director Bansi Chandragupta went on to achieve great acclaim. The cast consisted of mostly amateur artists. Shooting started in late 1952, using Ray's personal savings. He had hoped once the initial shots had been completed, he would be able to obtain funds to support the project; however, such funding was not forthcoming. Pather Panchali was shot over the unusually long period of three years, because shooting was possible only from time to time, when Ray or production manager Anil Chowdhury could arrange further money. With a loan from the West Bengal government, the film was finally completed and released in 1955 to great critical and popular success, sweeping up numerous prizes and having long runs in both India and abroad. During the making of the film, Ray refused funding from sources who demanded a change in script or the supervision of the producer, and ignored advice from the government (which finally funded the film anyway) to incorporate a happy ending in having Apu's family join a "development project". Even greater help than Renoir's encouragement occurred when Ray showed a sequence to John Huston who was in India scouting locations for The Man Who Would Be King. The sequence is the remarkable vision Apu and his sister have of the train running through the countryside. It was the only sequence Ray had filmed due to his small budget. Huston notified Monroe Wheeler at the New York Museum of Modern Art that a major talent was on the horizon. 

In India, the reaction to the film was enthusiastic, The Times of India wrote that "It is absurd to compare it with any other Indian cinema Pather Panchali is pure cinema". In the United Kingdom, Lindsay Anderson wrote a glowing review of the film. However, the reaction was not uniformly positive. After watching the movie, François Truffaut is reported to have said, "I don’t want to see a movie of peasants eating with their hands." Bosley Crowther, then the most influential critic of The New York Times, wrote a scathing review of the film that its distributor Ed Harrison thought would kill off the film when it got released in the United States, but instead it enjoyed an exceptionally long run. 

Ray's international career started in earnest after the success of his next film, Aparajito (The Unvanquished). This film shows the eternal struggle between the ambitions of a young man, Apu, and the mother who loves him. Many critics, notably Mrinal Sen and Ritwik Ghatak, rank it even higher than the first film. Aparajito won the Golden Lion in Venice. Before the completion of The Apu Trilogy, Ray completed two other films. The first is the comic Parash Pathar (The Philosopher's Stone), which was followed by Jalsaghar (The Music Room), a film about the decadence of the

Zamindars, considered one of his most important works. 

Ray had not thought about a trilogy while making Aparajito, and it occurred to him only after being asked about the idea in Venice. The final installation of the series, Apur Sansar (The World of Apu) was made in 1959. Just like the two previous films, a number of critics find this to be the supreme achievement of the trilogy (Robin Wood, Aparna Sen). Ray introduced two of his favourite actors Soumitra Chatterjee and Sharmila Tagore in this film. The film finds Apu living in a nondescript Kolkata house in near-poverty. He becomes involved in an unusual marriage with Aparna, the scenes of their life together forming "one of the cinema's classic affirmative depiction of married life", but tragedy ensues. After Apur Sansar was harshly criticised by a Bengali critic, Ray wrote an article defending it—a rare event in Ray's film making career (the other major instance involved the film Charulata, Ray's personal favourite). His success had little influence on his personal life in the years to come. Ray continued to live with his mother, uncle and other members of his extended family in a rented house. From Devi to Charulata (1959–1964) 

During this period, Ray composed films on the British Raj period (such as Devi), a documentary on Tagore, a comic film (Mahapurush) and his first film from an original screenplay (Kanchenjungha). He also made a series of films that, taken together, are considered by critics among the most deeply felt portrayal of Indian women on screen. 

Ray followed Apur Sansar with Devi (The Goddess), a film in which are studied the superstitions in the Hindu society. Sharmila Tagore starred as Doyamoyee, a young wife who is deified by her father-in-law. Ray was worried that the censor board might block his film, or at least make him re-cut it, but Devi was spared. In 1961, on the insistence of Prime-minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Ray was commissioned to make a documentary on Rabindranath Tagore, on the occasion of the poet's birth centennial, a tribute to the person who probably influenced Ray most. Due to limited real footage of Tagore available, Ray faced the challenge of making a film out of mainly static material, and he remarked that it took as much work as three feature films. In the same year, together with Subhas Mukhopadhyay and others, Ray was able to revive Sandesh, the children's magazine his grandfather once published. Ray had been saving money for some years now to make this possible. A duality in the name (Sandesh means both "news" in Bengali and also a sweet desert popular in Bengal) set the tone of the magazine (both educational and entertaining), and Ray soon found himself illustrating the magazine, and writing stories and essays for children. Writing became his major source of income in the years to come. 

In 1962, Ray directed Kanchenjungha, which was his first original screenplay and colour film. The film tells the story of an upper-class family spending an afternoon in Darjeeling, a picturesque hill town in West Bengal, where the family tries to engage their youngest daughter to a highly paid engineer educated in London. The film was first conceived to take place in a large mansion, but Ray later decided to film it in the famous hill town, using the many shades of light and mist to reflect the tension in the drama. An amused Ray noted that while his script allowed shooting to be possible under any lighting conditions, a commercial film contingent present at the same time in Darjeeling failed to shoot a single shot as they only wanted to do so in sunshine. 

In the sixties, Ray visited Japan and took particular pleasure in meeting filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, for whom he had very high regard. While at home, he would take an occasional break from the hectic city life by going to places like Darjeeling or Puri to complete a script in isolation. 

In 1964 Ray made Charulata (The Lonely Wife), the culmination of this period of work, and regarded by many critics as his most accomplished film. Based on Nastanirh, a short story of Tagore, the film tells the tale of a lonely wife, Charu, in 19th century Bengal, and her growing feelings for her brother in law, Amal. Often referred to as Ray's Mozartian masterpiece, Ray himself famously said the film contained least flaws among his work, and his only work, that given a chance, he would make exactly the same way. Madhabi Mukherjee's performance as Charu, and the work of both Subrata Mitra and Bansi Chandragupta in the film have been highly praised. Other films in this period include Mahanagar (The Big City), Teen Kanya (Three Daughters), Abhijan (The Expedition) and Kapurush o Mahapurush (The Coward and the Holy Man). New directions (1965–1982) 

In the post-Charulata period, Ray took on projects of increasing variety, ranging from fantasy to science fiction to detective films to historical drama. Ray also made considerable formal experimentation during this period, and also took closer notice to the contemporary issues of Indian life, responding to a perceived lack of these issues in his films. The first major film in this period is Nayak (The Hero), the story of a screen hero traveling in a train where he meets a young sympathetic female journalist. Starring Uttam Kumar and Sharmila Tagore, the film explores, in the

twenty-four hours of the journey, the inner conflict of the apparently highly successful matinée idol. In spite of receiving a Critics prize in Berlin, the reaction to this film was generally muted. 

