DIED. Satyajit Ray, 70, evocative Indian filmmaker; of heart disease; in Calcutta. Ray's first and most celebrated films (Pather Panchali, Aparajito and Apur Sansar, released between 1955 and 1959) constituted a trilogy that was epic in everything but physical scale. Ranging over almost three decades, embracing both village and city life in modern India as well as all the most basic human emotions, the works simply traced the growth of their protagonist, Apu, from young childhood to young manhood. Financed on the scrounge, shot on weekends by an amateur cast and crew (Ray was then an advertising art director), the trilogy brought its director worldwide acclaim. He went on to create a superb body of work--including such films as Devi (1960), Charulata (1964) and Distant Thunder (1973)--that eloquently portrayed a society devastated first by colonial oppression, then by postcolonial cultural confusions. From his hospital bed in Calcutta, Ray last month accepted an Academy Award for lifetime achievement.