title: The Little Mermaid

text: "The Little Mermaid" was written in 1836 and first published by C.A. Reitzel in Copenhagen on 7 April 1837 in the first collection of "Fairy Tales Told for Children." ("Eventyr, fortalte for Børn. Første Samling. Tredie Hefte. 1837"). The story was republished on 18 December 1849 as a part of "Fairy Tales. 1850" ("Eventyr. 1850") and again on 15 December 1862 as a part of the first volume of "Fairy Tales and Stories." ("Eventyr og Historier. Første Bind. 1862").


title: The Little Mermaid

text: The ending with the mermaid's death and resurrection caused debate and critique. P. L. Travers, author of "Mary Poppins" and noted folklore commentator, wrote, "This final message is more frightening than any other presented in the tale. The story descends into the Victorian moral tales written for children to scare them into good behavior... Andersen, this is blackmail. And the children know it and say nothing. There's magnanimity for you."


title: The Little Mermaid

text: Other scholars like Jacob Bøggild and Pernille Heegaard notice the ending's shift away from tragedy as well. They point out that the events leading up to the mermaid's death should culminate in tragedy, but that the sudden twist allows the narrative to finish on a hopeful success. Bøggild and Heegaard argue that this disjointed ending was not the result of Andersen's sentimentality and religious beliefs, which have been attributed to his choice to stray from the tragic path he established in the rest of the narrative, but a conscious choice for ambiguity that stemmed from Andersen's skepticism towards idealized physical and religious symbols.


title: The Little Mermaid

text: However, other critics including Søren Baggesen and James Massengale have argued that the ending is not tacked on, but is a natural part of the story's structure as a religious narrative. The working title of the story was "Daughters of the Air," which are spirits who, as Andersen conceived them, can earn souls by doing three hundred years' worth of good deeds. At the end of the story, one of these spirits explains to the Little Mermaid that they do as many good things for humankind as they are able so that, at the end of those years, they can receive an immortal soul and "take part in the happiness of mankind". The spirits also explain that because the Little Mermaid refused to kill the Prince and has spent so much time in pain while still doing good things for men, she has "raised [herself] to the spirit-world" and can participate in the three hundred years of good deeds alongside the Daughters of the Air.


title: The Little Mermaid

text: Andersen was influenced by "Undine", another story of a mermaid gaining a soul through marriage, but felt that his ending was an improvement. In 1837, shortly after completing his manuscript, Andersen wrote to a friend, "I have not, like de la Motte Fouqué in "Undine", allowed the mermaid's acquiring of an immortal soul to depend upon an alien creature, upon the love of a human being. I'm sure that's wrong! It would depend rather much on chance, wouldn't it? I won't accept that sort of thing in this world. I have permitted my mermaid to follow a more natural, more divine path." Andersen was concerned that the story's meanings would appeal best to adults, but wrote in the foreword to "Fairy Tales Told for Children," "I dare presume, however, that the child will also enjoy it and that the denouement itself, plainly considered, will grip the child."


title: The Little Mermaid

text: In Maria Tatar's "The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales", the transformation of the little mermaid from sea creature to mermaid in human form, and then to a creature of the air, is believed to reflect Andersen's constant engagement with mutability and changes in identity. Tatar also suggests that the Little Mermaid did not give up everything for love alone. Tatar's interpretation of the tale is one that presents a rare heroine with an investigative curiosity which is shown through the mermaid's fascination of the unknown, the forbidden, and her intent on broadening her horizons from the start. Even before she sees the prince, she displays an intense longing to visit the world above the sea through her actions such as: arranging the flowers in her garden into the shape of the sun, listening to her grandmother and sisters' stories of the surface, and peeking in through the window of the prince's cabin during his birthday celebrations. Tatar argues that the mermaid wants, above all, to explore the world and discover things that are beyond what she already knows. The world above seems larger than her own and holds a greater range of possibilities to exercise her adventurous spirit. This is demonstrated in some versions of the story when the prince has a page boy's costume made for her so that she may ride on horseback and explore the land with him. Here, her willingness to cross-dress implies a willingness to transgress gender boundaries and take risks to be able to see the world. Tatar feels this also comments on Andersen's interests in changes in identity.


title: The Little Mermaid

text: In her analysis, Virginia Borges concludes that the story contains a message about love and self-sacrifice, and the dangers of accepting abuse or inconsiderate treatment in the name of love.


title: The Little Mermaid

text: Susan White interprets the story as the difficult liminal passage of the girl into the order of speech and social symbolism (power, politics, and agency) which is symbolically understood as masculine.


title: The Little Mermaid

text: The artist Pen Dalton has made use of Laura Mulvey's interpretation of fetishism in art to link "The Little Mermaid" to the wearing of fetishistic clothes, and obsessive cosmetic surgery with masculine fears of loss.


title: The Little Mermaid

text: Rictor Norton, in "My Dear Boy: Gay Love Letters through the Centuries", theorizes that "The Little Mermaid" was written as a love letter by Hans Christian Andersen to Edvard Collin. This is based on a letter Andersen wrote to Collin, upon hearing of Collin's engagement to a young woman, around the same time that the Little Mermaid was written. Andersen wrote "I languish for you as for a pretty Calabrian wench... my sentiments for you are those of a woman. The femininity of my nature and our friendship must remain a mystery." Andersen also sent the original story to Collin. Norton interprets the correspondence as a declaration of Andersen's homosexual love for Collin, and describes "The Little Mermaid" as an allegory for Andersen's life.


title: The Little Mermaid

text: In 1958, NBC began airing a new television show titled "Shirley Temple's Storybook", an American children's anthology series that was hosted and narrated by actress Shirley Temple. The series features adaptations of fairy tales like Mother Goose and other family-oriented stories performed by well-known actors. The first season of sixteen black-and-white and colored episodes aired on NBC between 12 January 1958, and 21 December 1958, as "Shirley Temple's Storybook". Thirteen episodes of the first season re-ran on ABC beginning on 12 January 1959. The second season of twenty-five color episodes aired on NBC as "The Shirley Temple Show" between 18 September 1960, and 16 July 1961 in much the same format that it had under its original title.


title: The Little Mermaid

text: The show aired their adaptation of "The Little Mermaid" on 5 March 1961 as episode 22 during the show's second season. Shirley Temple herself played the mermaid. Unlike the original story, the mermaid does not give up her voice to become human, but she still fails to win the prince's heart when he falls in love with the princess who found him. In the end, when she cannot bring herself to kill the prince with the dagger, she prepares to throw herself into the sea. Neptune himself intervenes and says that for her selfless act, she has earned the right to become a mermaid again and rejoin her family, giving the story a happy ending.


title: The Little Mermaid

text: This 1976 Russian feature film was directed by Vladimir Bychkov and starred Viktoriya Novikova as the mermaid. The story is set in the 13th century. The mermaid saves the prince from drowning, after other mermaids mesmerize the sailors into crashing their ship on to the rocks. The prince is saved by a local princess under whose care he recovers. The mermaid seeks to marry the prince. A traveling handyman tries to help the mermaid in her love. He finds a local witch who changes her tail into legs in exchange for her hair. The prince marries the local princess and the mermaid is destined to die on the same day. The traveling handyman challenges the prince to a fight and is killed. His sacrifice spares the mermaid from death and her soul becomes eternal.


title: The Little Mermaid

text: Disney's "The Little Mermaid" is a 1989 American animated musical fantasy romance film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and distributed by Buena Vista Pictures Distribution. Loosely based on the original tale, the 1989 Disney film tells the story of a mermaid princess named Ariel, who dreams of becoming human, especially after falling in love with a human prince named Eric. Written, produced, and directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, with music by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman (who also served as a co-producer), the film features the voices of Jodi Benson, Christopher Daniel Barnes, and Pat Carroll among others.


title: The Little Mermaid

text: "The Little Mermaid" was originally planned as part of one of Walt Disney's earliest feature films, a proposed package film featuring vignettes of Hans Christian Andersen tales. Development started in the late 1930s but was delayed due to various circumstances. In 1985, Ron Clements became interested in a film adaptation of "The Little Mermaid" while he was serving as a director on "The Great Mouse Detective" (1986). Clements discovered the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale while browsing through a bookstore. Believing the story provided an "ideal basis" for an animated feature film and keen on creating a film that took place underwater, Clements wrote and presented a two-page treatment of "Mermaid" to Disney CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, who approved of the idea for possible development the next day. While in production in the 1980s, the staff by chance found the original story and visual development work done by Kay Nielsen for Disney's proposed 1930s Andersen feature. Many of the changes made by the staff in the 1930s to Hans Christian Andersen's original story were coincidentally the same as the changes made by Disney writers in the 1980s.


title: The Little Mermaid

text: A statue of "The Little Mermaid" sits on a rock in the Copenhagen harbor in Langelinie. This small and unimposing statue is a Copenhagen icon and a major tourist attraction.


title: The Little Mermaid

text: The statue was commissioned in 1909 by Carl Jacobsen, son of the founder of Carlsberg, after he had been fascinated by a ballet based on the fairy tale. The sculptor Edward Eriksen created the statue, which was unveiled on 23 August 1913. His wife, Eline Eriksen, was the model for the body. Ellen Price, the ballerina who danced the Little Mermaid in the 1909 Royal Danish Ballet production, was the model for the head and face. The statue has been severely vandalized several times.


title: The Little Mermaid

text: In May 2010, it was moved from its Copenhagen harbor emplacement for the first time ever, for transport to Expo 2010 in Shanghai, where it remained until 20 November 2010.


title: The Little Mermaid

text: A statue of 'The Little Mermaid' looks out over Larvotto beach in Monaco. She was created, in 2000, with layers and layers of metal by Kristian Dahlgard, in hommage to the Danes who live in Monaco and for the late Prince Rainier III to mark the 50th year of his reign.


title: Sindh

text: Sindh (; ; , ; historically romanized as Sind) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the southeastern region of the country, Sindh is the third-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the second-largest province by population after Punjab. It shares land borders with the Pakistani provinces of Balochistan to the west and north-west and Punjab to the north. It shares International border with the Indian states of Gujarat and Rajasthan to the east; it is also bounded by the Arabian Sea to the south. Sindh's landscape consists mostly of alluvial plains flanking the Indus River, the Thar Desert in the eastern portion of the province along the international border with India, and the Kirthar Mountains in the western portion of the province.


title: Sindh

text: The economy of Sindh is the second-largest in Pakistan after the province of Punjab; its provincial capital of Karachi is the most populous city in the country as well as its main financial hub. Sindh is home to a large portion of Pakistan's industrial sector and contains two of the country's busiest commercial seaports: Port Qasim and the Port of Karachi. The remainder of Sindh consists of an agriculture-based economy and produces fruits, consumer items and vegetables for other parts of the country.