In 1967, Ray wrote a script for a film to be called The Alien, based on his short story Bankubabur Bandhu ("Banku Babu's Friend") which he wrote in 1962 for Sandesh, the Ray family magazine. The Alien had Columbia Pictures as producer for this planned U.S.-India co-production, and Peter Sellers and Marlon Brando as the leading actors. However, Ray was surprised to find that the script he had written had already been copyrighted and the fee appropriated by Mike Wilson. Wilson had initially approached Ray as an acquaintance of a mutual friend, Arthur C. Clarke, to represent him in Hollywood. The script Wilson had copyrighted was credited as Mike Wilson & Satyajit Ray, despite the fact that he only contributed a single word in it. Ray later stated that he never received a penny for the script. Brando later dropped out of the project, and though an attempt was made to replace him with James Coburn, Ray became disillusioned and returned to Kolkata. Columbia expressed interest in reviving the project several times in the 1970s and 1980s, but nothing came of it. When E.T. was released in 1982, Clarke and Ray saw similarities in the film to the earlier Alien script—Ray discussed the collapse of the project in a 1980 Sight & Sound feature, with further details revealed by Ray's biographer Andrew Robinson (in The Inner Eye, 1989). Ray believed that Spielberg's film would not have been possible without his script of The Alien being available throughout America in mimeographed copies (a charge Spielberg denies). Besides The Alien, two other unrealized projects Ray intended to direct were theatrical adaptations of the ancient Indian epic, the Mahābhārata, and E. M. Forster's 1924 novel A Passage to India. 

In 1969, Ray made what would be commercially the most successful of his films. Based on a children's story written by his grandfather, Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne (The Adventures of Goopy and Bagha) is a musical fantasy. Goopy the singer and Bagha the drummer, equipped by three boons allowed by the King of Ghosts, set out on a fantastic journey in which they try to stop an impending war between two neighbouring kingdoms. Among his most expensive enterprises, it turned out to be very hard to finance; Ray abandoned his desire to shoot it in colour, turning down an offer that would have forced him to cast a certain Bollywood actor as the lead. Ray next made a film from a novel by the young poet and writer, Sunil Gangopadhyay. Featuring a musical structure acclaimed as even more complex than Charulata, Aranyer Din Ratri (Days and Nights in the Forest) traces four urban young men going to the forests for a vacation, trying to leave their petty urban existence behind. All but one of them get engaged into revealing encounters with women, which critics consider a revealing study of the Indian middle class. Ray cast Bombay-based actress Simi Garewal as a tribal woman, who was pleasantly surprised to find that Ray could envision someone as urban as her in that role. 

After Aranyer, Ray made a foray into contemporary Bengali reality, which was then in state of continuous flux due to the leftist Naxalite movement. He completed the so-called Calcutta trilogy: Pratidwandi (1970), Seemabaddha (1971), and Jana Aranya (1975), three films which were conceived separately, but whose thematic connections form a loose trilogy. Pratidwandi (The Adversary) is about an idealist young graduate; if disillusioned, still uncorrupted at the end of film, Jana Aranya (The Middleman) about how a young man gives in to the culture of corruption to make a living, and Seemabaddha (Company Limited) about an already successful man giving up morals for further gains. Of these, the first, Pratidwandi, uses an elliptical narrative style previously unseen in Ray films, such as scenes in negative, dream sequences and abrupt flashbacks. In the 1970s, Ray also adapted two of his popular stories as detective films. Though mainly targeted towards children and young adults, both Sonar Kella (The Golden Fortress) and Joy Baba Felunath (The Elephant God) found some critical following. 

Ray considered making a film on the Bangladesh Liberation War but later abandoned the idea, commenting that as a filmmaker he was more interested in the travails and journeys of the refugees and not politics. In 1977, Ray completed Shatranj Ke Khiladi (The Chess Players), an Urdu film based on a story by Munshi Premchand, set in Lucknow in the state of Oudh, a year before the Indian rebellion of 1857. A commentary on the circumstances that led to the colonization of India by the British, this was Ray's first feature film in a language other than Bengali. This is also his most expensive and star-studded film, featuring likes of Sanjeev Kumar, Saeed Jaffrey, Amjad Khan, Shabana Azmi, Victor Bannerjee and Richard Attenborough. Ray made a sequel to Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne in 1980, a somewhat overtly political Hirak Rajar Deshe (Kingdom of Diamonds) — where the kingdom of the evil Diamond King or Hirok Raj is an allusion to India during Indira Gandhi's emergency period. Along with his acclaimed short film Pikoo (Pikoo's Diary) and hour long Hindi film Sadgati this was the culmination of his work in this period. The last phase (1983–1992) 

In 1983, while working on Ghare Baire (Home and the World), Ray suffered a heart attack that would severely limit his output in the remaining 9 years of his life. Ghare Baire was completed in

1984 with the help of Ray's son (who would operate the camera from then on) because of his health condition. He wanted to film this Tagore novel on the dangers of fervent nationalism for a long time, and even wrote a (weak, by his own admission) script for it in the 1940s. In spite of rough patches due to his illness, the film did receive some critical acclaim, and it contained the first full-blown kiss in Ray's films. In 1987, he made a documentary on his father, Sukumar Ray. 

Ray's last three films, made after his recovery and with medical strictures in place, were shot mostly indoors, have a distinctive style. They are more verbose than his earlier films and are often regarded as inferior to his earlier body of work. The first, Ganashatru (An Enemy of the People) is an adaptation of the famous Ibsen play, and considered the weakest of the three. Ray recovered some of his form in his 1990 film Shakha Proshakha (Branches of the Tree). In it, an old man, who has lived a life of honesty, comes to learn of the corruption three of his sons indulge in with the final scene shows him finding solace only in the companionship of the fourth, uncorrupted but mentally ill son. After Shakha Prashakha, Ray's swan song Agantuk (The Stranger) is lighter in mood, but not in theme. A long lost uncle's sudden visit to his niece's house in Kolkata raises suspicion as to his motive and far-ranging questions about civilization. 

