FDF Film Photo and Summary Index

Indian cinema: All genres
Aparajito (1956)

Satyajit Ray

After the death of their daughter, Harihar and Sarbojaya leave their ancestral village in Bengal and move to the city of Banaras, to start a new life with their ten-year-old son Apu. Whilst Sarbojaya stays at home in the family’s squalid apartment, Harihar earns a meagre income by performing religious duties. With his parents unable to pay for his schooling, Apu spends his days playing in the streets with his new friends... [More...]

Apur Sansar (1959)

Satyajit Ray

Apu has completed his studies but, despite being a graduate, he is unable to find work. Living in a small rented room in Calcutta, he just manages to survive by pawning his books and giving private lessons. He hopes one day to be a great writer and so he occupies himself by writing a novel based on his life experiences. One day, he is visited by his university friend Pulu, who invites him to attend his cousin’s wedding in his ancestral village... [More...]

Charulata (1964)

Satyajit Ray

Calcutta, 1879. Bhupati Dutta is the proprietor of a political newspaper which is struggling to attract a readership. Whilst he buries himself in his work, his wife Charulata languishes alone in their large house, with nothing to do except give orders to servants and read books. Noticing his wife’s boredom, Bhupati invites her elder brother Umapada and his wife Manda to live with them. Whilst Umapada makes himself useful by managing Bhupati’s printing press, Manda tries to divert Charulata, without much success... [More...]

The Chess Players (1977)

Satyajit Ray

In 1856, Oudh is one of the last provinces in India that has not entirely succumbed to British control. Owing to concessions made to the British government some years ago, it remains an independent Muslim kingdom, ruled by the popular monarch Wajid Shah. But the situation is about to change. The British now intend to take control of Oudh to strengthen their position in India. General Outram is sent by the Governor General, Lord Dalhousie, to find a pretext for Wajid’s dethronement... [More...]

The Elephant God (1979)

Satyajit Ray

Feluda, one of Calcutta’s sharpest detectives, decides to take a holiday in Benaras, the old holy town on the banks of the River Ganges. He is accompanied by his cousin Topshe and his friend Lalmohan Ganguly, a renowned writer. Feluda has barely had time to unpack his suitcase when he is invited to the house of a wealthy Bengali family and entrusted with the recovery of a stolen idol of the Elephant God, Ganesha... [More...]

Gandhi (1982)

Richard Attenborough

After being subjected to racial intimidation in South Africa, Indian lawyer Mohandas Gandhi organises a non-violent campaign of opposition to the country’s discriminatory laws. When he succeeds in getting these laws repealed, he returns to his native India, and a hero’s welcome. Gandhi is persuaded to support the campaign for Indian independence, but he does so on the understanding that there will be no violence on the Indian side... [More...]

Kapurush (1965)

Satyajit Ray

Amitabha Roy is a young screenwriter who is making a tour of rural India in search of inspiration for his next film. When his car breaks down in a remote backwater, tea planter Bimal Gupta invites him to spend the night at his home. With nowhere else to stay, Amitabha has no choice but to accept the kind offer. He can hardly believe his eyes when he discovers that Gupta’s wife is Karuna, a girl he was once deeply in love with... [More...]

Mahanagar (1963)

Satyajit Ray

In 1950s Calcutta, Subrata Mazumdar is a bank employee who earns barely enough to support his family. As well as his wife Arati and his young son, Subrata must provide for his sister-in-law and his two elderly parents, who live with him in his cramped city apartment. With little encouragement from her husband, Arati applies for a position as a door-to-door sales girl and, to her surprise, gets the job... [More...]

Nayak (1966)

Satyajit Ray

Arindam Mukherjee, a major star of Bengali cinema, is invited to Delhi to receive a prestigious award for his work. As it is too late to book a flight, he must take the train from Calcutta. Arindam is not keen to make the journey but knows he must attend the awards ceremony for appearances’ sake. His latest film has been written off as a flop and newspapers are filled with lurid accounts of a brawl he got himself into the day before... [More...]

Pather Panchali (1955)

Satyajit Ray

A poor Bengal village in the 1920s. Like many of his people, Harihar Ray struggles to earn enough money to keep his family from starvation. An educated man, he has dreams of becoming a writer, but with a family to support he must put these ambitions on hold. He works as a bookkeeper for a local landlord, but his earnings are meagre and often overdue. His wife Sarbajaya finds the hardship she must endure increasingly intolerable and vents her frustration on her daughter Durga, berating her for stealing fruit from a neighbour’s garden to feed her old aunt, the crippled beggar woman Indir... [More...]

Pratidwandi (1971)

Satyajit Ray

Siddhartha is a 25-year-old graduate whose inability to find a job is slowly alienating him from the world around him. Since he abandoned his training at medical school, he has drifted along, not knowing what he wants from life. Siddhartha now lives in a crowded Calcutta apartment with his mother and two younger siblings. He disapproves of his sister, who flirts with her boss to improve her career prospects, and is indifferent to his brother’s involvement with bomb-making revolutionaries... [More...]

The River (1951)

Jean Renoir

On the banks of a great river in India, an English family enjoys an idyllic existence. Father is the owner of a jute mill which employs hundreds of local people. Mother is content with bringing up her adorable children, the eldest being her teenage daughters Harriet and Valerie. Their neighbour is Mr John, an Irishman who married an Indian woman and who has a daughter, Melanie. One day, Mr John acquires an unexpected houseguest, his cousin Captain John, who is convalescing after sustaining an injury in the war which cost him one of his legs... [More...]