title: Sindh

text: Sindh is sometimes referred to as the "Bab-ul Islam" (), as it was one of the first regions of the Indian subcontinent to fall under Islamic rule. Parts of the modern-day province were intermittently subject to raids by the Rashidun army during the early Muslim conquests, but the region did not fall under Muslim rule until the Arab invasion of Sind occurred under the Umayyad Caliphate, headed by Muhammad ibn Qasim in 712 CE. Ethnic Sindhi people constitute the largest group in the province; Sindh is also the place of residence for the overwhelming majority of Muhajirs (), a multiethnic group of Indian Muslims who migrated to the region after the Partition of British India in 1947. The province is well known for its distinct culture, which is strongly influenced by Sufism, an important marker of Sindhi identity for both Hindus and Muslims. Several important Sindhi Sufi shrines are located throughout the province and attract millions of devotees annually.


title: Sindh

text: Sindh is prominent for its history during the Bronze Age under the Indus Valley civilization, and is home to two UNESCO-designated World Heritage Sites: the Makli Necropolis and Mohenjo-daro.


title: Sindh

text: The Greeks who conquered Sindh in 325 BC under the command of Alexander the Great referred to the Indus River as "Indós", hence the modern "Indus". The ancient Iranians referred to everything east of the river Indus as "hind". The word "Sindh" is a Persian derivative of the Sanskrit term "Sindhu," meaning "river" - a reference to Indus River.


title: Sindh

text: Southworth suggests that the name "Sindhu" is in turn derived from "Cintu", a Dravidian word for date palm, a tree commonly found in Sindh.


title: Sindh

text: The previous spelling "Sind" (from the Perso-Arabic ) was discontinued in 1988 by an amendment passed in Sindh Assembly, and is now spelt "Sindh."


title: Sindh

text: Sindh's first known village settlements date as far back as 7000 BC. Permanent settlements at Mehrgarh, currently in Balochistan, to the west expanded into Sindh. This culture blossomed over several millennia and gave rise to the Indus Valley civilization around 3000 BC.


title: Sindh

text: Sindh was the centre of the Indus Valley civilisation, which rivaled the contemporary civilizations of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia in size and scope, numbering nearly half a million inhabitants at its height with well-planned grid cities and sewer systems.


title: Sindh

text: The primitive village communities in Balochistan were still struggling against a difficult highland environment, a highly cultured people was trying to assert itself at Kot Diji. This was one of the most developed urban civilizations of the ancient world. It flourished between the 25th and 15th centuries BC in the Indus valley sites of Mohenjo Daro and Harappa. The people had a high standard of art and craftsmanship and a well-developed system of quasi-pictographic writing which remains un-deciphered. The ruins of the well planned towns, the brick buildings of the common people, roads, public baths and the covered drainage system suggest a highly organized community.


title: Sindh

text: There is no evidence of large palaces or large tombs for the elite. The grand and presumably holy site might have been the great bath, which is built upon an artificially created elevation. This civilization collapsed around 1700 BC for reasons that are uncertain; the cause is hotly debated and may have been a massive earthquake, which dried up the Ghaggar River. Skeletons discovered in the ruins of Moan Jo Daro ("mount of dead") were thought to indicate that the city was suddenly attacked and the population was wiped out, but further examinations showed that the marks on the skeletons were due to erosion and not of violence.


title: Sindh

text: The ancient city of Roruka, identified with modern Aror/Rohri, was capital of the Sauvira Kingdom, and finds mentioned early Buddhist literature as a major trading center. Sindh finds mention in the Indian epic "Mahabharata" as being part of Bharatvarsha. Sindh was conquered by the Persian Achaemenid Empire in the sixth century BC. In the late fourth century BC, Sindh was conquered by a mixed army led by Macedonian Greeks under Alexander the Great. The region remained under control of Greek satraps for only a few decades. After Alexander's death, there was a brief period of Seleucid rule, before Sindh was traded to the Mauryan Empire led by Chandragupta in 305 BC. During the rule of the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka, the Buddhist religion spread to Sindh.


title: Sindh

text: Mauryan rule ended in 185 BC with the overthrow of the last king by the Shunga Dynasty. In the disorder that followed, Greek rule returned when Demetrius I of Bactria led a Greco-Bactrian invasion of India and annexed most of the northwestern lands, including Sindh. Demetrius was later defeated and killed by a usurper, but his descendants continued to rule Sindh and other lands as the Indo-Greek Kingdom. Under the reign of Menander I, many Indo-Greeks followed his example and converted to Buddhism.


title: Sindh

text: In the late second century BC, Scythian tribes shattered the Greco-Bactrian empire and invaded the Indo-Greek lands. Unable to take the Punjab region, they invaded South Asia through Sindh, where they became known as Indo-Scythians (later Western Satraps). By the first century AD, the Kushan Empire annexed Sindh. Kushans under Kanishka were great patrons of Buddhism and sponsored many building projects for local beliefs. Ahirs were also found in large numbers in Sindh. Abiria country of Abhira tribe was in southern Sindh.


title: Sindh

text: The Kushan Empire was defeated in the mid-3rd century AD by the Sassanid Empire of Persia, who installed vassals known as the Kushanshahs in these far eastern territories. These rulers were defeated by the Kidarites in the late fourth century.


title: Sindh

text: It then came under the Gupta Empire after dealing with the Kidarites. By the late fifth century, attacks by Hephthalite tribes known as the Indo-Hephthalites or "Hunas" (Huns) broke through the Gupta Empire's northwestern borders and overran much of northwestern India.


title: Sindh

text: Afterwards, Sindh came under the rule of Emperor Harshavardhan, then the Rai Dynasty around 478. The Rais were overthrown by Chachar of Alor around 632. The Brahman dynasty ruled a vast territory that stretched from Multan in the north to the Rann of Kutch, Alor was their capital.


title: Sindh

text: The connection between the Sindh and Islam was established by the initial Muslim invasions during the Rashidun Caliphate. Al-Hakim ibn Jabalah al-Abdi, who attacked Makran in the year AD 649, was an early partisan of Ali ibn Abu Talib. During the caliphate of Ali, many Jats of Sindh had come under the influence of Shi'ism and some even participated in the Battle of Camel and died fighting for Ali. Under the Umayyads (661 – 750 AD), many Shias sought asylum in the region of Sindh, to live in relative peace in the remote area. Ziyad Hindi is one of those refugees.


title: Sindh

text: Muhammad Ali Jinnah claimed that the Pakistan movement started when the first Muslim put his foot on the soil of Sindh, which he labelled the "Gateway of Islam" in India.


title: Sindh

text: In 712, Muhammad bin Qasim conquered the Sindh and Indus Valley, bringing South Asian societies into contact with Islam. Raja Dahir Sen was a Hindu king that ruled over a Buddhist majority and that Chach of Alor and his kin were regarded as usurpers of the earlier Buddhist Rai Dynasty, a view questioned by those who note the diffuse and blurred nature of Hindu and Buddhist practices in the region, especially that of the royalty to be patrons of both and those who believe that Chach may have been a Buddhist. The forces of Muhammad bin Qasim defeated Raja Dahir in alliance with the Hindu Jats and other regional governors.


title: Sindh

text: In 711 AD, Muhammad bin Qasim led an Umayyad force of 20,000 cavalry and 5 catapults. Muhammad bin Qasim defeated the Raja Dahir and captured the cities of Alor, Multan and Debal. Sindh became the easternmost State of the Umayyad Caliphate and was referred to as "Sind" on Arab maps, with lands further east known as "Hind". Muhammad bin Qasim built the city of Mansura as his capital; the city then produced famous historical figures such as Abu Mashar Sindhi, Abu Ata al-Sindhi, Abu Raja Sindhi. At the port city of Debal, most of the Bawarij embraced Islam and became known as Sindhi Sailors, who were renowned for their navigation, geography and languages. After Bin Qasim left, the Arab Caliphate ruled Sindh through the Governors.


title: Sindh

text: By the year 750, Debal (modern Karachi) was second only to Basra; Sindhi sailors from the port city of Debal voyaged to Basra, Bushehr, Musqat, Aden, Kilwa, Zanzibar, Sofala, Malabar, Sri Lanka and Java (where Sindhi merchants were known as the Santri). During the Decline of the Abbasid Caliphate in 860s, the Habbari dynasty became semi-independent and was eliminated and Mansura was invaded by Sultan Mahmud Ghaznavi. Sindh then again became an easternmost client State of the Later Abbasid Caliphs ruled by the Soomro Dynasty until the siege of Baghdad (1258). Mansura was the first capital of the Soomra Dynasty and the last of the Habbari dynasty. Muslim geographers, historians and travelers such as al-Masudi, Ibn Hawqal, Istakhri, Ahmed ibn Sahl al-Balkhi, al-Tabari, Baladhuri, Nizami, al-Biruni, Saadi Shirazi, Ibn Battutah and Katip Çelebi wrote about or visited the region, sometimes using the name "Sindh" for the entire area from the Arabian Sea to the Hindu Kush.


title: Sindh

text: When Sindh was under the Arab Umayyad Caliphate, the Arab Habbari dynasty was in control. The Umayyads appointed Aziz al Habbari as the governor of Sindh. Habbaris ruled Sindh until Sultan Mahmud Ghaznavi defeated the Habbaris in 1024. Sultan Mahmud Ghaznavi viewed the Abbasid Caliphate to be the caliphs thus he removed the remaining influence of the Umayyad Caliphate in the region and Sindh fell to Abbasid control following the defeat of the Habbaris. The Abbasid Caliphate then appointed Al Khafif from Samarra; 'Soomro' means 'of Samarra' in Sindhi. The new governor of Sindh was to create a better, stronger and stable government. Once he became the governor, he allotted several key positions to his family and friends; thus Al-Khafif or Sardar Khafif Soomro formed the Soomro Dynasty in Sindh; and became its first ruler. Until the siege of Baghdad (1258), the Soomro dynasty was the Abbasid Caliphate's functionary in Sindh, but after that it became independent.


title: Sindh

text: When the Soomro dynasty lost ties with the Abbasid Caliphate after the siege of Baghdad, the Soomra ruler Dodo-I established their rule from the shores of the Arabian Sea to the Punjab in the north and in the east to Rajasthan and in the west to Pakistani Balochistan. The Soomros were one of the first indigenous Muslim dynasties in Sindh of Parmar Rajput origin. They were the first Muslims to translate the Quran into the Sindhi language. The Soomros created a chivalrous culture in Sindh, which eventually facilitated their rule centred at Mansura. It was later abandoned due to changes in the course of the Puran River; they ruled for the next 95 years until 1351. During this period, Kutch was ruled by the Samma Dynasty, who enjoyed good relations with the Soomras in Sindh. Since the Soomro Dynasty lost its support from the Abbasid Caliphate, the Sultans of Delhi wanted a piece of Sindh. The Soomros successfully defended their kingdom for about 36 years, but their dynasties soon fell to the might of the Sultanate of Delhi's massive armies such as the Tughluks and the Khaljis.