In 1992, Ray's health deteriorated due to heart complications. He was admitted to a hospital, and would never recover. An honorary Oscar was awarded to him weeks before his death, which he received in a gravely ill condition. He died on 23 April 1992. Film craft 

Satyajit Ray considered script-writing to be an integral part of direction. This is one reason why he initially refused to make a film in any language other than Bengali. In his two non-Bengali feature films, he wrote the script in English, which translators then interpreted in Hindi or Urdu under Ray's supervision. Ray's own eye for detail was matched by that of his art director Bansi Chandragupta, whose influence on the early Ray films were so important that Ray would always write scripts in English before creating a Bengali version, so that the non-Bengali Chandragupta would be able to read it. Camera work in Ray's early films garnered high regard for the craft of Subrata Mitra, whose (bitter) departure from Ray's crew, according to a number of critics, lowered the quality of cinematography in his films. Though Ray openly praised Mitra, his single-mindedness made him take over operation of the camera since Charulata, causing Mitra to stop working for Ray after 1966. Pioneering works of Subrata Mitra included development of "bounce lighting", a technique of bouncing light off cloth to create a diffused realistic light even on a set. Ray also acknowledged debt to Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut of the French New Wave for introducing new technical and cinematic innovations. 

Though Ray had a regular editor in Dulal Datta, he usually dictated the editing while Datta did the actual work. In fact, because of financial reasons and Ray's meticulous planning, his films were mostly cut "on the camera" (apart from Pather Panchali). At the beginning of his career, Ray worked with Indian classical musicians, including Ravi Shankar, Vilayat Khan and Ali Akbar Khan. However, the experience was painful for him as he found that their first loyalty was to musical traditions, and not to his film; also, his greater grasp of western classical forms, which he regarded as essential, especially for his films set in an urban milieu, stood in the way. This led him to compose his own scores starting from Teen Kanya. Ray used actors of diverse backgrounds, from famous film stars to people who have never seen a film (such as in Aparajito). Robin Wood and others have lauded him as the best director of children, pointing out memorable performances including Apu and Durga (Pather Panchali), Ratan (Postmaster) and Mukul (Sonar Kella). Depending on the talent or experience of the actor Ray's direction would vary from virtually nothing (actors like Utpal Dutt) to using the actor as "a puppet" (Subir Banerjee as young Apu or Sharmila Tagore as Aparna). According to actors working for Ray, his customary trust in the actors would occasionally be tempered by his ability to treat incompetence with "total contempt". Literary works Main article: Literary creations of Satyajit Ray 

Ray created two very popular characters in Bengali children's literature—Feluda, a sleuth, and Professor Shonku, a scientist. He was a prominent writer of science fiction in Bengali or any Indian language for that matter. He also wrote short stories which were published as volumes of 12 stories, always with names playing on the word twelve (for example Aker pitthe dui, or literally "Two on top of one"). Ray's interest in puzzles and puns is reflected in his stories, Feluda often has to solve a puzzle to get to the bottom of a case. The Feluda stories are narrated by Topshe, his cousin, something of a Watson to Feluda's Holmes. The science fictions of Shonku are presented as a diary discovered after the scientist himself had mysteriously disappeared. Ray's short stories give full reign to his interest in the macabre, in suspense and other aspects that he avoided in film, making for an interesting psychological study. Most of his writings have now been translated into English, and are finding a new group of readers. 

Most of his screenplays have also been published in Bengali in the literary journal Eksan. Ray wrote his autobiography encompassing his childhood years, Jakhan Choto Chilam (1982) and essays on film: Our Films, Their Films (1976), along with Bishoy Chalachchitra (1976), Ekei Bole Shooting (1979). During the mid-1990s, Ray's film essays and an anthology of short stories were also published in the West. Our Films, Their Films is an anthology of film criticism by Ray. The book contains articles and personal journal excerpts. The book is presented in two sections—Ray first discusses Indian film, before turning his attention towards Hollywood and specific international filmmakers (Charlie Chaplin, Akira Kurosawa) and movements like Italian neorealism. His book Bishoy Chalachchitra was translated in 2006 as Speaking of Films, and contains a compact description of his philosophy of different aspects of the cinema. Ray also wrote a collection of nonsense verse named Today Bandha Ghorar Dim, which includes a translation of Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky". He also authored a collection of humorous stories of Mullah Nasiruddin in Bengali. 

Satyajit Ray designed four typefaces for roman script named Ray Roman, Ray Bizarre, Daphnis, and Holiday Script, apart from numerous Bengali ones for the Sandesh magazine. Ray Roman and Ray Bizarre won an international competition in 1971. In certain circles of Kolkata, Ray continued to be known as an eminent graphic designer, well into his film career. Ray illustrated all his books and designed covers for them, as well as creating all publicity material for his films. He also designed covers of several books by other authors. Critical and popular response 

Ray's work has been described as reverberating with humanism and universality, and of deceptive simplicity with deep underlying complexity. Praise has often been heaped on his work by many, including Akira Kurosawa, who declared, "Not to have seen the cinema of Ray means existing in the world without seeing the sun or the moon." But his detractors find his films glacially slow, moving like a "majestic snail." Some find his humanism simple-minded, and his work anti-modern and claim that they lack new modes of expression or experimentation found in works of Ray's contemporaries like Jean-Luc Godard. As Stanley Kauffman wrote, some critics believe that Ray "assumes can be interested in a film that simply dwells in its characters, rather than one that imposes dramatic patterns on their lives." Ray himself commented that this slowness is something he can do nothing about. Kurosawa defended him by saying that Ray's films were not slow at all, "His work can be described as flowing composedly, like a big river". 

Critics have often compared Ray to artists in the cinema and other media, such as Anton Chekhov, Renoir, De Sica, Howard Hawks or Mozart. Shakespeare has also been invoked, for example by the writer V. S. Naipaul, who compared a scene in Shatranj Ki Khiladi to a Shakespearian play, as "only three hundred words are spoken but goodness! – terrific things happen." It is generally acknowledged, even by those who were not impressed by the aesthetics of Ray's films, that he was virtually peerless in that his films encompass a whole culture with all its nuances, a sentiment expressed in Ray's obituary in The Independent, which exclaimed, "Who else can compete?" 

