[eladiopsislab]

Ray seems to be more satisfied with Charulata than Pather Panchali (and Apu trilogy in general), which is mostly mentioned as his masterpiece.

My favorite Ray films in no order:
Days and Nights in the Forest(his most challenging and in my humble opinion, his best)
Charulata (a rich feminist work that even tops Mahanagar/The Big City)
Pather Panchali
Jalsaghar/the Music room
Kanchenjungha
Sadgati (Tv movie starring Om puri and late Smita Patil that rivals their work in Nihalani and Benegal films of the same time)

His speech while receiving lifetime achievement award is a riot. Very sophisticated, and well-informed, even if he was quite ill (only recorded clip of ray receiving the award on deathbed)! His taste for irony and humor despite the situation is genuinely moving.

I'm currently reading his book, "Our films, their films", after being impressed by the portions I read in books.google.com, what a page turner. As usual, Ray treads that fine line between scholarly elitism and matter-of-fact prose.