title: Sindh

text: In 1339 Jam Unar founded a Sindhi Muslim Rajput Samma Dynasty and challenged the Sultans of Delhi. He used the title of the "Sultan of Sindh". The Samma tribe reached its peak during the reign of Jam Nizamuddin II (also known by the nickname Jám Nindó). During his reign from 1461 to 1509, Nindó greatly expanded the new capital of Thatta and its Makli hills, which replaced Debal. He patronized Sindhi art, architecture and culture. The Samma had left behind a popular legacy especially in architecture, music and art. Important court figures included the poet Kazi Kadal, Sardar Darya Khan, Moltus Khan, Makhdoom Bilawal and the theologian Kazi Kaadan. However, Thatta was a port city; unlike garrison towns, it could not mobilize large armies against the Arghun and Tarkhan Mongol invaders, who killed many regional Sindhi Mirs and Amirs loyal to the Samma. Some parts of Sindh still remained under the Sultans of Delhi and the ruthless Arghuns and the Tarkhans sacked Thatta during the rule of Jam Ferozudin.


title: Sindh

text: According to Dr. Akhtar Baloch, Professor at University of Karachi, and Nadeem Wagan, General Manager at HANDS, the Balochi migrated from Balochistan during the Little Ice Age and settled in Sindh and Punjab. The Little Ice Age is conventionally defined as a period extending from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, or alternatively, from about 1300 to about 1850. According to Professor Baloch, the climate of Balochistan was very cold during this epoch and the region was uninhabitable during the winters so the Baloch people emigrated in waves to Sindh and Punjab.


title: Sindh

text: In the year 1524, the few remaining Sindhi Amirs welcomed the Mughal Empire and Babur dispatched his forces to rally the Arghuns and the Tarkhans, branches of a Turkic dynasty. In the coming centuries, Sindh became a region loyal to the Mughals, a network of forts manned by cavalry and musketeers further extended Mughal power in Sindh. In 1540 a mutiny by Sher Shah Suri forced the Mughal Emperor Humayun to withdraw to Sindh, where he joined the Sindhi Emir Hussein Umrani. In 1541 Humayun married Hamida Banu Begum, who gave birth to the infant Akbar at Umarkot in the year 1542.


title: Sindh

text: During the reign of Akbar the Great, Sindh produced scholars and others such as Mir Ahmed Nasrallah Thattvi, Tahir Muhammad Thattvi and Mir Ali Sir Thattvi and the Mughal chronicler Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak and his brother the poet Faizi was a descendant of a Sindhi Shaikh family from Rel, Siwistan in Sindh. Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak was the author of "Akbarnama" (an official biographical account of Akbar) and the "Ain-i-Akbari" (a detailed document recording the administration of the Mughal Empire).


title: Sindh

text: Shah Jahan carved a subah (imperial province), covering Sindh, called Thatta after its capital, out of Multan, further bordering on the Ajmer and Gujarat subahs as well as the rival Persian Safavid empire.


title: Sindh

text: During the Kalhora period, Sindhi literature began to flourish and historical figures such as Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, Sulatn-al-Aoliya Muhammad Zaman and Sachal Sarmast became prominent throughout the land. In 1603 Shah Jahan visited the State of Sindh; at Thatta, he was generously welcomed by the locals after the death of his father Jahangir. Shah Jahan ordered the construction of the Shahjahan Mosque, which was completed during the early years of his rule under the supervision of Mirza Ghazi Beg. During his reign, in 1659 in the Mughal Empire, Muhammad Salih Tahtawi of Thatta created a seamless celestial globe with Arabic and Persian inscriptions using a wax casting method.


title: Sindh

text: Sindh was home to several wealthy merchant-rulers such as Mir Bejar of Sindh, whose great wealth had attracted the close ties with the Sultan bin Ahmad of Oman.


title: Sindh

text: In the year 1701, the Kalhora Nawabs were authorized in a firman by the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb to administer subah Sindh.


title: Sindh

text: From 1752 to 1762, Marathas collected Chauth or tributes from Sindh, and was administered by 10,000 marathas Maratha power was decimated in the entire region after the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761. In 1762, Mian Ghulam Shah Kalhoro brought stability in Sindh, he reorganized and killed all the Marathas and their prominent vassal the "Rao of Kuch" in the Thar Desert with the help of Durrani empire. However the Marathas briefly again invaded Sindh in 1772.


title: Sindh

text: After the Sikhs annexed Multan, the Kalhora Dynasty supported counterattacks against the Sikhs and defined their borders.


title: Sindh

text: In 1783 a firman was issued which designated Mir Fateh Ali Khan Talpur as the new "Nawab of Sindh", and mediated peace particularly after the Battle of Halani and the defeat of the ruling Kalhora by the Talpur Baloch tribes.


title: Sindh

text: The Talpur dynasty was established by members of the Talpur tribe. The Talpur tribes migrated from Dera Ghazi Khan in Punjab to Sindh on the invitation of Kalhora to help them organize unruly Baloch tribes living in Sindh. Talpurs, who learned the Sindhi language, settled in northern Sindh. Very soon they united all the Baloch tribes of Sindh and formed a confederacy against the Kalhora Dynasty.


title: Sindh

text: Four branches of the dynasty were established following the defeat of the Kalhora dynasty at the Battle of Halani in 1743: one ruled lower Sindh from the city of Hyderabad, another ruled over upper Sindh from the city of Khairpur, a third ruled around the eastern city of Mirpur Khas, and a fourth was based in Tando Muhammad Khan. The Talpurs were ethnically Baloch, and Shia by faith. They ruled from 1783, until 1843, when they were in turn defeated by the forces of the East India Company at the Battle of Miani and Dubbo. The northern Khairpur branch of the Talpur dynasty, however, continued to maintain a degree of sovereignty during the period colonial rule as the princely state of Khairpur, whose ruler elected to join the new Dominion of Pakistan in October 1947 as an autonomous region, before being fully amalgamated in the West Pakistan in 1955.


title: Sindh

text: In 1802, when Mir Ghulam Ali Khan Talpur succeeded as the Talpur Nawab, internal tensions broke out in the state. As a result, the following year the Maratha Empire declared war on Sindh and Berar Subah, during which Arthur Wellesley took a leading role causing much early suspicion between the Emirs of Sindh and the East India Company administration. The East India Company made its first contacts in the Sindhi port city of Thatta, which according to a report was:


title: Sindh

text: "a city as large as London containing 50,000 houses which were made of stone and mortar with large verandahs some three or four stories high ... the city has 3,000 looms ... the textiles of Sindh were the flower of the whole produce of the East, the international commerce of Sindh gave it a place among that of Nations, Thatta has 400 schools and 4,000 Dhows at its docks, the city is guarded by well armed Sepoys".


title: Sindh

text: Bengal Presidency forces under General Charles James Napier arrived in Sindh in the mid-19th century and captured Sindh in February 1843. The Baloch coalition led by Talpur under Mir Nasir Khan Talpur was defeated at the Battle of Miani during which 5,000 Talpur Baloch were killed in action. Shortly afterwards, Hoshu Sheedi commanded another army at the Battle of Dubbo, where 5,000 Baloch were also killed in action.


title: Sindh

text: The first Agha Khan, who was escaping persecution in Persia and looking for an ally, helped the East India Company in their capture of Sindh. As a result, he was granted a lifetime pension.


title: Sindh

text: A British journal by Thomas Postans mentions the Sindhi Amirs as prisoners of war: "The Amirs as being the prisoners of 'Her Majesty'... they are maintained in strict seclusion; they are described as Broken-Hearted and Miserable men, maintaining much of the dignity of fallen greatness, and without any querulous or angry complaining at this unlivable source of sorrow, refusing to be comforted". Within weeks, Charles Napier and his forces occupied Sindh.


title: Sindh

text: After 1853, the Company administration divided Sindh into districts and later made it part of the Bombay Presidency.


title: Sindh

text: In the year 1868, the Bombay Presidency assigned "Narayan Jagannath Vaidya" to replace the Abjad used in Sindhi, with the "Khudabadi script". The script was decreed a standard script by the Bombay Presidency thus inciting anarchy in the Muslim majority region. A powerful unrest followed, after which twelve separate periods of martial law were imposed by the colonial government.


title: Sindh

text: During the period of Company rule,the city saw the rise of nationalist leaders such as Sibghatullah Shah Rashidi, who pioneered the Sindhi Muslim Hur Movement. He was hanged on 20March 1943 in Hyderabad, Sindh. His burial place is unknown.


title: Sindh

text: During the colonial period, railways, printing presses and bridges were introduced in the province. Writers like Mirza Kalich Beg compiled and traced the literary history of Sindh. Although Sindh had a culture of religious syncretism, communal harmony and tolerance due to Sindh's strong Sufi culture in which both Sindhi Muslims and Sindhi Hindus partook, the mostly Muslim peasantry was oppressed by the Hindu moneylending class and also by the landed Muslim elite. Sindhi Muslims eventually demanded the separation of Sindh from the Bombay Presidency, a move opposed by Sindhi Hindus.


title: Sindh

text: By 1936 Sindh was separated from the Bombay Presidency. Elections in 1937 resulted in local Sindhi Muslim parties winning the bulk of seats. By the mid-1940s the Muslim League gained a foothold in the province and after winning over the support of local Sufi "pirs", it didn't take long for the overwhelming majority of Sindhi Muslims to campaign for the creation of Pakistan.


title: Sindh

text: Prior to its struggle for Pakistan during colonial period, in 1947 Sindh joined Pakistan after Muslim League's major victory against Indian National Congress at first it was proposed that the eastern half of Sindh (Tharparkar Region or simply Thar) was to be carved out from Sindh and be given to India due to its majority Hindu population, but that plan was never made official and Sindh as a whole was acceded to Pakistan.


title: Sindh

text: When Sindh joined Pakistan in 1947 it comprised three polities: Karachi (Then Federal Capital of Pakistan), Sind Province (Inherited from British India) and Khairpur (Princely State), in 1955 when One Unit Policy was implemented all of these 3 polities merged to form West Pakistan however in 1970 when One Unit Policy was abolished a single, united province of Sindh came into being with Karachi as its capital


title: Sindh

text: Sindh has the second highest Human Development Index out of all of Pakistan's provinces at 0.628. The 2017 Census of Pakistan indicated a population of 47.9 million.


title: Sindh

text: The major ethnic group of the province is the Sindhis, but there is also a significant presence of other groups. Sindhis of Baloch origin make up about 30% of the total Sindhi population (although they speak Sindhi or Saraiki as their native tongue), while Urdu-speaking Muhajirs make up over 19% of the total population of the province, while Punjabi are 10% and Pashtuns represent 7%.