Early in 1980, Ray was openly criticized by an Indian M.P. and former actress Nargis Dutt, who accused Ray of "exporting poverty," demanding he make films to represent "Modern India." On the other hand, a common accusation levelled against him by advocates of socialism across India was that he was not "committed" to the cause of the nation's downtrodden classes, with some commentators accusing Ray of glorifying poverty in Pather Panchali and Asani Sanket through lyricism and aesthetics. They also accused him of providing no solution to conflicts in the stories, and being unable to overcome his bourgeoisie background. Agitations during the naxalite movements in the 1970s once came close to causing physical harm to his son, Sandip. In a public debate during the 1960s, Ray and the openly Marxist filmmaker Mrinal Sen engaged in an argument. Sen criticized him for casting a matinée idol like Uttam Kumar, which he considered a compromise, while Ray shot back by saying that Sen only attacks "easy targets", i.e. the Bengali middle-classes. His private life was never a subject of media scrutiny. Legacy 

Satyajit Ray is a cultural icon in India and in Bengali communities worldwide. Following his death, the city of Kolkata came to a virtual standstill, as hundreds of thousands of people gathered around his house to pay him their last respects. Satyajit Ray's influence has been widespread and deep in Bengali cinema; a number of Bengali directors including Aparna Sen, Rituparno Ghosh and Gautam Ghose in India, Tareq Masud and Tanvir Mokammel in Bangladesh, and Aneel Ahmad in England, have been influenced by his film craft. Across the spectrum, filmmakers such as Budhdhadeb Dasgupta, Mrinal Sen and Adoor Gopalakrishnan have acknowledged his seminal contribution to Indian cinema. Beyond India, filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese, James Ivory, Abbas Kiarostami, Elia Kazan, François Truffaut, Carlos Saura, Isao Takahata and Danny Boyle have been influenced by his cinematic style, with many others such as Akira Kurosawa praising his work. Ira Sachs's

2005 work Forty Shades of Blue was a loose remake of Charulata, and in Gregory Nava's 1995 film My Family, the final scene is duplicated from the final scene of Apur Sansar. Similar references to Ray films are found, for example, in recent works such as Sacred Evil, the Elements trilogy of Deepa Mehta and even in films of Jean-Luc Godard. According to Michael Sragow of The Atlantic Monthly, the "youthful coming-of-age dramas that have flooded art houses since the mid-fifties owe a tremendous debt to the Apu trilogy". 

The character Apu Nahasapeemapetilon in the American animated television series The Simpsons was named in homage to Ray's popular character from The Apu Trilogy. Ray along with Madhabi Mukherjee, was the first Indian film personality to feature in a foreign stamp (Dominica). Many literary works include references to Ray or his work, including Saul Bellow's Herzog and J. M. Coetzee's Youth. Salman Rushdie's Haroun and the Sea of Stories contains fish characters named Goopy and Bagha, a tribute to Ray's fantasy film. In 1993, UC Santa Cruz established the Satyajit Ray Film and Study collection, and in 1995, the Government of India set up Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute for studies related to film. In 2007, British Broadcasting Corporation declared that two Feluda stories would be made into radio programs. During the London Film Festival, a regular "Satyajit Ray Award" is given to first-time feature director whose film best captures "the artistry, compassion and humanity of Ray's vision". Wes Anderson has claimed Ray as an influence on his work; his 2007 live-action film, The Darjeeling Limited, set in India, is dedicated to Ray. Awards, honours and recognitions Further information: List of awards conferred on Satyajit Ray 

Numerous awards were bestowed on Ray throughout his lifetime, including 32 National Film Awards by the Government of India, in addition to awards at international film festivals. At the Berlin Film Festival, he was one of only three filmmakers to win the Silver Bear for Best Director more than once and holds the record for the most number of Golden Bear nominations, with seven. At the Venice Film Festival, where he had previously won a Golden Lion for Aparajito (1956), he was awarded the Golden Lion Honorary Award in 1982. That same year, he received an honorary "Hommage à Satyajit Ray" award at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival. 

Ray is the second film personality after Chaplin to have been awarded honorary doctorates by Oxford University. He was awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1985 and the Legion of Honor by the President of France in 1987. The Government of India awarded him the highest civilian honour, Bharat Ratna shortly before his death. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Ray an honorary Oscar in 1992 for Lifetime Achievement. It was one of his favourite actresses, Audrey Hepburn, who represented the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on that day in Calcutta. In 1992 he was posthumously awarded the Akira Kurosawa Award for Lifetime Achievement in Directing at the San Francisco International Film Festival; it was accepted on his behalf by actress Sharmila Tagore. 

In 1992, the Sight & Sound Critics' Top Ten Poll ranked Ray at #7 in its list of "Top 10 Directors" of all time, making him the highest-ranking Asian filmmaker in the poll. In 2002, the Sight & Sound critics' and directors' poll ranked Ray at #22 in its list of all-time greatest directors, thus making him the fourth highest-ranking Asian filmmaker in the poll. In 1996, Entertainment Weekly magazine ranked Ray at #25 in its "50 Greatest Directors" list. In 2007, Total Film magazine included Ray in its "100 Greatest Film Directors Ever" list. 

References 

* Biswas, M, ed (2006). Apu and after: Revisiting Ray's cinema. Seagull Books. ISBN 9781905422258. . * Cooper, D (2000). The Cinema of Satyajit Ray: Between Tradition and Modernity. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521629802. http://assets.cambridge.org/052162/0260/sample/0521620260WSN01.pdf. . * Dasgupta, C (1996). The cinema of Satyajit Ray. Penguin India. ISBN 0140247807. . * Ganguly, S (2001). Satyajit Ray: In search of the modern. Indialog. ISBN 8187981040. . * Mitra, S (1983). "The Genius of Satyajit Ray". India Today. . * Nandy, A (1995). "Satyajit Ray's Secret Guide to Exquisite Murders". The Savage Freud and Other Essays on Possible and Retrievable Selves. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691044104. . * Nyce, B (1988). Satyajit Ray: A Study of His Films. Praeger Publishers. ISBN 0275926664. . * Ray, S (1993). Our films, their films (3 ed.). Asia Book Corp of Amer. ISBN 0863113176. . * Ray, S (1994). My Years with Apu. Viking. ISBN 0670862150. . * Ray, S (2005). Speaking of films. Penguin India. ISBN 0144000261. . * Robinson, A (2003). Satyajit Ray: The Inner Eye: The Biography of a Master Film-Maker. I. B. Tauris. ISBN 1860649653. . * Robinson, A (2005). Satyajit Ray: A Vision of Cinema. I. B. Tauris. ISBN 1845110749. . 

* Rushdie, S (1992). Imaginary Homelands. Penguin. ISBN 0140140360. . * Santas, Constantine (2002). Responding to film: A Text Guide for Students of Cinema Art. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 0830415807. . * Seton, Marie (1971). Satyajit Ray: Portrait of a director. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0253168155. . * Wood, R (1972). The Apu trilogy. November Books Ltd. ISBN 0856310034. .

Astrological portrait of Satyajit Ray (excerpt)

Here are some character traits from Satyajit Ray's birth chart. This description is far from being comprehensive but it can shed light on his/her personality, which is still interesting for professional astrologers or astrology lovers.

