To have the great Akira Kurosawa say of your work that not not have seen them is " to have lived in the world without ever having seen the moon and the sun" is an accolade most can only dream of receiving, but such was the case for Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray, a man who as well as achieving world acclaim as a director was also a talented writer, composer and artist – he even designed two fonts! DVD collections of his work are long overdue, and now Artificial Eye have announced the release of two such volumes, each boasting three discs and each with a RRP of £29.99 (which is being seriously discounted for on-line pre-orders, we should add).

The Satyajit Ray Collection: Vol.1

Mahanagar (The Big City, 1963)
Set in the mid '50s, Ray's often humorous story of conflicting social values in India's lower-middle class stars Madhabi Mukherjee as a housewife whose growing independence alarms her traditionalist India 1963 family.

Charulata (The Lonely Wife, 1964)
Neglected by her ambitious journalist husband, the lonely Charulata (Madhabi Mukherjee) befriends his cousin (Soumitra Chatterjee), a sensitive aspiring writer, and almost inevitably their feelings for each other begin to deepen. Adapted from a story by Rabindranath Tagore, Ray considered this sensitively realised drama one of his finest achievements.

Nayak (The Hero, 1966)
This beautifully observed character study was one of Ray's earliest original screenplays. En route to an award ceremony, a famous and egocentric Bengali movie star finds that he is compelled to re-evaluate his life after encountering a disapproving young journalist (Sharmila Tagore).

The Satyajit Ray Collection: Vol.2

Kapurush (The Coward, 1965)
Stranded in a small town, screenwriter Amitabha Roy is astonished to encounter a former lover who is now married to the owner of a tea plantation. Recalling his inability to commit to her and the relationship's resultant breakdown, Roy decides to make amends for the past.

Mahapurush (The Holy Man, 1965)
Ray's rarely-seen gem is a comedy-drama in which a gullible and religiously devout retiree is completely taken in by a bogus holy man and enlists the charlatan's help in finding his daughter a husband. But she is being courted by a young man who determines to expose the fraudster.

Joi Baba Felunath (1978)
Set in the holy city of Benares where Ray had shot Aparajito over 20 years previously, this adventure story adapted from Ray's own novel stars Soumitra Chatterjee as a detective investigating the theft of a priceless gold icon.

Exact release dates for both volumes are a little hazy at present. The press notes suggest 18th August 2008, which most retailers seem to be going with 25th August 2008, while Amazon are claiming that Vol. 1 will his the streets a month earlier than its counterpart on 28th July.