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The history Bengali cinema dates back to era of Royal Bioscope Company and Indo British film Co., in 1918. But what Ray gave to the Bengali cinema changed the course of history of the Indian cinema. In the timeline of the Indian cinema, Satyajit Ray evolved as an illustrious phase, still proving its valor down the ages.

The film career of Ray started with Pather Panchali, adapted from the famous book written by Bibhutibhusan Bandopadhyay. He showed his talents as a film maker lavishly in the very first opportunity. This film along with the other two, called Aparajito and Apur Sansar is collectively known as the Apu Trilogy. It revolves around a small village boy, who goes to the city for higher studies and later establishes a world of his own there, totally uprooted from his origins.

In Apu Trilogy what Ray portrayed was a making of a modern human being, i.e. Apu, which happened for the first time in Indian Cinema. As per the history of mankind, human settlements grew up as villages which later became cities and even bigger cities. With the Industrial revolution, more and more manufacturing works in the cities led to generation of income and job opportunities. People from far off places came to the cities to earn a better living. This exodus is termed as the beginning of the modern era.

Apu being a village boy has no idea about a modern world outside, but he is portrayed as inquisitive and innovative. The famous sequence where he and his elder sister Durga run through the field to watch the steam engine is a tale in itself. Train is an important symbol of the modern era as it was the age of speed. In the sequence, Apu could reach the train but by the time Durga reaches it, the train is already gone. Later in the film Durga dies of fever. These events symbolize that Apu, with his clear thoughts and urge to do something new, could adapt to the changing world whereas Durga could not, so she had to leave the world.

In Apu trilogy, the death of the family members one after the other led to a new beginning for Apu and a window of opportunity for him. In the film Aparajito, Apu finishes his school years and wanted to go to Calcutta for higher studies. Once in the city, he got lost in the grandeur of such a scale. The city is held responsible for separating a son from his mother. In Apur Sansar, Ray depicted “one of the cinema’s classic affirmative depiction of married life” which again runs into the death of Apu’s wife and later a new development in Apu’s life with his son.    

Apart from being successful as a film director, Ray also made a mark in giving music for his films. He introduced a unique style of blending western music with Indian and folk, to produce a spectacular effect which is the trademark of his films.