Skip to main content

Satyajit Ray’s Agantuk for Kupa Mondoks

 Poster of Agantuk (The Stranger), 1991 designed by Satyajit RayAgantuk (The Stranger), 1991 directed by Satyajit Ray

I really enjoyed watching the movie.

-0-
In a way, the film was reflective of the attitude of knowledge worship among Bengali middle class of his era. On one hand, there are people who use knowledge as a utility, a tool, and a social propellant; and on the other hand, we have the fascinating character played brilliantly by Uttpal Dutt who knows it all but is he is after the family Money, is what people around him wonder, but it seem so strange. What does he really want? Thoughts of the family member and by now the viewer: He truly is The Stranger

Satyajit Ray managed to weave an eclectic web of philosophical meanderings, discourse on culture, society et al into the story, stired it up like steaming sweet tea and then served it in a Bangla Adda teeming with characters who love talking.
And he managed to pull it off. Fascinating!

Mamata Shankar was great. The scene towards the end of the movie, when she dances with people from local tribe, is brought alive by her dancing. Smart me at first thought that the scene could have been edited a bit but then slowly with the rising drumbeats, the screen comes alive.
Makes you wanna sit in front of the screen like a Kupa Mondok

-0-

For fans of Sukumar Ray, a Poem of Sukumar Ray translated by Satyajit Ray
Enjoy some Nonsense

-0-

Image:
Poster of movie Agantuk designed by Satyajit Ray
Found it at an insightful page maintained by
Ray Film and Study Collection

-0-

A version on this post appeared as a comment at PFC post about Agantuk by RK
and another appeared as a comment at another post of mine about India and Oscars

Comments

  1. Watched Joi Baba Felunath just a few weeks ago on Zee Studio but missed out on Ray’s Seemabaddha .
    I am planning to watch Ganashatru next. I have marked the corner of the shop where the VCD is lying, the corner right next to aerobic videos, but I have picked up the CD yet. I guess its cover was not flashy enough. Have to wait to see what Satyajit Ray has done with Henrik Ibsen.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

I always like to hear back :)
However, irrelevant comments and irrelevant links will not be published. Needless to say, same goes for abusive comment and spam. Leaving back links related to the topic is encouraged. I know it can be tempting but try not to leave your email ids, phone nos and CVs in the comment.

Popular posts from this blog

Famous Old Faces of Doordarshan

Some people recall the faces and some people recall the names. Here are images of some of the famous readers and presenters of Doordarshan down the years. If you recognize any of them, leave a comment. [ Update 1 : Most of the faces now have names thanks to helpful comments by olio-gallimaufry ] [ Update 2 : Included image of one of the earliest presenters, Gopal Kaul. Send in generously from personal collection by son, Ashutosh Kaul. Sept, 2010.] [ Major Update 3: Got a tip-off about a documentary about the famous faces of Doordarshan from the makers   of     “The Golden Trail , DD@50 :Special feature on Golden Jubilee of Doordarshan ” from which these caps were taken. I managed to catch the incredible documentary and am adding some more faces/name and part of the docu here. New ones can be found after the image of  Narotam Puri. 30th Oct, 2010]  Pratima Puri. Believed to be the first Doordarshan reader.

Indian Cigarette Vintage Ads

He put a cigarette in his mouth and, as a matter of silent routine, offered one to Gwyn, who said ‘No thanks.”Richard looked at him.”I packed it in.”"You what?”"I stopped. Three days ago. Cold. That’s it. You just make the life choice.” Richard looked up and inhaled needfully. He gazed at his cigarette. He didn’t really want to smoke it. He wanted to eat it. Almost the only thing that he still liked about Gwyn was that he still smoked…Paradoxically, he no longer wanted to give up smoking: what he wanted to do was take up smoking. Not so much to fill the little gaps between cigarettes with cigarettes (there wouldn’t be time, anyway) or to smoke two cigarettes at once. It was more that he felt the desire to smoke a cigarette even when he was smoking a cigarette. The need was and wasn’t being met… While it would always be true and fair to say that Richard felt like a cigarette, it would now be doubly true and fair to say it. He felt like a cigarette. And he felt like a cig

Kishore Kumar, Yodel-ay-ee-oooo Songs, A List

*Updated with corrections pointed out by Bart Plantenga , author of some incredible book on Yodeling including Yodel-Ay-Ee-Oooo: The Secret History of Yodeling Around the World. -0- Kishore Kumar 's brother Anoop Kumar, who we basically know for the line ' O manu tera toh hua ab mera kya hoga ', used to own lots of Austrian music records. And from these records, Kishore Kumar picked up the art of Yodel singing, an art perfected in bathroom and then introduced by him to the world of Hindi film music. According to his biography 'Kishore Kumar: method in madness‎ ' by Derek Bose, "Kishore was a fan of the Swiss singer Tex Norton [* Tex Morton, an Australian cowboy born in New Zealand who sang  in the gene autry / Jimmie Rodgers style ] and the Australian Jimmy Rogers [* Jimmie Rodgers , perhaps the most American and one of the most famous yodelers in the world, famous for his blue yodels ] as well." Although most of these songs by Kishore Kumar are t