Agatuk (Stranger; Bengali, 1991)
Director: Satyajit Ray
Satyajit Ray, like Hitchcock, must be one of those who never made a bad movie. This is evident in his swan song, which morphed a simple story of a stranger coming into a household into a philosophical discourse on religion, man and civilisation. And attention-grabbing one, at that!
It is a display of simple storytelling with an array of traditional music and tribal dances minus the skilful special effects gadgetry and unrelated pointless visualisation of the human anatomy.
The story mocks the modern society, which is perceived to be suspicious of others and is selfish itself.
Anila and Sudhindra Bose are a middle-class couple with a preteen son, Satyaki. One day, Anila receives a letter from a long lost uncle who left the country some 35 years earlier. He announces his stop-over in Calcutta before leaving off to Australia. Being a gracious guest, he stated in his letter that his host was not obliged to receive him but hoped that they would in keeping with Indian tradition.
This created a suspicion in the mind of the husband. Anila was elated to receive him as he had left when she was only 2 years old.
The uncle, Manomohan Mitra, finally arrives. He turned out to be quite a cheerful and a knowledgeable chap who had spent time in many parts of the world, affluent and backwards, in cities and with tribes.
The seemingly simple man with big ideas again cast doubt on his credibility. A great man with no wealth to show off? And not married after all these years? Is he loafer who would stick with them like a leech? The suspense was killing them. Sudhindra politely peeks into his passport to verify his true identity. It corresponds, but then Mitra himself created an element of doubt. Mitra questioned him how he could believe the passport when it was so easy to fake a passport with modern technology.
A friend, Ranjan, a comedian by profession, tries to tease out more information on his intentions. It develops into an intelligent banter. A city is said to have progressed with its tall skyscrapers and modern infrastructure, but then there are the rickshaw pullers in Calcutta and the homeless in New York. So, where is the progress? Ranjan suggested that perhaps Bengalis are engaged in too much of chit-chatting (Adda). To this, Mitra replied that the Greeks, who believed that a healthy body makes a healthy mind, had gymnasiums where discussions of highest intellect happened there. It later produced great thinkers like Socrates and Plato. So, Adda was not bad, provided it was used for positive reasons.
Then Anila remembered that Mitra's inheritance was not given to him during her grandfather's demise as Mitra was not contactable. Was he there to make trouble and kick a fuss? These were the dilemmas spinning around the couples' minds. Only the son, the simple-minded boy and his friends think he is genuine.
Sudhindra engages a lawyer friend, Sengupta, to ascertain whether the stranger in his house is genuine. Another exciting discourse develops. Mitra, after being exposed to the splendour of ancient civilisation, via the picture of cave wall painting of bison of the cave of Alto Mira, decided to see the world. With his princely gift, he worked, saved money, got a degree in Anthropology, stayed with Native American tribes and learnt many secrets of life. The supposed civilisation in a city is an illusion. The sight of people injecting poisons into their veins or destroying a whole nation with a press of a button is anything but civil. The ancient civilisation also had technology in learning to farm, build, weave, music, culture and others. They also discuss cannibalism and promiscuity. Mitra holds wedlock as something very sacred. This, I feel, is the best dialogue of the movie.
At the end of the movie, Mitra actually gets his due inheritance but gives it to the Boses before leaving for Australia virtually embarrassing them.
Man has evolved to become self-centred, egoistic, suspicious of each other and have lost the common courtesy to help each other. The seed of doubt sows suspicion, and soon every action seems to strengthen our suspicion as our mind wants to see it. The so-called 'civilised' urban society considered them 'advanced' at the epitome of human capabilities and achievements. They look down upon the indigenous or tribal people. Their lack of technological know-how is frowned upon. They forget that the higher man climbs the stepladder of industrialisation, the more they become consumers rather than innovators.
They emphasise their priorities on worldly wealth-related values rather than the old noble values that our forefather so adamantly tried to impress. Humane intra-species and inter-species courtesy is lost. Suspicion creeps in. We forget that we were actually one species which were quite innovative and managed to survive in the wilderness all these years.
Imagine a day some 500 years ago... We are cooped away in the confines of our nearest hills and forests, beyond that spelt danger. Sea was unpredictable. After 12 hours of natural light, it was pitch black wilderness. We used our ingenuity to learn things from the stars, the moon, the sun and their positions at different times to give us a sense of time, season and space to help our crops, food and survival. The native tribes still use the knowledge from nature to this day. Who says they are backward? Their priorities may be different, but they are here on the same journey with us...