In a matter of minutes, you can get at your email address your astrological portrait (approximately 32 pages), a much more comprehensive report than this portrait of Satyajit Ray.

N.B.: As this celebrity's birth time is unknown, the chart is drawn for 12:00 PM - the legal time for his/her place of birth; since astrological houses are not taken into account, this astrological profile excerpt is less detailed than those for which the birth time is known.

The dominant planets of Satyajit Ray

When interpreting a natal chart, the best method is to start gradually from general features to specific ones. Thus, there is usually a plan to be followed, from the overall analysis of the chart and its structure, to the description of its different character traits.

In the first part, an overall analysis of the chart enables us to figure out the personality's main features and to emphasize several points that are confirmed or not in the detailed analysis: in any case, those general traits are taken into account. Human personality is an infinitely intricate entity and describing it is a complex task. Claiming to rapidly summarize it is illusory, although it does not mean that it is an impossible challenge. It is essential to read a natal chart several times in order to absorb all its different meanings and to grasp all this complexity. But the exercise is worthwhile.

In brief, a natal chart is composed of ten planets: two luminaries, the Sun and the Moon, three fast-moving or individual planets, Mercury, Venus and Mars, two slow-moving planets, Jupiter and Saturn, and three very slow-moving planets, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Additional secondary elements are: the Lunar Nodes, the Dark Moon or Lilith, Chiron and other minor objects. They are all posited on the Zodiac wheel consisting of twelve signs, from Aries to Pisces, and divided into twelve astrological houses.

The first step is to evaluate the importance of each planet. This is what we call identifying the dominant planets. This process obeys rules that depend on the astrologer's sensitivity and experience but it also has precise and steady bases: thus, we can take into account the parameters of a planet's activity (the number of active aspects a planet forms, the importance of each aspect according to its nature and its exactness), angularity parameters; (proximity to the four angles, Ascendant, Midheaven, Descendant and Imum Coeli or Nadir, all of them being evaluated numerically, according to the kind of angle and the planet-angle distance) and quality parameters (rulership, exaltation, exile and fall). Finally, other criteria such as the rulership of the Ascendant and the Midheaven etc. are important.

These different criteria allow a planet to be highlighted and lead to useful conclusions when interpreting the chart.

The overall chart analysis begins with the observation of three sorts of planetary distributions in the chart: Eastern or Western hemisphere, Northern or Southern hemisphere, and quadrants (North-eastern, North-western, South-eastern and South-western). These three distributions give a general tone in terms of introversion and extraversion, willpower, sociability, and behavioural predispositions.

Then, there are three additional distributions: elements (called triplicity since there are three groups of signs for each one) - Fire, Air, Earth and Water - corresponding to a character typology,

modality (or quadruplicity with four groups of signs for each one) - Cardinal, Fixed and Mutable - and polarity (Yin and Yang).

There are three types of dominants: dominant planets, dominant signs and dominant houses. The novice thinks astrology means only "to be Aries" or sometimes, for example, "to be Aries Ascendant Virgo". It is actually far more complex. Although the Sun and the Ascendant alone may reveal a large part of the character - approximately a third or a half of your psychological signature, a person is neither "just the Sun" (called the sign) nor just "the first house" (the Ascendant). Thus, a particular planet's influence may be significantly increased; a particular sign or house may contain a group of planets that will bring nuances and sometimes weaken the role of the Ascendant, of the Sun sign etc.

Lastly, there are two other criteria: accentuations (angular, succedent and cadent) which are a classification of astrological houses and types of decanates that are occupied (each sign is divided into three decanates of ten degrees each). They provide some additional informations.

These general character traits must not be taken literally; they are, somehow, preparing for the chart reading. They allow to understand the second part of the analysis, which is more detailed and precise. It focuses on every area of the personality and provides a synthesis of all the above-mentioned parameters according to sound hierarchical rules.

Warning: when the birth time is unknown, which is the case for Satyajit Ray, a few paragraphs become irrelevant; distributions in hemispheres and quadrants are meaningless, so are dominant houses and houses' accentuations. Therefore, some chapters are removed from this part.

For all paragraphs, the criteria for valuation are calculated without taking into account angles and rulerships of the Ascendant and of the Midheaven. The methodology retains its validity, but it is less precise without a time of birth.

Elements, Modalities and Polarities for Satyajit Ray

Like the majority of Earth signs, Satyajit Ray, you are efficient, concrete and not too emotional. What matters to you is what you see: you judge the tree by its fruits. Your ideas keep changing, words disappear, but actions and their consequences are visible and remain. Express your sensitivity, even if it means revealing your vulnerability. Emotions, energy and communication must not be neglected; concrete action is meaningless if it is not justified by your heart, your intellect or your enthusiasm.

The predominance of Water signs indicates high sensitivity and elevation through feelings, Satyajit Ray. Your heart and your emotions are your driving forces, and you can't do anything on Earth if you don't feel a strong affective charge (as a matter of fact, the word "feeling" is essential in your psychology). You need to love in order to understand, and to feel in order to take action, which causes a certain vulnerability which you should fight against.

Air is under-represented in your natal chart, with only 0.00% instead of the average 25%. Air symbolizes the values of communication, exchanges with others, but also adaptability and flexibility abilities: if you don't get out of your cocoon to talk, to show interest in others, and to

socialize, you may have problems understanding others. Because of your lack of flexibility or of your refusal to adapt yourself, you may be suddenly overwhelmed by events. You should get into the habit of talking, of phoning, and of thinking in terms of "mobility, flexibility, adaptability, change" in every circumstance. It will spare you so many troubles!

The twelve zodiacal signs are split up into three groups or modes, called quadruplicities, a learned word meaning only that these three groups include four signs. The Cardinal, Fixed and Mutable modes are more or less represented in your natal chart, depending on planets' positions and importance, and on angles in the twelve signs.

The Fixed mode corresponds to a majority of elements in your chart, Satyajit Ray, and represents the desire for security and durability: you are able to concretely appreciate a situation and its stability. You definitely prefer to play the role of a loyal, obstinate and hard-working person, rather than to try new and risky experiences - beware, however, not to confuse obstinacy with intransigence. You structure, cement, and strengthen everything you find on your way: it is your nature, although you are not especially interested in swiftness: slow and steady...

The twelve signs are divided into two polarities, called active or passive, or sometimes masculine and feminine, positive and negative, Yang and Yin. This classification corresponds to two quite distinct tonalities, the first one bringing extraversion, action, self-confidence and dynamism, the second one, introversion, reactivity, reflection and caution. None is superior to the other, each group has its own assets and shortcomings. Odd signs - Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Sagittarius and Aquarius - belong to the first group, whereas even signs - Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn and Pisces - belong to the second group.

