Kapurush - O - Mahapurush (The Coward & The Holy Man; Bengali, 1965)
This is a collection of two stories, one on a triangular love affair and the other on the gullibility of the public and blind faith.
Kapurush
The topic of love triangle has been dealt with by the Indian silver screen umpteenth times with varying success from 'Sangam' to 'Saajan' to 'Jab Tak Hai Jaan' and till the end of time. What make this different is the simplicity of story and the excellence of direction and acting, minus the razzmatazz of an Indian wedding and melodrama.
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| Storm in tea-cup? |
Amit Roy (Soumitra Chatterjee who has been seen in many of Ray's films) is a screenwriter who is stranded in a small town when his car stalls. Bimal Gupta, a tea planter offers him a place to stay the night. Back in his bungalow, Roy, discovers that Mrs Gupta is actually (surprise, surprise) his old flame whom he did not have the courage to sweep her off from her guardians when they sent her away, not approving of their relationship. No doubt, Roy then was at a cross roads, was poor and was jobless.
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| One man woman |
Mr Gupta, we discover, is a bitter and lonely man, stashed away in the middle of nowhere with no friends and bound by a hierarchy class system where the high ranking officers are discouraged to mingle with their subordinates. His only companions are whiskey and his wife Karuna (Madabhi Mukerjee, seen in Charulatha and many of Ray's movies).
Roy is disappointed that Karuna does not show any enthusiasm upon meeting him. He tries to start a conversation with a rather 'matter-of-factly' Karuna, in vain. He tries to woo her back. After repeated fail attempts, he expressed his desire to marry her via his scribbled message on a serviette. He decides to leave town by train and Karuna was supposed to leave her husband. As he waited for the train, Karuna did appear, not to follow him but to take the bottle of her sleeping medicine that Roy had taken from the night table! End.
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| Old times to rest! |
As in all of Ray's films, many of the conclusions on the story are left to the imagination of its viewers. Till the end, we keep imaging that Mr Gupta is aware of their previous affair and was going to expose it anytime but it never happened. We are left to imagine that Karuna is unhappy with her husband, a hard drinking, ever complaining, youthfully challenged balding man. Karuna never shows it but at the end one is left to wonder whether she really is from the fact that she has to use sleeping tablets!
Mahapurush
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| Divine blessing seekers! |
Ever wondered why all men of God end up in India? Well, for the same reason why all alien sightings are sighted in the US. It is the psyche of citizens of the nations. In the former, a need for escapism for the tortures of daily life whilst in the latter, the general distrust of the authority and the importance given to self expression!
The film starts with a scene at a railway station with scores of divine hunger desperadoes shoving to catch a glimpse of their guru Birinchi Babaji and accept his pittance of blessed flowers. The followers gain satisfaction as the train moves and they touch his dirty foot as he sticks it out of the moving coach!
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Taught Einstein E=mc2
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In the train, a distraught Gurupada, a widow who is at wits end trying to get his daughter married is captivated by Babaji ageless stories about his immortality. Babaji had allegedly had conversations with Plato, Buddha, Jesus and Einstein on the theory of relativity!
Gurupada offers his place for meeting. Meanwhile, Satya is in love with Gurupada's daughter Buchki who does not return his love. In fact, she plans to become Babaji's full time disciple.
Desperate, Satya, a book keeper, summons a group of his intellectual friends for help.
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| Seeking intellectual blessings! |
The intellectuals, sneering at the masses manages to drive the holyman and his assistant out of town by creating a mayhem in the house with a fake fire scare and power failure. Babaji absconds happily with some loots that his assistant manage to squander from Gurupada's house in the melee!
Satya wins the heart of his girl. End.
As in Ray's 1960's offering 'Devi', he takes another swipe at the blind unquestioning faith accepted into the society. Maybe because there were too many character involved, you do not get drawn too deeply into the story. To me, just another Ray's film. Not too outstanding!
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