e_Paper, Tuesday, September 5, 2017

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2017
DT
Showtime
5 must watch Satyajit Ray films
• Showtime Desk
Satyajit Ray is undoubtedly one of the greatest film makers in the history
of Indian cinema who garnered international recognition with his
legendary film Pather Panchali. The film maker has given the audience a
number of great films which are phenomenal, catering to film enthusiasts
around the world. Showtime took time to list some of Ray’s finest films
for you to watch which are known to represent our society, making them
ever so relatable for us.
Jalsaghar - The
Music Room
(1958)
Jalsaghar, (The Music
Room) is set in the
1920s, after the Indian
government had
abolished the feudal
zamindari system.
The film stars Chhabi
Biswas as a landed
aristocrat, Roy, who
sequesters himself
in his grand home,
taking refuge in his
beloved classical
music while the
winds of change rage
outside. Ray brings
Roy’s perfumed world
to life with glittering
images of fireworks,
gleaming chandeliers and the cavernous extravagance of his music
room, where he invites satirists and dancers to entertain him and his
guests. But there are also portentous images of doom – a lightning
storm, an insect drowning in a goblet, a spider crawling across the
portrait of one of his illustrious ancestors – which suggest that these
musicians are merely fiddling while Roy’s Rome burns.
Mohanagar - The Big
City (1963)
There’s a scene minutes
into The Big City when
Arati Mazumdar (Madhabi
Mukherjee) turns to her
husband, Subrata (Anil
Chatterjee), saying, “If
you saw me at work you
wouldn’t recognise me.”
Her eyes are bright with
pride, widened by new
experiences. He’s envious
of his wife’s professional
prowess, and struggling to
adapt to these changes in
the subservient housewife
he loves.
Finding it hard to support
a large, extended family
on his bank-clerk salary
alone, she persuaded him to let her take a job as a saleswoman. To
her surprise, and the consternation of her hidebound, traditionalist
family, Arati - who has never known much outside cooking and
cleaning at home - takes to the world of work like a duck to water.
She finds herself surprisingly adept at earning money, and laps up
her newfound independence in the city, the camaraderie of her
colleagues, and glowing praise from her boss. With this 1963 drama,
Ray found himself railing against the “a woman’s place is in the
home” mentality, making a sassy, nuanced and deeply moving film
about the gathering speed of modernity and feminism in his home
city of Calcutta.
Pratidwandi (1970)
Ray’s ode to the prevalent Naxalism during the mid-
70s in Calcutta, and the uprising of CPML under Charu
Majumdar, the film showcases a stellar performance
from Dhrittiman Chatterjee as the protagonist.
The story revolves around a young college graduate
who is struggling to find a job. He lives in a flat with his
younger, employed sister, revolutionary brother and
widowed mother. The strain of the situation ultimately
causes him to hallucinate.
This story was originally written by Sunil
Gangopadhyay while the screenplay was written by Ray
himself.
Shatranj ke Khiladi – The
Chess Players (1977)
Shatranj ke Khiladi, Ray’s satire
on the annexation of Awadh is
based on the source material
of Munshi Premchand’s short
story of the same title. Amjad
Ali Khan plays Nawab Wajid
Ali Shah, while Sanjeev Kumar
and Saeed Jaffrey play two
noblemen obsessed with chess.
Satyajit Ray portrays the
nawab as an extravagant but
sympathetic figure. He is an
artist and poet, no longer in
command of events and unable to effectively
oppose the British and fight to retrieve his throne.
Parallel to the wider drama is the personal (and
sometimes humorous) tale of two rich noblemen
of this kingdom, Mirza Sajjad Ali and Mir Roshan
Ali. Inseparable as friends, the two nobles became
passionately obsessed with the game of shatranj
(chess), neglecting his (Mirza Sajjid Ali’s) wife
and failing to act against the real-life seizure
of their kingdom by the East India Company.
Aranyer Din Ratri - Days and Nights in the
Forest (1970)
Mentored by the great French filmmaker Jean Renoir
in his early career, Ray created a tribute to Renoir’s
classic Partie de campagne (1936) with Days and Nights
in the Forest, transplanting the scene from pastoral
France to the forests of north-eastern India. In Bangla,
this film is known as Aranyer Din Ratri.
Widely considered as Ray’s best film, it talks about
four men in their late twenties looking to take a
vacation to escape the boredom of their city lives. The
little vacation, in the end, turns out to change their
lives forever.
Like the Renoir film, the story is about middle-class
city folk taking a holiday to the countryside. Four male
friends from Calcutta go on a road trip to rural Bihar,
where they lodge at a forest guest house despite the
protestations of its caretaker. They’re from the big
city: brash, confident, careerist and ready to lord it
over the more “backward” tribal communities living
near their lodging. They vow not to shave, but that
changes when they come across two beautiful women
staying nearby, and an elegant game of flirtation and
embarrassment ensues.
Instead, the two nobles abandon their families
and responsibilities, fleeing from Lucknow to play
chess in a village, living in exile and untroubled
by greater events. Ray’s basic theme in the film
is the message that the detachment of India’s
ruling classes assisted a small number of British
officials and soldiers to take over Awadh without
opposition.
Surprisingly, Shatranj ke Khiladi was Ray’s only
Hindi film. •