Signé Satyajit Ray

"There is always room for improvisation "- Satyajit Ray(showed before the last episode starting) But that doesn't mean you can change the soul of a story. You people are naming the series as RAY, creating completely different stories without even thinking what was the morality of the original ones, then you shouldn't 'promote' it using Satyajit Ray's name. Only the part 3 of the series is good because it has preserved the point of view of the original one. But rest of the three are completely new stories with just a little bit of resemblance with the original stories. I'm not saying that the stories are bad. They are somewhat good. But the anthology should not be called as "Ray".

For 'Cineasts', Satyajit Ray is a widely publicized figure. A Legend, A Maestro, and above all, a Nation's pride. Celebrated worldwide by and large because of The 'Apu Trilogy'; but little do they know he was also an Author, Composer, Script Writer, Calligrapher, and so many more. The number of masteries this man had was unparalleled in his time. Following Ray's 100th birthday, the long-awaited announcement came through in the shape of 'Ray'; an anthology produced by Netflix; accomplished using short stories written by Satyajit Ray himself. Four in particular.

Now let me review them one at a time...

Forget Me Not (Original:- Bipin Chowdhury's Smritibhrom) Cast - Ali Faizal, Anindita Bose, Shweta Basu Prasad Director - Srijit Mukherji Rating - 4.5/5

Under Srijit Mukherji's opportune administration; we get a gripping narrative that adumbrates a prodigy's gradual descent towards lunacy. A bright intellect's descending declension resulting in inevitable misery & desolation! By dint of an Esthetic set-up and likewise composition; the feel of uneasiness slowly intensifies! Elevated through terrific acts coming from the gifted ensemble. Notably, from Ali Faizal; who deserves some plaudits.

Bahrupiya (Original:- Bahurupi) Cast - Kay Kay Menon, Bidita Bag, Rajesh Sharma Director - Srijit Mukherji Rating - 3.5/5

An otherwise lousy script only uplifted through Kay Kay Menon's competent performance, this one has more to do with Morals that are incorporated deep within such contemporaneous narration! An eloquent portrayal of Insatiability, Infatuation, and Unswerving Desire for Vindictiveness. As well as the eventual decadence that awaits down the road for our main protagonist! In spite of the fact that there's a dearth of pensive depth in the Writing; Mr. Mukherji's able stewardship sort of makes up for it!

Hungama Hain Kyon Barpa (Original:- Barin Bhowmick-er Byaram) Cast - Manoj Bajpai, Gajraj Rao Director - Abhishek Chaubey Rating - 4/5

Simplistic storytelling with an undertone of Dry Humour, that's how I would like to recapitulate my all-inclusive impression. I couldn't help but laud Abhishek Chaubey's prowess as the director here; especially for all those seamless transitions & articulative framings. He made his presence known, that's for sure! Yet, the focal point undoubtedly was on the enticing duo Manoj Bajpai and Gajraj Rao. Mildly speaking, the palpable dynamic between these two guys was off the charts!

Spotlight (Original:- Spotlight) Cast - Harshvardhan Kapoor, Radhika Madan, Chandan Roy Sanyal Director - Vasan Bala Rating - 3/5

With countless citations based off of Satyajit Ray's several other works; Vasan Bala happens to be the most devout fanboy in here! Be it in the visuals, locations or simply referring to Ray's popular directorials such as 'Mahapurush', 'Kapurush', 'Jai Baba Felunath' etc. Vasan made up his mind to pay homage to Ray, by utlising his very own rendition; which abounds in surrealism, satire, and straight out inanity! 'Kafkaesque Nightmare' as cinephiles would tell. Not everyone's cup of tea though! Harshvardhan Kapoor & Radhika Madan are two of the most underrated actors and I'm just glad they seized this opportunity to truly demonstrate the inherent abilities they possess.

In conclusion, we got little bit of everything. Thriller, Drama, Humour, Satire! However, I do feel this 'Collectanea' couldn't reach the designated point of contentment for the orthodox fans. As these are all adaptations, not word for word transcription; every single story has been largely altered and modified. So just keep in mind that these are not the purest forms of the source materials! And I am perfectly aware of the dissatisfaction among Ray's loyal followers due to the same reason. The way I see it, all the creations of Satyajit Ray are so multifaceted in nature that they can be interpreted in all kinds of ways! And that's quite the core 'Essence' what made people fall in love with his artistry in the first place.

Netflix movies generally come out with a decent amount of noise. This was no different.

A totally reverse nature of TV series, I mean four concluding movies I was really looking forward to it.

Sadly after watching all, feels like none of them were even average. A total letdown!

I have many critical complains for the 4 parts series. But the plot is itself so loose, I wouldn't be able to go past that in a regular sized review.

Ali Fazal looked like he's playing an entrepreneur in a college play. Having an entourage walk while you give instructions and then enter with style is done a gazillion times with exact same camera angles and punching dialogues to show he's a star entrepreneur when that's far away from real world. I wouldn't pick up nitty gritty details until when people call it a masterpiece. The going back his "past" scene is full of Old Boy when the protagonist goes to his school and chases his younger self through the multiple floors. That scene is picked up blatantly from the dark gory classic. Though the twist is fun, until then nothing is.

KKs story has so many loose ends. It builds up to give you expectations towards a horror thriller while it deviates directions midway to make a baba it's main character out of the blue and that leaves us wondering what was the purpose of spending so much build up on others. They could have brushed those plots much quicker. You are made to care for other characters like his land owner, boss and his crush, only to be made unimportant in the final 3/4th of the story. That leaves me with, "really?"

Manojs story is well directed, they cleverly use a theater as an exposition machine to the backdrop. But you can see the twist from a mile coming. When the twist starts looking predictable, I believe the director should rush to the ending than make us wait to offer the same. It's a terrible drag.

The final one has Harshvardhan Kapoor. Enough said. Just to add a little more, it's another terrible drag.

The short stories have been given more details to enlarge them into a full fledged 1 hour independent films, which led to the demise of what could have been an engaging interesting set of short films.

Rating: 9

Short stories written by the late maestro Satyajit Ray, envisioned by brilliant directors and a stellar cast! Satyajit Ray was a gem. I have always wanted to see more of his work but couldn't find much of his curations. H. P. Lovecraft and Satyajit Ray, they were ahead of their time and I would love to see screen adaptations based on their work.

I absolutely loved this Netflix series. It has an Indian Black Mirror vibe to it. The performances were brilliant and stories were mind blowing. We need more such stories. India has a lot of content to offer, take in account our vast history/myths/folklore etc The soundtrack and colors used are placid and appealing. I have noticed that good movies generally have the same color palette :) I could compare the color palette to Tumbbad or Dev D.

I haven't watch many Bollywood movies as they are kind of redundant and only a handful are top notch yet undervalued. Would appreciate if more of these type of movies come in play rather than the unauthentic and infamous masalas. Brilliant series, a must watch!