Customer Reviews

The Cinema of Satyajit Ray: Between Tradition and Modernity (Cambridge Studies in Film)

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Darius Cooper's approach seems interesting and brave at the outset, but is really just a manufactured generic and shallow "Indian aesthetic," which boils down to a few Sanskrit words taken from some translated anthologies and superimposed over Ray's work. Whlie it might be acceptable to assume that certain Indian aesthetic ideas were pervasive throughout its history, there is absolutely no attempt to show that Ray ever would have looked into or cared for 1000-year old aesthetic theories of Sanskrit writers. The selective and specific theories and terms that Cooper applies with his interpretations, are forced to fit atop the text.

Cooper's attack on western readings of Ray's films that 'seem to suffer from a very serious lack of critical understanding of the social historical and cultural traditions of India..." raises a legitimate concern and his critique of the flat out wrong way in which the Krishna myth is superimposed on the story of Apu by a number of critics is right on point. The problem is, he simply takes a slightly more esoteric text and does the same thing. India is big. Where is the continuity between a tenth century Kashmiri writing about drama and the 20th century Bengali filmmaker?

This is a poor piece of scholarship, often a mere incorporation fof italicized Sanskrit words which add no elucidation to the interpretation, coupled with a whiny critique of prior Ray criticism. For Cooper, all "abhinaya" ends up meaning is gesture. Then why not just say gesture.

At his absolute worst, Cooper takes from the published screenplay as transalted by Shampa Banerjee and interprets dialogue from this screenplay that was NOT IN THE FILM!! At other times, he is more culturally ignorant than your worst 19th century white man's burden-type "scholar," as when he makes the sweeping generalizatoin that "In a Hindu family, the wife is never expected to speak to her husband except from a position of subservience. That is her social standing. She must have her sari over her had, and her face has to be partially covered in her husband's presence." What?? Says who? In the post-Gandhi post independence age, this is simply the way all "hindus" behave? It gets to the point where even his dedications, to "my Apus" and "my Ray woman" are annoying. This is the worst book on film criticism I have ever read. Somehow he played the whole "niche" market and wearing his nationalist agenda on his sleeve ("As an Indian myself") weakens the book further without giving him any of the authority he somehow seems to expect in matters of Sanskrit aesthetic theory.

An excellent introduction to the films of Satyajit Ray. The author, who grew up in India, spent years of study at the cinema department at the University of Southern California. This illuminating book grows out of his professional studies and deep personal reflection. Highly recommended!

this book was the in-depth analysis of this great Director's work. Cooper is one of the first authors to really deconstruct the films of Satyajit Ray into a consolidated, comprehensive, and meaningful text. I hope to see more of this up and coming author sooner!