title: Sindh

text: In August 1947, before the partition of India, the total population of Sindh was 3,887,070 out of which 2,832,000 (around 73%) were Muslims, 1,015,000 (around 26%) were Hindus and the remaining were Sikhs and Jains.


title: Sindh

text: Islam in Sindh has a long history, starting with the capture of Sindh by Muhammad Bin Qasim in 712 CE. Over time, the majority of the population in Sindh converted to Islam, especially in rural areas. Today, Muslims make up over 90% of the population, and are more dominant in urban than rural areas. Islam in Sindh has a strong Sufi ethos with numerous Muslim saints and mystics, such as the Sufi poet Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, having lived in Sindh historically. One popular legend which highlights the strong Sufi presence in Sindh is that 125,000 Sufi saints and mystics are buried on Makli Hill near Thatta. The development of Sufism in Sindh was similar to the development of Sufism in other parts of the Muslim world. In the 16th century two Sufi tareeqat (orders) – Qadria and Naqshbandia – were introduced in Sindh. Sufism continues to play an important role in the daily lives of Sindhis.


title: Sindh

text: Sindh also has Pakistan's highest percentage of Hindu overall, which accounts 8.7% of the population, roughly around 4.2 million people, and 13.3% of the province's rural population as per 2017 Pakistani census report. These numbers also include the scheduled caste population, which stands at 1.7% of the total in Sindh (or 3.1% in rural areas), and is believed to have been under-reported, with some community members instead counted under the main Hindu category. Although, Pakistan Hindu Council claimed that there are 6,842,526 Hindus living in Sindh Province covering around 14.29% of the region's population. Umerkot district in the Thar Desert is Pakistan's only Hindu-majority district. The Shri Ramapir Temple in Tandoallahyar whose annual festival is the second largest Hindu pilgrimage in Pakistan is in Sindh. Sindh is also the only province in Pakistan to have a separate law for governing Hindu marriages.


title: Sindh

text: According to the 2017 census, the most widely spoken language in the province is Sindhi, the first language of % of the population. It is followed by Urdu (%), Pashto (%), Punjabi (%), Saraiki (%), Balochi (2%) and Hindko ().


title: Sindh

text: Other minority languages include Kutchi, Gujarati, Aer, Bagri, Bhaya, Brahui, Dhatki, Ghera, Goaria, Gurgula, Jadgali, Jandavra, Jogi, Kabutra, Kachi Koli, Parkari Koli, Wadiyari Koli, Loarki, Marwari, Sansi, and Vaghri.


title: Sindh

text: Karachi city is Pakistan's most multiethnic city. Urdu-speakers form a plurality, while Pashtos are the second-largest group. Sindhis themselves are 8.1% of the population in Karachi, a number that has increased due to migration of rural Sindhis to the city for work.


title: Sindh

text: Sindh is in the western corner of South Asia, bordering the Iranian plateau in the west. Geographically it is the third largest province of Pakistan, stretching about from north to south and (extreme) or (average) from east to west, with an area of of Pakistani territory. Sindh is bounded by the Thar Desert to the east, the Kirthar Mountains to the west and the Arabian Sea and Rann of Kutch to the south. In the centre is a fertile plain along the Indus River.


title: Sindh

text: Sindh is divided into three main geographical regions: "Siro" ("upper country"), aka Upper Sindh, which is above Sehwan; "Vicholo" ("middle country"), or Middle Sindh, from Sehwan to Hyderabad; and "Lāṟu" ("sloping, descending country"), or Lower Sindh, mostly consisting of the Indus Delta below Hyderabad.


title: Sindh

text: The province is mostly arid with scant vegetation except for the irrigated Indus Valley. The dwarf palm, "Acacia Rupestris" (kher), and "Tecomella undulata" (lohirro) trees are typical of the western hill region. In the Indus valley, the "Acacia nilotica" (babul) (babbur) is the most dominant and occurs in thick forests along the Indus banks. The "Azadirachta indica" (neem) (nim), "Zizyphys vulgaris" (bir) (ber), "Tamarix orientalis" (jujuba lai) and "Capparis aphylla" (kirir) are among the more common trees.


title: Sindh

text: Mango, date palms and the more recently introduced banana, guava, orange and chiku are the typical fruit-bearing trees. The coastal strip and the creeks abound in semi-aquatic and aquatic plants and the inshore Indus delta islands have forests of "Avicennia tomentosa" (timmer) and "Ceriops candolleana" (chaunir) trees. Water lilies grow in abundance in the numerous lake and ponds, particularly in the lower Sindh region.


title: Sindh

text: Among the wild animals, the Sindh ibex (sareh), blackbuck, wild sheep (Urial or gadh) and wild bear are found in the western rocky range. The leopard is now rare and the Asiatic cheetah extinct. The Pirrang (large tiger cat or fishing cat) of the eastern desert region is also disappearing. Deer occur in the lower rocky plains and in the eastern region, as do the Striped hyena (charakh), jackal, fox, porcupine, common gray mongoose and hedgehog. The Sindhi phekari, red lynx or Caracal cat, is found in some areas. Phartho (hog deer) and wild bear occur, particularly in the central inundation belt. There are bats, lizards and reptiles, including the cobra, lundi (viper) and the mysterious Sindh krait of the Thar region, which is supposed to suck the victim's breath in his sleep.


title: Sindh

text: Some unusual sightings of Asian cheetah occurred in 2003 near the Balochistan border in Kirthar Mountains. The rare houbara bustard find Sindh's warm climate suitable to rest and mate. Unfortunately, it is hunted by locals and foreigners.


title: Sindh

text: Crocodiles are rare and inhabit only the backwaters of the Indus, eastern Nara channel and Karachi backwater. Besides a large variety of marine fish, the plumbeous dolphin, the beaked dolphin, rorqual or blue whale and skates frequent the seas along the Sindh coast. The Pallo (Sable fish), a marine fish, ascends the Indus annually from February to April to spawn. The Indus river dolphin is among the most endangered species in Pakistan and is found in the part of the Indus river in northern Sindh. Hog deer and wild bear occur, particularly in the central inundation belt.


title: Sindh

text: Although Sindh has a semi arid climate, through its coastal and riverine forests, its huge fresh water lakes and mountains and deserts, Sindh supports a large amount of varied wildlife. Due to the semi-arid climate of Sindh the left out forests support an average population of jackals and snakes. The national parks established by the Government of Pakistan in collaboration with many organizations such as World Wide Fund for Nature and Sindh Wildlife Department support a huge variety of animals and birds. The Kirthar National Park in the Kirthar range spreads over more than 3000 km of desert, stunted tree forests and a lake. The KNP supports Sindh ibex, wild sheep (urial) and black bear along with the rare leopard. There are also occasional sightings of The Sindhi phekari, ped lynx or Caracal cat. There is a project to introduce tigers and Asian elephants too in KNP near the huge Hub Dam Lake. Between July and November when the monsoon winds blow onshore from the ocean, giant olive ridley turtles lay their eggs along the seaward side. The turtles are protected species. After the mothers lay and leave them buried under the sands the SWD and WWF officials take the eggs and protect them until they are hatched to keep them from predators.


title: Sindh

text: Sindh lies in a tropical to subtropical region; it is hot in the summer and mild to warm in winter. Temperatures frequently rise above between May and August, and the minimum average temperature of occurs during December and January in the northern and higher elevated regions. The annual rainfall averages about seven inches, falling mainly during July and August. The southwest monsoon wind begins in mid-February and continues until the end of September, whereas the cool northerly wind blows during the winter months from October to January.


title: Sindh

text: Sindh lies between the two monsoons—the southwest monsoon from the Indian Ocean and the northeast or retreating monsoon, deflected towards it by the Himalayan mountains—and escapes the influence of both. The region's scarcity of rainfall is compensated by the inundation of the Indus twice a year, caused by the spring and summer melting of Himalayan snow and by rainfall in the monsoon season.


title: Sindh

text: Sindh is divided into three climatic regions: Siro (the upper region, centred on Jacobabad), Wicholo (the middle region, centred on Hyderabad), and Lar (the lower region, centred on Karachi). The thermal equator passes through upper Sindh, where the air is generally very dry. Central Sindh's temperatures are generally lower than those of upper Sindh but higher than those of lower Sindh. Dry hot days and cool nights are typical during the summer. Central Sindh's maximum temperature typically reaches . Lower Sindh has a damper and humid maritime climate affected by the southwestern winds in summer and northeastern winds in winter, with lower rainfall than Central Sindh. Lower Sindh's maximum temperature reaches about . In the Kirthar range at and higher at Gorakh Hill and other peaks in Dadu District, temperatures near freezing have been recorded and brief snowfall is received in the winters.


title: Sindh

text: The Provincial Assembly of Sindh is a unicameral and consists of 168 seats, of which 5% are reserved for non-Muslims and 17% for women. The provincial capital of Sindh is Karachi. The provincial government is led by Chief Minister who is directly elected by the popular and landslide votes; the Governor serves as a ceremonial representative nominated and appointed by the President of Pakistan. The administrative boss of the province who is in charge of the bureaucracy is the Chief Secretary Sindh, who is appointed by the Prime Minister of Pakistan. Most of the influential Sindhi tribes in the province are involved in Pakistan's politics.


title: Sindh

text: In addition, Sindh's politics leans towards the left-wing and its political culture serves as a dominant place for the left-wing spectrum in the country. The province's trend towards the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and away from the Pakistan Muslim League (N) can be seen in nationwide general elections, in which Sindh is a stronghold of the PPP. The PML(N) has a limited support due to its centre-right agenda.


title: Sindh

text: In metropolitan cities such as Karachi and Hyderabad, the MQM (another party of the left with the support of "Muhajirs") has a considerable vote bank and support. Minor leftist parties such as the People's Movement also found support in rural areas of the province.


title: Sindh

text: In 2008, after the public elections, the new government decided to restore the structure of Divisions of all provinces. In Sindh after the lapse of the Local Governments Bodies term in 2010 the Divisional Commissioners system was to be restored.


title: Sindh

text: In July 2011, following excessive violence in the city of Karachi and after the political split between the ruling PPP and the majority party in Sindh, the MQM and after the resignation of the MQM Governor of Sindh, PPP and the Government of Sindh decided to restore the commissionerate system in the province. As a consequence, the five divisions of Sindh were restored – namely Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Mirpurkhas and Larkana with their respective districts. Subsequently, two new divisions have been added in Sindh, Banbore and Nawab Shah/Shaheed Benazirabad division.


title: Sindh

text: Karachi district has been de-merged into its five original constituent districts: Karachi East, Karachi West, Karachi Central, Karachi South and Malir. Recently Korangi has been upgraded to the status of the sixth district of Karachi. These six districts form the Karachi Division now. In 2020, the Kemari District was created after splitting Karachi West District. Currently the Sindh government is planning to divide the Tharparkar district into Tharparkar and Chhachro district.


