Sandip Ray says he's yet to watch Netflix India's anthology based on father Satyajit Ray's short stories

As the Netflix anthology of four short films based on the story of Satyajit Ray have evoked mixed reaction from viewers, Ray’s son Sandip said he would soon watch the films to have his own opinion. The anthology released in Rays centenary year has Srijit Mukherji’s Forget Me Not, Abhishek Chaubey’s Hungama Hai Kyon Barpa, Mukherji’s Bahrupiya and Vasan Bala’s Spotlight. Sandip said he has watched the promo of the film but it was important to see an entire work to form one’s own opinion. Sandip, who has helmed several feature films on Ray’s popular fictional sleuth Feluda, told Press Trust of India he had given consent to the international OTT platform Netflix to use four stories of his father for the anthology but didn’t want to be kept in the loop about scripting, narration style and adaptation as that was the prerogative of the concerned directors assigned with the project. “I will soon see all the four works to have my own opinion but I will form that opinion only as an individual,” he said. Sandip said, “I am hearing both praises and criticisms and that is quite natural for any work of art, including something adapted from the works of a personality like Ray.” He, however, commented during a conversation with PTI that since a large section of the readers of these short stories (three of which were published in Ray-edited children’s magazine Sandesh and one in Anandamela) were young adolescents it was important to retain their interest in the films. Srijit Mukherji, who had recently said in a media interview that he was ready for criticism from a section of “purist readers especially Bengalis who may not be ready for any tinkering with Ray’s stories’’ narrative” but he knew there will be many others who will be engrossed as the plot will progress. Without himself posting any comments the national award-winning director from Bengal posted series of tweets that praised the handling of Ray short stories by him and two other directors. One such tweet by a netizen shared by the Chotuskon director on microblogging site read “Congrats @srijitspeaketh @alifazal9 & #ShwetaBasuPrasad for an enjoyable adaptation of a Ray story. It was always going to be a challenge; I think #ForgetMeNot is true to the soul of a #SatyajitRay story. Also, the master would have approved of the beautiful shots of #AjantaCaves.”