N.B.: this dominant is a minor one. It is not essential that you read its meaning in the beginning. You can get back to them later on, once you have read more important interpretations.

According to the disposition and qualities of your planets and angles, you are rather influenced by Yin energy, the passive polarity, Satyajit Ray: you are quite introverted, imaginative and sometimes discreet, but you are a deep and wise person who is not content with just noisy and flashy things. At times, you doubt but you think that those who don't are a bit... thoughtless. Allow yourself to take more laid-back attitudes and put your reserve aside, because good equilibrium is always healthier.

Each sign contains 30 degrees and can be divided into three equal parts: the decanates. The Tradition indicates that specific meanings can be associated to each of the three decanates. Their sphere of activity is usually limited to the Sun sign, however, it is even more interesting to observe the distribution of all the planets in the chart to get an idea of the respective importance of the three decanates, which can complement the description of the personality.

These meanings must be considered with the greatest caution. Indeed, they are minor characteristics that can only underline other outstanding traits of character.

Traditionally, the first decanate highlights the characteristics of the sign where a planet is located. The two other decanates correspond to sub-dominant planets, depending on the nature of each sign. This system leads to a multiplication of meanings and it is impossible to have a clear understanding: here, we prefer to give only the meaning of one decanate in comparison with the other two, within the birth chart as a whole. Again, the greatest caution is needed with regard to this minor indication as it is not always reliable: it is not essential that you read these texts in the beginning. You can get back to them later on, once you have read more important interpretations

The first decanate, which means the part between 0° and 10° of any zodiacal sign, prevails in your natal chart, Satyajit Ray: this decanate is traditionally linked to vitality and physical constitution, and may indicate that you efficiently express your concrete energy on the material and sensual planes.

Dominants: Planets, Signs and Houses for Satyajit Ray

The issue of dominant planets has existed since the mists of time in astrology: how nice it would be if a person could be described with a few words and one or several planets that would represent their character, without having to analyse such elements as rulerships, angularities, houses, etc!

The ten planets - the Sun throughout Pluto - are a bit like ten characters in a role-play, each one has its own personality, its own way of acting, its own strengths and weaknesses. They actually represent a classification into ten distinct personalities, and astrologers have always tried to associate one or several dominant planets to a natal chart as well as dominant signs and houses.

Indeed, it is quite the same situation with signs and houses. If planets symbolize characters, signs represent hues - the mental, emotional and physical structures of an individual. The sign in which a planet is posited is like a character whose features are modified according to the place where he lives. In a chart, there are usually one, two or three highlighted signs that allow to rapidly describe its owner.

Regarding astrological houses, the principle is even simpler: the twelve houses correspond to twelve fields of life, and planets tenanting any given house increase that house's importance and highlight all relevant life departments: it may be marriage, work, friendship etc.

In your natal chart, Satyajit Ray, the ten main planets are distributed as follows:

The three most important planets in your chart are Neptune, Uranus and Moon.

With Neptune as one of your three dominant planets, you are a secretive and ambiguous person, often confused or unclear about your own motivations! Indeed, you are endowed with unlimited imagination and inspiration, as well as with an extreme sensibility that may turn you into a psychic or a clairvoyant. On the other hand, your impressionability is such that you may have difficulties in separating what is concrete and solid from illusions or dreams.

A mystic, a visionary or a poet, you daydream, like any Neptunian, and you see what few people only can see, all of this being shrouded in aesthetic mists when you are fired with enthusiasm.

A boundless, infinity-loving man like you is inevitably likely to be more vulnerable and easily hurt because of your acute perception of events. In such cases, you are hit full in the face, and you may sink into gloomy daydreamings and dark melancholy.

That said, this mysterious aura definitely gives you an indefinable charm in the eyes of your close friends who are often fascinated by your unique ability to feel and to see what ordinary people can never see!

Uranus is among your dominant planets: just like Neptune and Pluto, Uranian typology is less clearly defined than the so-called classical seven planets that are visible to the naked eye, from the Sun to Saturn. However, it is possible to associate your Uranian nature with a few clear characteristics: Uranus rhymes with independence, freedom, originality, or even rebelliousness and marginality, when things go wrong...

Uranus is Mercury's higher octave and as such, he borrows some of its traits of character; namely, a tendency to intellectualize situations and emotions with affective detachment, or at least jagged affectivity.

Therefore, you are certainly a passionate man who is on the lookout for any kind of action or revolutionary idea, and you are keen on new things. Uranians are never predictable, and it is especially when they are believed to be stable and well settled that... they change everything - their life, partner, and job! In fact, you are allergic to any kind of routine, although avoiding it must give way to many risks.

The Moon is one of the most important planets in your chart and endows you with a receptive, emotive, and imaginative nature. You have an innate ability to instinctively absorb atmospheres and impressions that nurture you, and as a result, you are often dreaming your life away rather than actually living it.

One of the consequences of your spontaneity may turn into popularity, or even fame: the crowd is a living and complex entity, and it always appreciates truth and sincerity rather than calculation and total self-control.

As a Lunar character, you find it difficult to control yourself, you have to deal with your moods, and you must be careful not to stay passive in front of events: nothing is handed on a plate, and although your sensitivity is rich, even richer than most people's, you must make a move and spare some of your energy for... action!

In your natal chart, the three most important signs - according to criteria mentioned above - are in decreasing order of strength Taurus, Pisces and Virgo. In general, these signs are important because your Ascendant or your Sun is located there. But this is not always the case: there may be a cluster of planets, or a planet may be near an angle other than the Midheaven or Ascendant. It

may also be because two or three planets are considered to be very active because they form numerous aspects from these signs.

Thus, you display some of the three signs' characteristics, a bit like a superposition of features on the rest of your chart, and it is all the more so if the sign is emphasized.

With the Taurus sign so important in your chart, you are constructive, stable, and sensual. Good taste, sense of beauty, manners, and unfailing good sense - all these qualities contribute to your charm and seductive power. Furthermore, if some people criticize your slow pace and your stubbornness, you rightly reply that this is the price for your security, and that you like the way it is - slow and steady....