title: Sindh

text: In Sindh, talukas are equivalent to the tehsils used elsewhere in the country, supervisory tapas correspond with the kanungo circles used elsewhere, tapas correspond with the patwar circles used in other provinces, and dehs are equivalent to the mouzas used elsewhere.


title: Sindh

text: The rich culture, art and architectural landscape of Sindh have fascinated historians. The culture, folktales, art and music of Sindh form a mosaic of human history.


title: Sindh

text: Sindh has a rich heritage of traditional handicraft that has evolved over the centuries. Perhaps the most professed exposition of Sindhi culture is in the handicrafts of Hala, a town some 30 kilometres from Hyderabad. Hala's artisans manufacture high-quality and impressively priced wooden handicrafts, textiles, paintings, handmade paper products, and blue pottery. Lacquered wood works known as Jandi, painting on wood, tiles, and pottery known as Kashi, hand weaved textiles including "khadi", "susi", and "ajraks" are synonymous with Sindhi culture preserved in Hala's handicraft.


title: Sindh

text: The work of Sindhi artisans was sold in ancient markets of Damascus, Baghdad, Basra, Istanbul, Cairo and Samarkand. Referring to the lacquer work on wood locally known as Jandi, T. Posten (an English traveller who visited Sindh in the early 19th century) asserted that the articles of Hala could be compared with exquisite specimens of China. Technological improvements such as the spinning wheel (charkha) and treadle (pai-chah) in the weaver's loom were gradually introduced and the processes of designing, dyeing and printing by block were refined. The refined, lightweight, colourful, washable fabrics from Hala became a luxury for people used to the woollens and linens of the age.


title: Sindh

text: Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) such as the World Wildlife Fund, Pakistan, play an important role to promote the culture of Sindh. They provide training to women artisans in Sindh so they get a source of income. They promote their products under the name of "Crafts Forever". Many women in rural Sindh are skilled in the production of caps. Sindhi caps are manufactured commercially on a small scale at New Saeedabad and Hala New. Sindhi people began celebrating Sindhi Topi Day on 6 December 2009, to preserve the historical culture of Sindh by wearing Ajrak and Sindhi topi.


title: Scooter Braun

text: Scott Samuel "Scooter" Braun (born June 18, 1981) is an American entrepreneur, investor, and entertainment executive. Known as the manager for artists such as Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, J Balvin, Demi Lovato, The Kid Laroi and other artists, he is the founder of SB Projects, Schoolboy Records and Ithaca Ventures, co-founder of TQ Ventures, Mythos Studios, and RBMG Records, and co-owner of esports team 100 Thieves.


title: Scooter Braun

text: Braun was born in New York City to Conservative Jewish parents, Ervin and Susan ("née" Schlussel) Braun. Ervin's parents lived in Hungary until 1956, when they immigrated to the United States. Ervin grew up in Queens, and became a dentist; Susan Schlussel Braun was an orthodontist. After the couple married, they settled in Cos Cob, Connecticut.


title: Scooter Braun

text: Braun attended Emory University in Atlanta where he played college basketball until his sophomore year. After Jermaine Dupri asked him to become the head of marketing at his label, So So Def, Braun dropped out of college before completing his degree.


title: Scooter Braun

text: Braun began organizing parties while studying at Emory University. In 2002, Braun was hired to plan after-parties in each of the five cities on the Anger Management Tour, featuring Ludacris and Eminem. This launch into the world of hip-hop led Braun to meet Jermaine Dupri, the director of So So Def Records. Braun was 19 years old when Dupri asked him to join So So Def in a marketing position, and 20 when Dupri named him So So Def's executive director for marketing. Some of his larger events included parties for the 2003 NBA All-Star Game and after-parties on Britney Spears' Onyx Hotel Tour. Braun left So So Def. He started his own marketing business by brokering a $12 million campaign deal between Ludacris and Pontiac; the music video for Ludacris' "Two Miles an Hour" featured a Pontiac while Pontiac's commercials featured the song.


title: Scooter Braun

text: Braun became involved with Justin Bieber and got his mother to bring her son to Atlanta for a no-strings-attached trial period. Eventually, Braun convinced them to move permanently from Canada to the United States. Both Usher and Justin Timberlake expressed interest, and in the end Bieber signed with Island Def Jam in partnership with Raymond-Braun Media Group (RBMG). Braun also signed Ariana Grande to his record label in 2013. Braun also managed the careers of Psy, Tori Kelly, Carly Rae Jepsen, Martin Garrix, Kanye West, Black Eyed Peas, David Guetta, Lil Dicky and others.


title: Scooter Braun

text: Braun produced "", a documentary about Bieber that MTV reported in 2011 as "one of the highest grossing music documentaries in domestic box-office history". The film's budget was $13 million and earned over $100 million worldwide. Braun was also an executive producer for the CBS drama "Scorpion", which aired from 2014 until 2018. In 2018, "Variety" reported that FX had ordered a pilot of "Dave", a comedy executive-produced by Braun that included actor Kevin Hart and rapper Lil Dicky. In its first season, "Dave" was the most-watched show in FX history. In July 2019, his company SB Projects agreed to a first-look deal with Amazon Studios that included television and film scripts.


title: Scooter Braun

text: In 2007 Braun established SB Projects, an entertainment and marketing company encompassing a range of ventures including Schoolboy Records, SB Management, and Sheba Publishing, a songwriting firm. The group also included RBMG, a joint venture between Braun and Usher. School Boy Records had a music distribution arrangement with Universal Music Group. In early 2013 Ariana Grande was signed to Braun's management and in 2016, Grande's label, Republic Records confirmed that Braun served as her main manager handling all aspects of her career. SB Ventures also handled television campaigns, branding, music-licensing deals, and tour sponsorships—including Bieber's Calvin Klein endorsement for the 2016-2017 Purpose World Tour. The company also brokered a partnership between Kanye West and sneaker brand, Adidas. More recently, it has a first look deal with Amazon.


title: Scooter Braun

text: Ithaca Holdings, Braun's holding company that includes SB Projects, raised $120 million in 2010 for venture capital including investments in Uber, Spotify and Editorialist. Media outlets reported that Ithaca, with $500 million under management as of 2018, would back GoodStory Entertainment, a collaboration between Braun and entertainment executive J. D. Roth, in acquisitions for unscripted, live event, and documentary films.


title: Scooter Braun

text: In June 2019, Ithaca acquired Big Machine Label Group in a purchase that included the masters to the first six albums of singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. The acquisition was financed by The Carlyle Group and several other private equity firms. Its founder Scott Borchetta remains with the company as CEO as a minority shareholder in Ithaca. In 2020, Ithaca Holdings sold the six-album masters to Shamrock Holdings for $300 million and $450 million, reportedly netting Ithaca a large profit.<varietymasters></ref>


title: Scooter Braun

text: In April 2021, South Korean company HYBE announced that it would acquire Ithaca Holdings from Braun and Carlyle via the subsidiary Hybe America in a deal estimated to be around $1.05 billion. As part of the sale, Braun would became HYBE America's CEO and join HYBE's board of directors. On May 31, 2022, Braun visited with BTS and US President Joe Biden at the White House to discuss the recent rise in anti-Asian hate crimes.


title: Scooter Braun

text: In June 2019, Ithaca acquired the masters to the first six studio albums by Taylor Swift under the acquisition of Big Machine Records, Swift's record company until 2019. She condemned Ithaca's purchase and Big Machine's former president, Scott Borchetta, said that Swift declined an opportunity to buy the masters and challenged Swift's claims.


title: Scooter Braun

text: Swift announced she would re-record her first six studio albums after a series of disputes, including allegations that Big Machine blocked her from using old material for the American Music Awards of 2019 and the documentary "Miss Americana" (2020), as well as a release of "Live from Clear Channel Stripped 2008" in 2020.


title: Scooter Braun

text: In 2018, "The New York Times" reported that Braun had joined David Maisel, founding chairman of Marvel Studios to form Mythos Studios to produce comic book movie franchises in live-action and animated formats.


title: Scooter Braun

text: A prolific investor, Braun is a partner in TQ Ventures. Braun was an early investor in Uber, Spotify, Waze, DropBox, Pinterest, Lyft, Ro, Noom, Liquid I.V., among others.


title: Scooter Braun

text: In 2013, Braun was included in the annual "Time" 100 list of the most influential people in the world. He also appeared a second time on the cover of "Billboard" in its April 20, 2013, issue, alongside Guy Oseary and Troy Carter. In 2016 Scooter won the award for "Best Talent Manager" at the 3rd annual "International Music Industry Awards" presented by Shazam at the 12th annual MUSEXPO in Los Angeles.


title: Scooter Braun

text: Braun was nominated as a producer and writer for two Grammy Awards, in 2017 and 2022. In 2017, Braun appeared on the cover of both, "Variety" magazine's Hitmakers issue and Success magazine's Gratitude issue.


title: Scooter Braun

text: In 2018, Braun was honored with the Music Biz 2018 Harry Chapin Memorial Humanitarian Award for his philanthropic efforts in 2017. He also received the Save the Children's Humanitarian Award that year.


title: Scooter Braun

text: ln 2019 he was inducted to the Midem Hall of Fame. In 2020, "Fortune" named him in its "40 Under 40" list in media and entertainment. In 2021, Braun was named "Variety" magazine's "Music Mogul of the Year."


title: Scooter Braun

text: Braun hosted a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton at his home in 2015. In 2019, he hosted a fundraiser for the Kamala Harris 2020 presidential campaign. He supported developer Rick Caruso in the 2022 Los Angeles mayoral election.


title: Scooter Braun

text: Braun is involved in various charities including the Braun Family Foundation. He also assists with his brother Adam's charity, Pencils of Promise. "Billboard" reported that as of 2017, Scooter Braun—along with clients and his companies—have granted more wishes for the Make-A-Wish Foundation than any other organization in the history of the foundation. Scooter Braun was honored with the Humanitarian Award at the 2016 Billboard Touring Awards for his philanthropic support of Pencils of Promise, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and Fuck Cancer. In 2017, Braun was an organizer behind “Hand in Hand” a telethon that raised $55 million for relief from Hurricane Harvey and Irma. In 2018, Braun was an organizer behind March for Our Lives in support of gun control legislation.


title: Scooter Braun

text: Braun coordinated a charity single, "Stuck With U", by Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande to raise money to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic. All net proceeds from the song went to the First Responders Children's Foundation to fund grants and scholarships for children of first responders and health care workers who worked on the front lines during the pandemic.


