TORONTO: The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is showcasing the works of legendary Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray this month.

The 24-day long cinematic event, starting August 4, is not part of the festival itself, which is scheduled for September, but a platform to celebrate the birth centenary of the director, born in 1921, though delayed by a year due to global restrictions inflicted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The ten-film set though is not just a retrospective of Ray’s films, but takes a broader approach. Titled Satyajit Ray: His Contemporaries and Legacy, the selection is curated by Mumbai-based programmer Meenakshi Shedde.

Four of Ray’s celebrated creations will feature, opening with Charulata, released in 1964, and his “personal favourite”, according to Shedde. Also to be screened are Devi from 1960, Nayak from 1966 and Shatranj ke Khilari from 1977.

TIFF will also showcase four films from his peers: Ritwik Ghatak’s Subarnarekha, and Aparna Sen’s Mr and Mrs Iyer. Also available will be Mani Kaul’s “astonishing, avant-garde documentary” Siddheshwari and Pakistan director AJ Kardar’s Jago Hua Savera, a Bengali film shot in what was then East Pakistan, though its maker was from what was then West Pakistan.

Then there is the 2010 documentary Nainsukh, made by Amit Dutta, “which drew inspiration from both Ray and Kaul”, and Anik Dutta’s Aparajito, released just this year and “a charming primer on how Ray made his first film”, according to Shedde.

Shedde told the Hindustan Times that TIFF planned to have the screenings “to kind of coincide with our Independence Day”, so that’s how the scheduling worked out to include August 15. The programming is supported by India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and its consulate in Toronto.

Shedde, who has curated programming globally including thrice before with TIFF Cinematheque, said they decided to “open up the canon” by choosing films that weren’t just by Ray but also celebrated the filmmaking milieu of the time through the lens of his contemporaries as well as his influence through younger filmmakers, to create “a holistic picture”.

“It is celebrating the centenary, of course, but it is also wider in scope,” she said of the selection.

Getting films made this century, by younger directors, was crucial for Shedde to “appeal to a younger generation” that may not have been exposed to Ray at all.

Ray emerged as a cinematic force in 1955 with his debut film, Pather Panchali. He ended up with an eclectic output of 37 works and was awarded a Honorary Oscar in 1992. “A polymath and leader of India’s parallel cinema movement in the 1950s, he questioned the nation’s post-independence legacy, including poverty, patriarchy, and corruption – yet his films remained deeply humanist, and usually hopeful”, is Shedde’s description of his exceptional career.