There is probably nothing left to say about Satyajit Ray that has not already been said. Not only an exceptional director and the creator of Private Investigator Feluda, Ray was also a film critic, author, illustrator, music composer, calligrapher, publisher and graphic designer. An Economics graduate, Ray was always enchanted by the Arts. He joined Rabindranath Tagore's Viswa Bharati on his mother's persistence where he learned and contributed to some of the defining factors of his oeuvre. But after Ray met french filmmaker Jean Renoir and watched The Bicycle Thief by Vittorio De Sica he resolved to become a filmmaker. The rest, as they say was history. He went on to make 36 feature films, documentaries and shorts. In what might seem like an unbelievable fact, along with numerous international awards, Ray was awarded 32 National Awards, an honorary Academy Award and a Bharat Ratna in 1992. To celebrate the filmmaker that he was, we bring 15 of his best films, in no particular order. Apur Sansar (1959) What makes Apur Sansar, the third installation of The Apu Trilogy, a masterpiece? Of all the answers one can come up with, the most winning would be the fact that Apu is a highly-flawed character, taken to superstitions and despair. Ray made a much-loved hero without infusing him with heroism, love and just general hero-like qualities. When Aparna is left at the altar without a groom, it does not come naturally to Apu that he should go and marry her. When he is left alone with an infant - his own child - he runs away leaving the child with his grandparents. Ray did in 1959 what our current directors would not have the courage to do.

Goopi Gayen Bagha Bayen (1968)

There is hardly any competition to the adorableness of this fantasy adventure comedy. This brilliant movie is basically all the folktales you heard as a child come to life. Goopi is an aspiring singer with a hoarse voice who has been banished from the kingdom for daring to sing in front of the king. Bagha had suffered the same fate but for his terrible drum playing skills. They meet in a forest and from thereon it is just a roller coaster ride to conquer the world, so to say. See this movie as an epic poem and you will not be disappointed. It must take a special kind of genius to make something like Shatranj Ke Khiladi on one hand and a children's movie like Goopi Gayen Bagha Bayen on the other.

Devi (1960)

Based on a short story by Provatkumar Mukhopadhyay, Devi is a very clever take on superstitions and fallacies that people are so quick to believe in. Dayamoyee is married to Umaprasad. One night, Dayamoyee's father-in-law, a devout Kali follower, dreams that she is an avatar of Kali and must be worshiped. Things get out of hand when Dayamoyee begins to believe the same. Devi draws the line between the sacred and the mundane, blind belief and reason.