title: Scooter Braun

text: In 2013, Braun began dating Yael Cohen. The couple wed on July 6, 2014, in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, at Cohen's parents' house. They had a son in 2015, another son in 2016, and a daughter in 2018. Braun filed for divorce on 21 July 2021.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: Satyajit Ray (; 2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian director, screenwriter, documentary filmmaker, author, essayist, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligrapher, and music composer. One of the greatest auteurs of film-making, Ray is celebrated for works including "The Apu Trilogy" (1955–1959), "The Music Room" (1958), "The Big City" (1963) and "Charulata" (1964).


title: Satyajit Ray

text: Ray was born in Calcutta to nonsense rhyme author Sukumar Ray. Starting his career as a commercial artist, Ray was drawn into independent film-making after meeting French filmmaker Jean Renoir and viewing Vittorio De Sica's Italian neorealist film "Bicycle Thieves" (1948) during a visit to London.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: Ray directed 36 films, including feature films, documentaries and shorts. Ray's first film, "Pather Panchali" (1955) won eleven international prizes, including the inaugural Best Human Document award at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. This film, along with "Aparajito" (1956) and "Apur Sansar" ("The World of Apu") (1959), form "The Apu Trilogy". Ray did the scripting, casting, scoring, and editing, and designed his own credit titles and publicity material. He also authored several short stories and novels, primarily for young children and teenagers. Popular characters created by Ray include Feluda the sleuth, Professor Shonku the scientist, Tarini Khuro the storyteller, and Lalmohan Ganguly the novelist.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: Ray received many major awards in his career, including thirty six Indian National Film Awards, a Golden Lion, a Golden Bear, two Silver Bears, many additional awards at international film festivals and ceremonies, and an Academy Honorary Award in 1992. In 1978, he was awarded an honorary degree by Oxford University. The Government of India honored him with the Bharat Ratna, its highest civilian award, in 1992.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: On the occasion of the birth centenary of Ray, the International Film Festival of India in recognition of the auteur’s legacy, rechristened in 2021 its annual Lifetime Achievement award to "Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award".


title: Satyajit Ray

text: Satyajit Ray's ancestry can be traced back for at least ten generations. His family had acquired the name 'Ray' (originally 'Rai') from the Mughals. Although they were Bengali Kayasthas, the Rays were 'Vaishnavas' (worshippers of Vishnu), as opposed to the majority of Bengali Kayasthas who were 'Shaktos' (worshippers of the Shakti or Shiva).


title: Satyajit Ray

text: The earliest-recorded ancestor of Ray family was Ramsunder Deo (Deb), born in the middle of the sixteenth century. He was a native of Chakdah village in Nadia district of present-day West Bengal, India and migrated to Sherpur in East Bengal. He became son-in-law of the ruler of Jashodal and was granted a "jagir" (a feudal land grant) at Jashodal (in present day Kishoreganj District of Bangladesh). His descendants migrated to the village Masua in Katiadi Upazila of Kishoreganj district in the first half of eighteenth century. Satyajit Ray's grandfather Upendrakishore Ray was born in Masua village in 1863.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: Upendrakishore Ray was a writer, illustrator, philosopher, publisher, amateur astronomer, and a leader of the Brahmo Samaj, a religious and social movement in 19th-century Bengal. He set up a printing press named U. Ray and Sons.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: Sukumar Ray, Upendrakishore's son and father of Satyajit, was an illustrator, critic, and a pioneering Bengali writer of nonsense rhyme ("Abol Tabol") and children's literature. Social worker and children's book author Shukhalata Rao was his aunt.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: Satyajit Ray was born to Sukumar Ray and Suprabha Ray (nee Das Gupta) in Calcutta (now Kolkata). Sukumar Ray died when Satyajit was two years old. Ray grew up in the house in which his grandfather, Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury's printing press was located. He was attracted by the machines and process of printing from an early age, and took particular interest in the production process of "Sandesh", a children's magazine started by Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury. Ray studied at Ballygunge Government High School in Calcutta, and completed his BA in economics at Presidency College, Calcutta (then affiliated with the University of Calcutta). During his school days, he saw several Hollywood productions in cinema. The works of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Ernst Lubitsch and movies such as "The Thief of Baghdad" and "Uncle Tom's Cabin" made lasting impression on his mind. He developed keen interest in Western classical music.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: In 1940, his mother insisted him to study at Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan, founded by Rabindranath Tagore. Ray was reluctant to go, due to his fondness for Calcutta and the low regard for the intellectual life at Santiniketan. His mother's persuasiveness and his respect for Tagore finally convinced him to get admitted there for higher studies in Fine Art. In Santiniketan, Ray came to appreciate Oriental art. He later admitted that he learned much from the famous painters Nandalal Bose and Benode Behari Mukherjee. He later produced a documentary, "The Inner Eye," about Mukherjee. His visits to Ajanta, Ellora and Elephanta stimulated his admiration for Indian art. Three books that he read in the university influenced him to become a serious student of film-making: Paul Rotha's "The Film Till Now", and two books on theory by Rudolf Arnheim and Raymond Spottiswoode. Ray dropped out of the art course in 1942 as he could not feel inspired to become a painter.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: In 1943, Ray started working at D.J. Keymer, a British advertising agency, as a junior visualiser. Here he was trained the Indian commercial art under artist , the then Art Director of D.J. Keymer. Although he liked visual design (graphic design) and he was mostly treated well, there was tension between the British and Indian employees of the firm. The British were better paid, and Ray felt that "the clients were generally stupid." In 1943, Ray started a second job for the Signet Press, a new publisher started by D. K. Gupta. Gupta asked Ray to create book cover designs for the company and gave him complete artistic freedom. Ray established himself as a commercial illustrator, becoming a leading Indian typographer and book-jacket designer.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: Ray designed covers for many books, including Jibanananda Das's "Banalata Sen" and "Rupasi Bangla", Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay's "Chander Pahar", Jim Corbett's "Maneaters of Kumaon," and Jawaharlal Nehru's "Discovery of India". He worked on a children's version of "Pather Panchali," a classic Bengali novel by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, renamed "Aam Antir Bhepu" ("The mango-seed whistle"). Ray designed the cover and illustrated the book, and was deeply influenced by the work. He used it as the subject of his first film and featured his illustrations as shots in his ground-breaking film.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: Ray befriended the American soldiers stationed in Calcutta during World War II, who kept him informed about the latest American films showing in the city. He came to know a RAF employee, Norman Clare, who shared Ray's passion for films, chess and western classical music. Ray was a regular in the "addas" (freestyle casual conversations) at Coffee House where several intellectuals frequented. He formed lasting association with some of the compatriots, such as Bansi Chandragupta (who late became a celebrated art director), Kamal Kumar Majumdar (a polymath and author of stylish prose), Radha Prasad Gupta, Chidananda Das Gupta (film critic). Along with Chidananda Dasgupta and others, Ray founded the Calcutta Film Society in 1947. They screened many foreign films, many of which Ray watched and seriously studied, including several American and Russian films. The use of Indian music and dancing in the 1948 Indian film "Kalpana" (), directed by the celebrated dancer Uday Shankar, had impact on Ray.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: In 1949, Ray married Bijoya Das, his first cousin and long-time sweetheart. The couple had a son, Sandip Ray, a film director. In the same year, French director Jean Renoir came to Calcutta to shoot his film "The River". Ray helped him to find locations in the countryside. Ray told Renoir about his idea of filming "Pather Panchali", which had long been on his mind, and Renoir encouraged him in the project.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: In 1950, D.J. Keymer sent Ray to London to work at the headquarters. During his six months in London, Ray watched 99 films, including Alexander Dovzhenko's "Earth" (1930) and Jean Renoir's "The Rules of the Game" (1939). However, the film that had the most profound effect on him was the neorealist film "Ladri di biciclette" ("Bicycle Thieves") (1948) by Vittorio De Sica. Ray later said that he walked out of the theatre determined to become a filmmaker.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: After being "deeply moved" by "Pather Panchali", the 1928 classic "Bildungsroman" of Bengali literature, Ray decided to adapt it for his first film. "Pather Panchali" is a semi-autobiographical novel describing the maturation of Apu, a small boy in a Bengal village. "Pather Panchali" did not have a script; it was made from Ray's drawings and notes. Before principal photography began, he created a storyboard dealing with details and continuity. Years later, he donated those drawings and notes to Cinémathèque Française.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: Ray gathered an inexperienced crew, although both his cameraman Subrata Mitra and art director Bansi Chandragupta would go on to achieve great acclaim. The cast consisted of mostly amateur actors. After unsuccessful attempts to persuade many producers to finance the project, Ray started shooting in late 1952 with his personal savings and hoped to raise more money once he had some footage shot, but did not succeed on his terms. As a result, Ray shot "Pather Panchali" over two and a half years, an unusually long period. He refused funding from sources who wanted to change the script or exercise supervision over production. He also ignored advice from the Indian government to incorporate a happy ending, but he did receive funding that allowed him to complete the film.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: Monroe Wheeler, head of the department of exhibitions and publications at New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), heard about the project when he visited Calcutta in 1954. He considered the incomplete footage to be of high quality and encouraged Ray to finish the film so that it could be shown at a MoMA exhibition the following year. Six months later, American director John Huston, on a visit to India for some early location scouting for "The Man Who Would Be King", saw excerpts of the unfinished film and recognised "the work of a great film-maker".


title: Satyajit Ray

text: With a loan from the West Bengal government, Ray finally completed the film; it was released in 1955 to critical acclaim. It earned numerous awards and had long theatrical runs in India and abroad. "The Times of India" wrote "It is absurd to compare it with any other Indian cinema [...] "Pather Panchali" is pure cinema." In the United Kingdom, Lindsay Anderson wrote a positive review of the film. However, the film also gained negative reactions; François Truffaut was reported to have said, "I don't want to see a movie of peasants eating with their hands." Bosley Crowther, then the most influential critic of "The New York Times", criticised the film's loose structure and conceded that it "takes patience to be enjoyed". Edward Harrison, an American distributor was worried that Crowther's review would dissuade audiences, but the film enjoyed an eight months theatrical run in the United States.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: Ray's international career started in earnest after the success of his next film, the second in "The Apu Trilogy", "Aparajito" (1956) ("The Unvanquished"). This film depicts the eternal struggle between the ambitions of a young man, Apu, and the mother who loves him. Upon release, "Aparajito" won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, bringing Ray considerable acclaim. In a retrospective review, Edward Guthmann of the "San Francisco Chronicle" praised Ray for his ability to capture emotions, and blend music with storytelling to create a "flawless" picture. Critics such as Mrinal Sen and Ritwik Ghatak rank it higher than Ray's first film.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: Ray directed and released two other films in 1958: the comic "Parash Pathar" ("The Philosopher's Stone"), and "Jalsaghar" ("The Music Room"), a film about the decadence of the Zamindars, considered one of his most important works. "Timeout" magazine gave "Jalsaghar" a positive review, describing it as "slow, rapt and hypnotic".


