Satyajit Ray is India's greatest filmmaker and his importance in the international world of cinema has long been recognised. Darius Cooper's study of Ray is the first to examine his rich and varied work from a social and historical perspective, and to situate it within Indian aesthetics. Providing analyses of selected films, including those that comprise The Apu Trilogy, Chess Players, and Jalsaghhar, among others, Cooper outlines Western influences on Ray's work, such as the plight of women functioning within a patriarchal society, Ray's political vision of the 'doubly colonised', and his attack and critique of the Bengali/Indian middle class of today. The most comprehensive treatment of Ray's work, The Cinema of Satyajit Ray makes accessible the oeuvre of one of the most prolific and creative filmmakers of the twentieth century.

"Well-informed descriptions of Indian society and history contextualize the author's careful presentation of each film's plot and hist well-grounded comments about the fim maker's stylistic decisions. Cooper writes lucidly enough that even upper-division undergraduates can make use of the book...an excellent jumping-off point for future studies of Ray's cinema." Choice

"...is clearly an important contribution to our knowledge of Satyajit Ray's films... The great strength of the book is that it provides an innovative and detailed analysis of many of Ray's films, and anyone with an interest in Ray should read this book. In addition, it adds an important dimension to cinema studies and will, therefore, be useful to anyone who is interested in world cinema." Herman Van Olphen, Journal of Asian Studies