‘Ray’ review: A few hits and a miss

This Netflix anthology celebrating the centenary year of master filmmaker Satyajit Ray leaves a mixed bag of emotions on the four shorts directed by three filmmakers

Characters looking at themselves in a mirror is a common recurring image you would find in the four shorts of Ray. The mirror is a conscience keeper that shows the characters what they see in themselves, or rather, what they choose to see. It is presented as a tool to look within, to look into one’s soul, as the filmmakers would like to say. It is another thing that all four shorts are, in essence, about two characters who look inwardly and are constantly searching — sometimes for answers and sometimes for questions. Based on Satyajit Ray’s four short stories, the two primary characters of each of these films are destined and designed in such a way that their paths cross. Apart from these two recurring aspects, the shorts bear no common traits, except that each ends with a moral of the story.