title: Satyajit Ray

text: While making "Aparajito", Ray had not planned a trilogy, but after he was asked about the idea in Venice, it appealed to him. He finished the last of the trilogy, "Apur Sansar" ("The World of Apu") in 1959. Ray introduced two of his favourite actors, Soumitra Chatterjee and Sharmila Tagore, in this film. It opens with Apu living in a Calcutta house in near-poverty; he becomes involved in an unusual marriage with Aparna. The scenes of their life together form "one of the cinema's classic affirmative depictions of married life." Critics Robin Wood and Aparna Sen thought it was a major achievement to mark the end of the trilogy.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: After "Apur Sansar" was harshly criticised by a Bengali critic, Ray wrote an article defending it. He rarely responded to critics during his filmmaking career, but also later defended his film "Charulata", his personal favourite. Critic Roger Ebert summarised the trilogy as "It is about a time, place and culture far removed from our own, and yet it connects directly and deeply with our human feelings. It is like a prayer, affirming that this is what the cinema can be, no matter how far in our cynicism we may stray."


title: Satyajit Ray

text: Despite Ray's success, it had little influence on his personal life in the years to come. He continued to live with his wife and children in a rented house, with his mother, uncle and other members of his extended family.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: During this period, Ray made films about the British Raj period, a documentary on Tagore, a comic film ("Mahapurush") and his first film from an original screenplay ('Kanchenjungha'). He also made a series of films that, taken together, are considered by critics among the most deeply felt portrayals of Indian women on screen.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: Ray followed "Apur Sansar" with 1960's "Devi" ("The Goddess"), a film in which he examined the superstitions in Hindu society. Sharmila Tagore starred as Doyamoyee, a young wife who is deified by her father-in-law. Ray was worried that the Central Board of Film Certification might block his film, or at least make him re-cut it, but "Devi" was spared. Upon international distribution, the critic from "Chicago Reader" described the film as "full of sensuality and ironic undertones".


title: Satyajit Ray

text: In 1961, on the insistence of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Ray was commissioned to make "Rabindranath Tagore", based on the poet of the same name, on the occasion of his birth centennial, a tribute to the person who likely most influenced Ray. Due to limited footage of Tagore, Ray was challenged by the necessity of making the film mainly with static material. He said that it took as much work as three feature films.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: In the same year, together with Subhas Mukhopadhyay and others, Ray was able to revive "Sandesh", the children's magazine which his grandfather had founded. Ray had been saving money for some years to make this possible. A duality in the name ("Sandesh" means both "news" in Bengali and also a sweet popular dessert) set the tone of the magazine (both educational and entertaining). Ray began to make illustrations for it, as well as to write stories and essays for children. Writing eventually became a steady source of income.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: In 1962, Ray directed "Kanchenjungha," Based on his first original screenplay, it was also his first colour film. It tells the story of an upper-class family spending an afternoon in Darjeeling, a picturesque hill town in West Bengal. They try to arrange the engagement of their youngest daughter to a highly paid engineer educated in London.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: Ray had first conceived shooting the film in a large mansion, but later decided to film it in the famous town. He used many shades of light and mist to reflect the tension in the drama. Ray noted that while his script allowed shooting to be possible under any lighting conditions, a commercial film crew in Darjeeling failed to shoot a single scene, as they only wanted to do so in sunshine. "The New York Times"' Bosley Crowther gave the film a mixed review; he praised Ray's "soft and relaxed" filmmaking but thought the characters were clichés.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: In 1964, Ray directed "Charulata" ("The Lonely Wife"). One of Ray's favourite films, it was regarded by many critics as his most accomplished. Based on Tagore's short story, "Nastanirh" (Broken Nest), the film tells of a lonely wife, Charu, in 19th-century Bengal, and her growing feelings for her brother-in-law Amal. In retrospective reviews, "The Guardian" called it "extraordinarily vivid and fresh", while "The Sydney Morning Herald" praised Madhabi Mukherjee's casting, the film's visual style, and its camera movements. Ray said the film contained the fewest flaws among his work and it was his only work which, given a chance, he would make exactly the same way. At the 15th Berlin International Film Festival, "Charulata" earned him a Silver Bear for Best Director. Other films in this period include "Mahanagar" ("The Big City"), "Teen Kanya" ("Three Daughters"), "Abhijan" ("The Expedition"), "Kapurush" ("The Coward") and "Mahapurush" ("Holy Man"). The first of these, "Mahanagar" drew praise from British critics; Philip French opined that it was one of Ray's best.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: Also in the 1960s, Ray visited Japan and took pleasure in meeting filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, whom he highly regarded.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: In the post-"Charulata" period, Ray took on various projects, from fantasy, science fiction, and detective stories to historical dramas. Ray also experimented during this period, exploring contemporary issues of Indian life in response to the perceived lack of these issues in his films.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: The first major film in this period is 1966's "Nayak" ("The Hero"), the story of a screen hero travelling in a train and meeting a young, sympathetic female journalist. Starring Uttam Kumar and Sharmila Tagore, in the twenty-four hours of the journey, the film explores the inner conflict of the apparently highly successful matinée idol. Although the film received a "Critics Prize" at the Berlin International Film Festival, it had a generally muted reception.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: In 1967, Ray wrote a script for a film to be called "The Alien", based on his short story "Bankubabur Bandhu" ("Banku Babu's Friend"), which he wrote in 1962 for "Sandesh" magazine. It was planned to be a U.S. and India co-production with Columbia Pictures, with Marlon Brando and Peter Sellers cast in the leading roles. Ray found that his script had been copyrighted and the fee appropriated by Michael Wilson. Wilson had initially approached Ray through their mutual friend, Arthur C. Clarke, to represent him in Hollywood. Wilson copyrighted the script credited to "Mike Wilson & Satyajit Ray", although he contributed only one word. Ray later said that he never received compensation for the script. After Brando dropped out of the project, the producers tried to replace him with James Coburn, but Ray became disillusioned and returned to Calcutta. Columbia attempted to revive the project, without success, in the 1970s and 1980s.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: In 1969, Ray directed one of his most commercially successful films; a musical fantasy based on a children's story written by his grandfather, "Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne" ("The Adventures of Goopy and Bagha"). It is about the journey of Goopy the singer, and Bagha the drummer, endowed with three gifts by the King of Ghosts, to stop an impending war between two neighbouring kingdoms. One of his most expensive projects, the film was also difficult to finance. Ray abandoned his desire to shoot it in colour, as he turned down an offer that would have forced him to cast a certain Hindi film actor as the lead. He also composed the songs and music for the film.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: Next, Ray directed the film adaptation of a novel by the poet and writer, Sunil Gangopadhyay. Featuring a musical motif structure acclaimed as more complex than "Charulata", "Aranyer Din Ratri" (1970) ("Days and Nights in the Forest") follows four urban young men going to the forests for a vacation. They try to leave their daily lives behind, but one of them encounters women, and it becomes a deep study of the Indian middle class. First shown at the New York Film Festival in 1970, critic Pauline Kael wrote "Satyajit Ray’s films can give rise to a more complex feeling of happiness in me than the work of any other director [...] No artist has done more than Ray to make us reevaluate the commonplace". Writing for the BBC in 2002, Jamie Russell complimented the script, pacing and mixture of emotions. According to one critic, Robin Wood, "a single sequence [of the film] ... would offer material for a short essay".


title: Satyajit Ray

text: After "Aranyer Din Ratri", Ray addressed contemporary Bengali life. He completed what became known as the "Calcutta trilogy": "Pratidwandi" (1970), "Seemabaddha" (1971), and "Jana Aranya" (1975), three films that were conceived separately but had similar themes. The trilogy focuses on repression, with male protagonists encountering the forbidden. "Pratidwandi" ("The Adversary") is about an idealist young graduate; while disillusioned by the end of film, he is still uncorrupted. "Seemabaddha" ("Company Limited") portrayed a successful man giving up his morality for further gains. "Jana Aranya" ("The Middleman") depicted a young man giving in to the culture of corruption to earn a living. In the first film, "Pratidwandi", Ray introduces new narrative techniques, such as scenes in negative, dream sequences, and abrupt flashbacks.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: Also in the 1970s, Ray adapted two of his popular stories as detective films. Although mainly aimed at children and young adults, both "Sonar Kella" ("The Golden Fortress") and "Joi Baba Felunath" ("The Elephant God") became cult favorites. In a 2019 review of "Sonar Kella", critic Rouven Linnarz was impressed with its use of Indian classical instruments to generate "mysterious progression".


title: Satyajit Ray

text: Ray considered making a film on the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War but later abandoned the idea, saying that, as a filmmaker, he was more interested in the travails of the refugees and not the politics. In 1977, Ray completed "Shatranj Ke Khilari" ("The Chess Players"), a Hindustani film based on a short story by Munshi Premchand. It was set in Lucknow in the state of Oudh, a year before the Indian Rebellion of 1857. A commentary on issues related to the colonisation of India by the British, it was Ray's first feature film in a language other than Bengali. It starred a high-profile cast including Sanjeev Kumar, Saeed Jaffrey, Amjad Khan, Shabana Azmi, Victor Bannerjee and Richard Attenborough. Despite the film's limited budget, "The Washington Post" critic gave it a positive review; "He [Ray] possesses what many overindulged Hollywood filmmakers often lack: a view of history".


title: Satyajit Ray

text: In 1980, Ray made a sequel to "Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne", a somewhat political "Hirak Rajar Deshe" ("Kingdom of Diamonds"). The kingdom of the evil Diamond King, or "Hirok Raj," is an allusion to India during Indira Gandhi's emergency period. Along with his acclaimed short film "Pikoo" ("Pikoo's Diary") and hour-long Hindi film, "Sadgati," this was the culmination of his work in this period.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: When "E.T." was released in 1982, Clarke and Ray saw similarities in the film to his earlier "The" "Alien" script; Ray claimed that "E.T." plagiarised his script. Ray said that Steven Spielberg's film "would not have been possible without my script of "'The Alien"' being available throughout America in mimeographed copies." Spielberg denied any plagiarism by saying, "I was a kid in high school when this script was circulating in Hollywood." (Spielberg actually graduated high school in 1965 and released his first film in 1968). Besides "The Alien", two other unrealised projects that Ray had intended to direct were adaptations of the ancient Indian epic, the "Mahābhārata", and E. M. Forster's 1924 novel "A Passage to India".