Pisces is among your dominant signs and endows your personality with unlimited sources of emotions, dreams, imagination, and sensitivity, to the extent that you literally swim in a cloudy ocean of delightful impressions. These impressions are so intense and overwhelming that you don't really need to take action concretely, to show your dynamism or your willpower, since you already live so intensely with your feelings - you are as keen as a radar, always on the alert! That is why some people may not like your carelessness, and the lack of clarity in your opinions or actions; however they quickly notice your artistic talents, your poetic or artistic side, and your total lack of wickedness. Besides, you feel compassion for people in pain - empathy is one of your great qualities. Thanks to your flexibility, your intuition, and your generosity, you may spend an important part of your life helping others. And if you are creative or if you have well-known artistic talents, everybody will forgive your little flaws: absent-mindedness, lack of energy or of will, too dreamy temperament...

Virgo, associated with perfectionism, numbers and reason, is among your dominant signs: you inherit its sense of responsibility and tidiness, a clear mind, an unfailing logic, as well as a need to be useful and to fulfil your task to the best of your abilities. Obviously, people may think that you are too modest or reserved, suspicious or pessimistic because of your exceedingly critical mind, but aren't logic and wisdom great qualities? Of course, they are. Moreover, you keep your feet on the ground, you never behave irrationally and you are helpful and hardworking - what more can you ask for?!

After this paragraph about dominant planets, of Satyajit Ray, here are the character traits that you must read more carefully than the previous texts since they are very specific: the texts about dominant planets only give background information about the personality and remain quite general: they emphasize or, on the contrary, mitigate different particularities or facets of a personality. A human being is a complex whole and only bodies of texts can attempt to successfully figure out all the finer points.

Your sensitivity

Your sensitivity is all on edge, Satyajit Ray, and your emotions so deep, your imagination, so lively, that you are often found in the sweet realm of dreams. You create your own fantastical world with entangled fragments of current reality, romantic souvenirs and hidden hopes. Your receptiveness is so intense that it may border on mediumship or, more disturbing and rare, you may have hallucinations. Your character fluctuates according to the stimulation of the moment but in general, you are a nice person, full of gentleness and romanticism, always ready to understand and to dedicate yourself. You have real healing powers, would it be only through your ability to instinctively understand other people's sufferings. Your affective structures can be likened to a roving radar. You are vulnerable, hurt by the slightest aggression and easily influenced because you are unable to step back from people and events; therefore, you may start to be doubtful and lose the self-confidence that you so badly need to progress.

Your intellect and your social life

Your mind is calm and balanced; even though you assimilate slowly, your memory is remarkable. Your judgment is based on reflection and reason and draws on past experiences. Satyajit Ray, you are a good adviser, a reliable person whom people can confide in discreetly. You are full of good sense, cautious, methodical and disciplined and you are able to carry many good projects to a successful conclusion. You are very opinionated and determined in your actions. However, your tendency for intolerance and prejudices may offend your entourage. They wish that you exercised more flexibility instead of systematically refusing what cannot be immediately checked. You

usually express yourself with a lot of charm and this is what allows you to get people to better accept your well-established habits.

Your affectivity and your seductiveness

In your chart, the Sun is in Taurus and Venus, in Aries. Venus in Aries' ingenuous spontaneity opposes the Taurean Sun's constructive scepticism. In the affective sphere, you respond to novelty and to first meetings' emotions. There is an unquenchable thirst for experience and for the desire to preserve the natural (or reckless) characteristic of a budding relationship. This spontaneous infatuation is opposed by Taurus' major concern: to take the time to live and to experience a fulfilment that never occurs instantly. The danger with this zodiacal duet lies in its contradictions; Aries' untimely crazes upset Taurus' well being. Or, conversely, you may try to maintain at any cost (Sun in Taurus) a dying love. If the flames of the beginnings are ready to be roused, the Taurean will needs to guard against uncertain changes, which is opposed to the Venusian thirst for emotions. Taurus slows down Aries. Equilibrium is achieved! The big advantage with this configuration is that it provides a clever and subtle balance between instinct of self-preservation and desire to live intensely. When it is well integrated, this Aries-Taurus type allows to smoothly fuel a relationship – but not without clashes and emotions – which lives on an extraordinary vitality, over and over again.

Love at first sight, flash in the pan, amorous impulsiveness? All these are part of your way of loving or to fall in love, Satyajit Ray. Throughout your relationship, you maintain this kind of jerky and lively style, that may seem childish or naïve, but that is so generous and cheerful! You are undeniably possessive and you are not concerned with your partner's opinion but, fortunately, you readily forgive because of your spontaneity and your authenticity. When your relationship is intense, everything is fine. There is no romanticism, no complications with you. You love with ardour and, except for a few crazes and opportunities for new pastures here and there, the only danger may be that boredom settles in. In that case, you leave without regret and you quickly forget what consumed you, not so long ago.

Your will and your inner motivations

Peace, joy of life and sensuality are essential to you: You have a simple and quiet nature. You easily find happiness because you are not competitive. In addition, your relaxed attitude and your common sense always take you to places where you are happy, even though you are not the number one, even though you do not move in haste. The important thing for you is to construct, with patience and persistence. These two qualities yield strong, steadfast, and sustainable efforts that can withstand any pitfalls.

You are gentle, with a slow thinking process, but once you have opted for an orientation, nothing, no one, can make you change your mind. You loathe changes in general, and once you have taken the few major unavoidable decisions in the course of your life, you are on track!

As you are born under this sign, you are loyal, steadfast, strong, patient, enduring, persistent, attached, sensual, realistic, constructive, tenacious, with a strong need for security. But you may also be stubborn, rigid, possessive, materialistic, static and slow.

In love, Sir, more often than not, your passions are strong. It may take you some time to be moved, but once you choice is made, it is a lasting one and you are particularly endearing and loyal. You are not interested in infidelity or in having numerous partners.

Your love emerges slowly but it grows in depth, like a root which solidifies with time. You are not too romantic because you are so practical and conventional… but your style and your sexiness compensate for your lack of idealism. You tend to associate the concept of marriage with that of lifestyle or of the benefits that come with it.

Your physical urges are pressing; you are sensual and pleasure takes an important place in your life. You appreciate partners who cook like a cordon-bleu and who may cause a few gastronomic excesses, but you readily accept them.

Your ability to take action

Satyajit Ray, the way you take action gains in power and in precision what it loses in rapidity and spontaneity. You are “slow”, certainly. But when you get started, you put all your ingenuity and your persistence into it and you love to see a job well done. At the end of the day, owing to your ways, you are the winner. In your sex life, similarly, you are generous and instinctive and your slowness is not an obstacle. It may even bring fulfilment to you, but above all, to your partner! In love, as well as in your exchanges in general, you tend to keep your worries to yourself because you are extremely patient; you don't say anything, you stand all the hits and one day, you explode into outbursts of anger that are as violent as they are rare, thanks God.

