Satyajit Ray first placed India on the map of world cinema with his 1955-classic Pather Panchali. In a career spanning nearly four decades and including twenty-seven feature films, Ray is undoubtedly the most-known Indian film-maker till date. It will probably not be an exaggeration to state that in Indian cinema Ray’s profiling of characters and his casting acumen resulted in some of the best on-screen performances it has ever seen. This book examines some of the most memorable characters put up by the maverick on the silver screen.