title: Satyajit Ray

text: In 1983, while working on "Ghare Baire" ("Home and the World"), Ray suffered a heart attack; it would severely limit his productivity in the remaining nine years of his life. "Ghare Baire", an adaptation of the novel of the same name, was completed in 1984 with the help of Ray's son, who served as a camera operator from then onward. It is about the dangers of fervent nationalism; he wrote the first draft of a script for it in the 1940s. Despite rough patches due to Ray's illness, the film did receive some acclaim; critic Vincent Canby gave the film a maximum rating of five stars and praised the performances of the three lead actors. It also featured the first kiss scene portrayed in Ray's films.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: In 1987, Ray recovered to an extent to direct the 1990 film "Shakha Proshakha" ("Branches of the Tree"). It depicts an old man, who has lived a life of honesty, and learns of the corruption of three of his sons. The final scene shows the father finding solace only in the companionship of his fourth son, who is uncorrupted but mentally ill due to a head injury sustained while he was studying in England.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: Ray's last film, "Agantuk" ("The Stranger"), is lighter in mood but not in theme; when a long-lost uncle arrives to visit his niece in Calcutta, he arouses suspicion as to his motive. It provokes far-ranging questions in the film about civilisation. Critic Hal Hinson was impressed, and thought "Agantuk" shows "all the virtues of a master artist in full maturity".


title: Satyajit Ray

text: A heavy smoker but non-drinker, Ray valued work more than anything else. He would work 12 hours a day, and go to bed at two o'clock in the morning. He also enjoyed collecting antiques, manuscripts, rare gramophone records, paintings and rare books.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: In 1992, Ray's health deteriorated due to heart complications. He was admitted to a hospital but never recovered. Twenty-four days before his death, Ray was presented with an Honorary Academy Award by Audrey Hepburn via video-link; he was in gravely ill condition, but gave an acceptance speech, calling it the "best achievement of [his] movie-making career." He died on 23 April 1992, 9 days before his 71st birthday.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: Ray created two popular fictional characters in Bengali children's literature— Pradosh Chandra Mitter (Mitra) alias Feluda, a sleuth, and Professor Shonku, a scientist. The Feluda stories are narrated by Tapesh Ranjan Mitra aka Topshe, his teenage cousin, something of a Watson to Feluda's Holmes. The science fiction stories of Shonku are presented as a diary discovered after the scientist had mysteriously disappeared.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: Ray also wrote a collection of nonsense verse named "Today Bandha Ghorar Dim," which includes a translation of Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky". He wrote a collection of humorous stories of Mullah Nasiruddin in Bengali.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: His short stories were published as collections of 12 stories, in which the overall title played with the word twelve (for example "Aker pitthe dui", or literally "Two on top of one"). Ray's interest in puzzles and puns is reflected in his stories. Ray's short stories give full rein to his interest in the macabre, in suspense and other aspects that he avoided in film, making for an interesting psychological study. Most of his writings have been translated into English. Most of his screenplays have been published in Bengali in the literary journal "Eksan". Ray wrote an autobiography about his childhood years, "Jakhan Choto Chilam" (1982), translated to English as "Childhood Days: A Memoir" by his wife Bijoya Ray. In 1994, Ray published his memoir, , about his experiences of making "The Apu Trilogy."


title: Satyajit Ray

text: He also wrote essays on film, published as the collections: "Our Films, Their Films" (1976), "Bishoy Chalachchitra" (1976), and "Ekei Bole Shooting" (1979). During the mid-1990s, Ray's film essays and an anthology of short stories were also published in English in the West. "Our Films, Their Films" is an anthology of film criticism by Ray. The book contains articles and personal journal excerpts. The book is presented in two sections: Ray first discusses Indian film, before turning his attention toward Hollywood, specific filmmakers (Charlie Chaplin and Akira Kurosawa), and movements such as Italian neorealism. His book "Bishoy Chalachchitra" was published in translation in 2006 as "Speaking of Films". It contains a compact description of his philosophy of different aspects of the cinemas.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: Ray designed four typefaces for roman script named Ray Roman, Ray Bizarre, Daphnis, and Holiday script, apart from numerous Bengali ones for the "Sandesh" magazine. Ray Roman and Ray Bizarre won an international competition in 1971.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: In certain circles of Calcutta, Ray continued to be known as an eminent graphic designer, well into his film career. Ray illustrated all his books and designed covers for them, as well as creating all publicity material for his films, for example, Ray's artistic playing with the Bengali graphemes was also revealed in the cine posters and cine promo-brochures' covers. He also designed covers of several books by other authors. His calligraphic technique reflects the deep impact of (a) the artistic pattern of European musical staff notation in the graphemic syntagms and (b) alpana ("ritual painting" mainly practised by Bengali women at the time of religious festivals (the term denotes 'to coat with'). Generally categorised as "Folk"-Art cf. in Ray's graphemes representations.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: Thus, so-called division between classical and folk art is blurred in Ray's representation of Bengali graphemes. The three-tier X-height of Bengali graphemes was presented in a manner of musical map and the contours, curves in between horizontal and vertical meeting-point, follow the patterns of alpana. It is also noticed that the metamorphosis of graphemes (this might be designated as "Archewriting") as a living object/subject in Ray's positive manipulation of Bengali graphemes.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: As a graphic designer, Ray designed most of his film posters, combining folk art and calligraphy to create themes ranging from mysterious, surreal to comical; an exhibition for his posters was held at British Film Institute in 2013. He would master every style of visual art, and could mimic any painter, as evidenced in his book and magazine covers, posters, literary illustrations and advertisement campaigns.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: Ray had been subconsciously paying a tribute to Jean Renoir throughout his career, who influenced him the most. He also acknowledged Vittorio De Sica, whom he thought represented Italian Neorealism best, and taught him the cramming of cinematic details into a single shot, and using amateur actors and actresses. Ray has admitted to have learnt the craft of cinema from Old Hollywood directors such as John Ford, Billy Wilder and Ernst Lubitsch. He had deep respect and admiration for his contemporaries Akira Kurosawa and Ingmar Bergman, whom he considered giants. Among others, he learnt the use of freeze frame shots from François Truffaut, and jump cuts, fades and dissolves from Jean-Luc Godard. Although he admired Godard's "revolutionary" early phase, he thought his later phase was "alien". Ray adored his peer Michelangelo Antonioni, but hated "Blowup", which he considered having "very little inner movement". He was also impressed with Stanley Kubrick's work. Although Ray stated to have had very little influence from Sergei Eisenstein, films such as "Pather Panchali", "Aparajito", "Charulata" and "Sadgati" contains scenes which show striking uses of montage. He also had sketches of Eisenstein.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: Ray considered script-writing to be an integral part of direction. Initially he refused to make a film in any language other than Bengali. In his two non-Bengali feature films, he wrote the script in English; translators adapted it into Hindustani under Ray's supervision.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: Ray's eye for detail was matched by that of his art director Bansi Chandragupta. His influence on the early films was so important that Ray would always write scripts in English before creating a Bengali version, so that the non-Bengali Chandragupta would be able to read it. Subrata Mitra's cinematography garnered praise in Ray's films, although some critics thought that Mitra's eventual departure from Ray lowered its quality. Mitra stopped working for him after "Nayak". Mitra developed "bounce lighting", a technique to reflect light from cloth to create a diffused, realistic light even on a set.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: Ray's regular film editor was Dulal Datta, but the director usually dictated the editing while Datta did the actual work. Due to finances and Ray's meticulous planning, his films (apart from "Pather Panchali") were mostly cut in-camera.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: At the beginning of his career, Ray worked with Indian classical musicians, including Ravi Shankar, Vilayat Khan, and Ali Akbar Khan. He found that their first loyalty was to musical traditions, and not to his film. He obtained a greater understanding of Western classical forms, which he wanted to use for his films set in an urban milieu. Starting with "Teen Kanya", Ray began to compose his own scores. Beethoven was Ray's favourite composer; Ray also went on to become a distinguished connoisseur of Western classical music in India. The narrative structure of Ray's films are represented by musical forms such as sonata, fugue and rondo. "Kanchenjunga", "Nayak" and "Aranyer Din Ratri" are examples of this structure.


title: Satyajit Ray

text: The director cast actors from diverse backgrounds, from well-known stars to people who had never seen a film (as in "Aparajito"). Robin Wood and others have lauded him as the best director of children, recalling memorable performances in the roles of Apu and Durga ("Pather Panchali"), Ratan ("Postmaster") and Mukul ("Sonar Kella"). Depending on the actor's skill and experience, Ray varied the intensity of his direction, from virtually nothing with actors such as Utpal Dutt, to using the actor as a puppet (Subir Banerjee as young Apu or Sharmila Tagore as Aparna).


title: Satyajit Ray

text: Actors who had worked for Ray trusted him, but said that he could also treat incompetence with total contempt. With admiration of his cinematic style and craft, director Roger Manvell said, “In the restrained style he has adopted, Ray has become a master of technique. He takes his timing from the nature of the people and their environment; his camera is the intent, unobtrusive observer of reactions; his editing the discreet, economical transition from one value to the next." Ray credited life to be the best kind of inspiration for cinema; he said, "For a popular medium, the best kind of inspiration should derive from life and have its roots in it. No amount of technical polish can make up for artificiality of the theme and the dishonesty of treatment."


title: Satyajit Ray

text: Ray's work has been described as full of humanism and universality, and of a deceptive simplicity with deep underlying complexity. The Japanese director Akira Kurosawa said, "Not to have seen the cinema of Ray means existing in the world without seeing the sun or the moon." But his detractors find his films glacially slow, moving like a "majestic snail." Some critics find his work anti-modern; they criticise him for lacking the new modes of expression or experimentation found in works of Ray's contemporaries, such as Jean-Luc Godard. As Stanley Kauffmann wrote, some critics believe that Ray assumes that viewers "can be interested in a film that simply dwells in its characters, rather than one that imposes dramatic patterns on their lives." Ray said he could do nothing about the slow pace. Kurosawa defended him by saying that Ray's films were not slow; "His work can be described as flowing composedly, like a big river".


title: Satyajit Ray

text: Critics have often compared Ray to Anton Chekhov, Jean Renoir, Vittorio De Sica, Howard Hawks and Mozart. The writer V. S. Naipaul compared a scene in "Shatranj Ki Khiladi" ("The Chess Players") to a Shakespearean play; he wrote, "only three hundred words are spoken but goodness! – terrific things happen." Even critics who did not like the aesthetics of Ray's films generally acknowledged his ability to encompass a whole culture with all its nuances. Ray's obituary in "The Independent" included the question, "Who else can compete?"


title: Satyajit Ray

text: His work was promoted in France by "The Studio des Ursuline" cinema. French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson described Ray as “undoubtedly a giant in the film world”. With positive admiration for most of Ray's films, critic Roger Ebert cited "The Apu Trilogy" among the greatest films. Vincent Canby once wrote about Ray's films "no matter what the particular story, no matter what the social-political circumstances of the characters, the cinema of Satyajit Ray (the "Apu" trilogy, "The Music Room," "Distant Thunder" and "The Chess Players," among others) is so exquisitely realized that an entire world is evoked from comparatively limited details."