Conclusion

This text is only an excerpt from of Satyajit Ray's portrait. We hope that it will arouse your curiosity, and that it will prompt you to deepen your knowledge of astrology, as well as to visit and use the wide range of free applications atwww.astrotheme.com.

Astrological studies describe many of the character traits and they sometimes go deeper into the understanding of a personality. Please, always keep in mind that human beings are continuously evolving and that many parts of our psychological structures are likely to be expressed later, after having undergone significant life's experiences. It is advised to read a portrait with hindsight in order to appreciate its astrological content. Under this condition, you will be able to take full advantage of this type of study.

The analysis of an astrological portrait consists in understanding four types of elements which interact with one another: ten planets, twelve zodiacal signs, twelve houses, and what are called aspects between planets (the 11 aspects most commonly used are: conjunction, opposition, square, trine, sextile, quincunx, semi-sextile, sesqui-quadrate, quintile and bi-quintile. The first 5 aspects enumerated are called major aspects).

Planets represent typologies of our human psychology: sensitivity, affectivity, ability to undertake, will-power, mental process, aptitude, and taste for communication etc., all independent character facets are divided here for practical reasons. The twelve signs forming the space where planets move will "colour", so to speak, these typologies with each planet being located in its particular sign. They will then enrich the quality of these typologies, as expressed by the planets. The Zodiac is also divided into twelve astrological houses. This makes sense only if the birth time is known because within a few minutes, the twelve houses (including the 1st one, the Ascendant) change significantly. They correspond to twelve specific spheres of life: external behaviour, material, social and family life, relationship, home, love life, daily work, partnership, etc. Each planet located in any given house will then act according to the meaning of its house, and a second colouration again enriches those active forces that the planets symbolize. Finally, relations will settle among planets, creating a third structure, which completes the planets' basic meanings. A set of ancient rules, which has stood the test of experience over hundreds of years (although astrology is in evolution, only reliable elements are integrated into classical studies), are applied to organize the whole chart into a hierarchy and to allow your personality to be interpreted by texts. The planets usually analysed are the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, which means two luminaries (the Sun and the Moon) and 8 planets, a total of 10 planets. Additional secondary elements may be taken into account, such as asteroids Chiron, Vesta, Pallas, Ceres (especially Chiron, more well-known), the Lunar nodes, the Dark Moon or Lilith, and even other bodies: astrology is a discipline on the move. Astrological studies, including astrological portrait, compatibility of couples, predictive work, and horoscopes evolve and become more accurate or deeper, as time goes by.

Numerology: Birth Path of Satyajit Ray

Testimonies to numerology are found in the most ancient civilizations and show that numerology pre-dates astrology. This discipline considers the name, the surname, and the date of birth, and ascribes a meaning to alphabetic letters according to the numbers which symbolise them.

The path of life, based on the date of birth, provides indications on the kind of destiny which one is meant to experience. It is one of the elements that must reckoned with, along with the expression number, the active number, the intimacy number, the achievement number, the hereditary number, the dominant numbers or the lacking numbers, or also the area of expression, etc.

Your Birth Path: 

Your life path is influenced by the number 2, Satyajit, which brings about a life marked by cooperation and team spirit. The activities which suit you best are related to conciliation or mediation. You must develop your social reinsertion abilities, and rely on specialised associations in order to achieve the course of your life. You are far from being a loner, and you try to have the best people in your entourage because you know that union means strength. This is also how you choose your colleagues. On the professional plane, you are the perfect partner, capable of taking into account each and everyone's specificities, and of fitting nicely into a team. However, you still need to increase the sense of initiative which you sometimes lack, because your shyness, added to your naivety, may prevent you from getting off the beaten path and encourage you to remain content with what you have already acquired. In many circumstances, one can only rely on oneself! In order to achieve your projects and your ambitions, you must strike a good balance between association and personal determination.

Satyajit Ray was born under the sign of the Rooster, element Metal

Chinese astrology is brought to us as a legacy of age-old wisdom and invites us to develop an awareness of our inner potential. It is believed that the wise man is not subjected to stellar influences. However, we must gain the lucidity and the distance without which we remain locked up in an implacable destiny. According to the legend of the Circle of Animals, Buddha summoned all the animals to bid them farewell before he left our world. Only twelve species answered Buddha's call. They form the Chinese Zodiac and symbolize the twelve paths of wisdom that are still valid nowadays.

The Asian wise man considers that a path is neither good nor bad. One can and must develop one's potentialities. The first step is to thoroughly know oneself.

You hate to go unnoticed! With a touch of vanity in your soul, you are fond of situations that allow you to highlight your qualities and your plans. You have a fundamental optimism that generally earns you your entourage's support.

This sign indicates ambition and facilitates integration and social achievement. The desire to earn general consideration prompts you to behave with liveliness, joviality and benevolence.

The only dark cloud on this idyllic picture: a certain opportunism. As you strive to earn each and everyone's esteem, you risk to compromise yourself. It is important that, under any circumstances, you keep the clear-sightedness that allows you to follow a direction on a long-term basis, without behaving like the people for whom "any opportunity is to be seized".

Nevertheless, this sign remains a factor of success: most often, you are able to adjust your objectives to the context and to whatever the situation may offer or, on the contrary, you influence events in order to make your ideals come true.

Better than anyone else, you manage to become the centre of attention, to highlight your good disposition, to surprise, even to impress! You are careful about your image and you do not shrink from any sacrifice in order to appear to be up to all situations.

Nevertheless, your attachments are not superficial. The Rooster is credited with the capacity to be present whenever a crisis arises and to remain faithful to his friends, under all circumstances!

Chinese astrology has five elements, which are referred to as agents: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water.

You have a deep affinity with the agent Metal. In China, this element corresponds to the planet Venus, the white colour and the number 9.

Your nature is individualistic and determined, and you seldom shrink from obstacles. The only advice that can be given to you is to show more flexibility and diplomacy. Moreover, life's pitfalls often stimulate you. On the other hand, you are acknowledged for your decisiveness which commands admiration. You follow your ideas through, discarding external opinions and viewpoints and you bring your enterprises to a successful conclusion, even if it means that you go it alone.

Your decisions are so inflexible and your choices, so final, that your intransigence may bring about a few setbacks. Therefore, it is important that you develop the tolerance that you are naturally lacking. It is only at this price that you can achieve a harmonious social and intimate life.

The prevailing features are your persuasion powers, a faith that moves many a mountain and overcomes the most resistant obstacles. But so many struggles looming...