Satyajit Ray, arguably our most talented filmmaker, contributed to Indian cinema a grace that has never yet been surpassed. His Pather Panchali was released in August 1955. This thus becomes the fiftieth year of his first film.

Actress director Revathy comes from a different more endearing mould than your usual celebrity. Her thoughtful approach to films has neither the abrasive down to earthiness of the arty film actresses nor the narcissitic attitude of the usual Bollywoodian. Here is a human being who is working at something and making her presence felt in the best way possible - through her films. And her honest to goodness approach is visible. Here Revathy pays tribute to the legend: (Visit special: Phir Milenge set to mark a difference)

"I saw Pather Panchali only about 10-12 years ago and I wasn't a director then. I remember I didn't want to get up and leave the theatre. It is very rare that a film transports you to another world like that into another age. You don't feel it is a film. It was more a story that unfolded before your eyes involving you so much that you couldn't shake off the involvement. I wanted to see it again to analyse why it had such an effect but I refuse to see films on DVD. So I haven't had the opportunity to figure out what made them act like they did.''

''You wonder if they were acting at all or were just being themselves and how Satyajit Ray made them do it. Or did he just take candid camera and shot them. And again when you think of the time when he made the film - today there are so many techniques to make things look real but at that time the visuals in the film were astounding.''

''And the performances - at that time I was looking at it from the performance point of view - they weren't performances. The characters were just there and from the actors' perception that was really something. The film touched your soul so that for some time you didn't want to see any other film. I remember feeling I didn't want to go out and see the traffic - the artiste in me was crying that I wouldn't get to do a role like that.''