Satyajit Ray’s name may not sound familiar, but in film circles, the Indian director’s name can be found alongside those of Francois Truffaut and Akira Kurosawa. Ray’s films did for India in the 1960s what Kurosawa’s did for Japan in the 1950s: generate greater cultural awareness of his homeland. In today’s screening of Charulata (The Lonely Wife), the film, set in British India, tells the story of a lonely woman who begins an affair after her wealthy, perpetually busy husband asks a family member to keep her company.
“It’s a clichéd phrase that film is a window onto a world,” says Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Film Curator Marian Luntz. “His films enabled Western audiences, who might not have a chance to go to India, to have a sense of the society, the politics, the sensibility, the language,” Luntz says. In addition, Ray’s work influenced countless other filmmakers around the world. 7 p.m. 1001 Bissonnet. For information, call 713-639-7515 or visit www.mfah.org/films. $6 to $7.

Fri., June 17, 7 p.m., 2011

This article appears in Jun 16-22, 2011.