It may not be unlikely for people to ask why the Society decided to organize a Satyajit Ray Festival atr all.

The reasons are not far to seek. As stated, restoration and preservation of the priceless Ray legacies is an avowed objective of the Society. Another object is the dissemination of the maestro’s work. The festival was an exercise in dissemination.

But there was yet another reason. The Society had for some time looking for ways of setting up a Satyajit Ray Heritage Centre in or around the hometown of the master director. Lack of funds was a roadblock. So the Society resolved they should hold a festival on a large scale which would serve the twin purposes of dissemination and fundraising. The idea was to raise the seed money required to start the construction of the Heritage Centre. Perhaps now the time has come to say that the Society is on the threshold of turning their vision into a reality.

Ray was not merely a filmmaker. Apart from having a complete mastery over all areas of filmmaking, Ray was an author, essayist, editor of a magazine for children, lyricist, music composer, typographer and artist. And the last but not the least, he was also a consummate photographer whose output of still photographs was as large and impressive as it was rich in its variety.

As part of the festival, the Society, in association with the Birla Academy, presented, for the first time ever in the world, a large exhibition of Ray’s artworks and photographs, which form a significant part of the Society’s archive. The exhibition was inaugurated by renowned painter Jogen Choudhury at one of the galleries of the Birla Academy on 3 May, in the presence of such film luminaries as Mrinal Sen, Javed Akhtar, Dhritiman Chaterji, Sandip Ray , Haradhan Bannerjee, Dipankar De, Pradip Mukherjee, Barun Chanda and others.

The opening of the exhibition was followed by another ceremony on the Birla Academy grounds where D.N. Ghose, president of the Society, announced that a small part of the Festival proceeds would go to fund the Society’s ongoing work of the restoration and preservation of the priceless Ray legacies and the rest was to be used to begin the construction of the Satyajit Ray Heritage Centre. The representatives of the organization that had sponsored the festival inauguration were felicitated. Javed Akhtar, poet, lyricist and screenplay writer, then delivered his scintillating Satyajit Ray Memorial Lecture and took questions from the audience. Dhritiman Chaterji was the Master of Ceremony.

A two-part quiz contest was held at the auditorium of the Birla Academy on the evening of 5 May. The first part featured a quiz contest on Ray’s life and work, while the second was on Feluda, the super-sleuth Ray immortalized in his fiction and films. Students from schools, colleges and universities situated in Kolkata and other parts of Bengal participated. The quiz contest was conducted by Somenath Roy.

A debate on the motion, ‘Bengali cinema has forgotten the heritage of Satyajit Ray, was held at the Birla Academy auditorium on the evening of 6 May. It was moderated by  Dhritiman Chaterji. Well-known authors, filmmakers, actors, journalists, and TV personalities such as Saibal Mitra,  Tilottama Majumdar, Sangeeta Banerjee, Anindyo Chayyerjee, Sudipta Chakraborty, Rajat Roychoudhury, Bidipta Chakraborty and Ujjal Chakraborty attended the debate as speakers.

Three plays based on Ray stories (Anukul, Apsara Theatre-er Maamla and Bonku Babur Bondhu), were staged at Star theatre by three leading drama groups of Kolkata, Theatre Passion, Charbak and Swapnasandhani, on 8, 9 and 10 May.

The Society chose to screen three documentaries and a short by Ray, namely Rabindranath Tagore, The Inner Eye, Sukumar Ray and Two, at the Birla Academy auditorium on 7 May. The same evening, the Satyajit Ray Festival shifted to the Star theatre with an enthralling musical performance by Bhoomi, a popular Bangla Band.

There were yet other musical programmes. The Aul Baul orchestra played Ray music on 9 May, while the following morning Chandrabindoo, another popular Bangla Band, entertained the audience with their performance as a closing treat.

Madhabi Mukherjee, the actress who played the lead female roles in three major Ray classics, and Bibhas Chakraborty, a leading stage director and actor, were present as chief guest on 8 and 10 May, respectively. O.P. Bhatt, chairman of the State Bank of India who was present as special guest on 8 May, paid a glowing tribute to Ray and acclaimed the Society’s long and patient efforts in restoring and preserving the Ray legacies.