Director: Satyajit Ray
Satyajit Ray, like Hitchcock, must be one of those who never made a bad movie. This is evident in his swan song, which morphed a simple story of a stranger coming into a household into a philosophical discourse on religion, man and civilisation. And attention-grabbing one, at that!
It is a display of simple storytelling with an array of traditional music and tribal dances minus the skilful special effects gadgetry and unrelated pointless visualisation of the human anatomy.
The story mocks the modern society, which is perceived to be suspicious of others and is selfish itself.
Anila and Sudhindra Bose are a middle-class couple with a preteen son, Satyaki. One day, Anila receives a letter from a long lost uncle who left the country some 35 years earlier. He announces his stop-over in Calcutta before leaving off to Australia. Being a gracious guest, he stated in his letter that his host was not obliged to receive him but hoped that they would in keeping with Indian tradition.
This created a suspicion in the mind of the husband. Anila was elated to receive him as he had left when she was only 2 years old.
The uncle, Manomohan Mitra, finally arrives. He turned out to be quite a cheerful and a knowledgeable chap who had spent time in many parts of the world, affluent and backwards, in cities and with tribes.
The seemingly simple man with big ideas again cast doubt on his credibility. A great man with no wealth to show off? And not married after all these years? Is he loafer who would stick with them like a leech? The suspense was killing them. Sudhindra politely peeks into his passport to verify his true identity. It corresponds, but then Mitra himself created an element of doubt. Mitra questioned him how he could believe the passport when it was so easy to fake a passport with modern technology.
A friend, Ranjan, a comedian by profession, tries to tease out more information on his intentions. It develops into an intelligent banter. A city is said to have progressed with its tall skyscrapers and modern infrastructure, but then there are the rickshaw pullers in Calcutta and the homeless in New York. So, where is the progress? Ranjan suggested that perhaps Bengalis are engaged in too much of chit-chatting (Adda). To this, Mitra replied that the Greeks, who believed that a healthy body makes a healthy mind, had gymnasiums where discussions of highest intellect happened there. It later produced great thinkers like Socrates and Plato. So, Adda was not bad, provided it was used for positive reasons.
Then Anila remembered that Mitra's inheritance was not given to him during her grandfather's demise as Mitra was not contactable. Was he there to make trouble and kick a fuss? These were the dilemmas spinning around the couples' minds. Only the son, the simple-minded boy and his friends think he is genuine.
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| At Alto Mira |
Sudhindra engages a lawyer friend, Sengupta, to ascertain whether the stranger in his house is genuine. Another exciting discourse develops. Mitra, after being exposed to the splendour of ancient civilisation, via the picture of cave wall painting of bison of the cave of Alto Mira, decided to see the world. With his princely gift, he worked, saved money, got a degree in Anthropology, stayed with Native American tribes and learnt many secrets of life. The supposed civilisation in a city is an illusion. The sight of people injecting poisons into their veins or destroying a whole nation with a press of a button is anything but civil. The ancient civilisation also had technology in learning to farm, build, weave, music, culture and others. They also discuss cannibalism and promiscuity. Mitra holds wedlock as something very sacred. This, I feel, is the best dialogue of the movie.
At the end of the movie, Mitra actually gets his due inheritance but gives it to the Boses before leaving for Australia virtually embarrassing them.
Man has evolved to become self-centred, egoistic, suspicious of each other and have lost the common courtesy to help each other. The seed of doubt sows suspicion, and soon every action seems to strengthen our suspicion as our mind wants to see it. The so-called 'civilised' urban society considered them 'advanced' at the epitome of human capabilities and achievements. They look down upon the indigenous or tribal people. Their lack of technological know-how is frowned upon. They forget that the higher man climbs the stepladder of industrialisation, the more they become consumers rather than innovators.
They emphasise their priorities on worldly wealth-related values rather than the old noble values that our forefather so adamantly tried to impress. Humane intra-species and inter-species courtesy is lost. Suspicion creeps in. We forget that we were actually one species which were quite innovative and managed to survive in the wilderness all these years.
Imagine a day some 500 years ago... We are cooped away in the confines of our nearest hills and forests, beyond that spelt danger. Sea was unpredictable. After 12 hours of natural light, it was pitch black wilderness. We used our ingenuity to learn things from the stars, the moon, the sun and their positions at different times to give us a sense of time, season and space to help our crops, food and survival. The native tribes still use the knowledge from nature to this day. Who says they are backward? Their priorities may be different, but they are here on the same journey with us...
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