When a film became the mouthpiece of a filmmaker

Before starting today's blog post, I want to lay down a few beliefs with regards to films and filmmakers.

First, films reflect society and cannot essentially change the norms of a society. It can put a mirror to the society and thereby we can see the evils, the darkness, the prejudices, but when it comes to correcting those problems in the society, films fall short. I am not a firm believer of this argument.

Second, a film is a portrayal of a filmmaker's own views, ideas and ideologies. The storytelling, the scenarios and dialogues, together with the overall treatment of a film, is very much a projection of his or her way of thinking about life. I partially agree to this, I think a filmmaker might "learn" to say few things differently, but predominantly, he or she stays true to his or her version of how life flows.

Third, a film is edited reality. A film cannot depict all, but it can reveal a big deal of what happens in real lives. Not just in the context of the overall society, but also, in the lives of common few. Here I agree, I believe film is one of the best media to showcase human life in its most real form.

When Satyajit Ray was planning Agantuk, he talked to the famous actor Utpal Dutt. As a matter of fact, in an interview, Dutt had clearly stated that Ray had told him that he was making a film and the film would be a mouthpiece of his own self. That meant, on the screen, Dutt would portray the personality, the beliefs, the ideology that Ray himself had with him.

On that note, now let us zoom into the film Agantuk, Ray’s last film as director. Ray was educated in different kinds of institutions, in Calcutta (Presidency College) and in Shantiniketan (Vishwa-Bharati University). The beautiful part about Ray’s upbringing was - it was a smooth mixture of vernacular studies as well as foreign theories and expressions. On top of that, he was also trained in fine arts. This combination is the starting point of Agantuk. The central character, who is an anthropologist, comes and visits his long-lost niece, her husband and her son. The man is a product of Bengali ideas, native ideologies, and traditional thoughts of life on one end. On the other, he is fully aware of the modernity, the affluence, and the progress of the Western civilization. However, taking the best from the two worlds, the man constantly questions the so-called over dependency towards Western virtues. He struggles and fights his own battle to find out where he necessarily fits into. After some turmoil, he confesses – he finds the aboriginal tribal people as one of the best clusters of humanity!

Moving on, the next aspect that comes up clearly in this in this movie is the detailed analysis of human relationships. On one end is the protagonist who has come back from a long journey of life and trying to find his old virtues, his old values inside an ordinary upper-middle class Bengali family. On the other end is a collection of human mistrust - why is this man back after so long time? Does he want to get a claim of the joint property? Does he want to have access to the money assets? In between these two conflicting human ideas stays a woman. The niece of the stranger (Agantuk), the only blood-related connection to his ancestral world. She is kind of suffocated by the pull and push from both sides. Ray, throughout his life as a filmmaker, has delt a lot with human emotions. In this film though, he becomes his most vocal expressive self. He remains more direct and tries to actually find a solution to this dilemma of what is true and what can be fake. Is the man fake? Is the husband rightly worried that there might be a fraud here? The dialogues, short incidents, the little plot-nudges, some touches of comedy - they all add up to the conflict of idealism versus pragmatism. This whole thing concludes in the climax and makes the film a classic!

The review would not be complete without touching upon the most important aspect of the film. It is to “not accept anything on the face value”. Ray asks the viewers to harness on the skill and quality of questioning. To ask questions is the most important virtue of the human mind. Just look at today’s world. In today's world, when we are talking about artificial intelligence, we are also talking about how to create good prompts for our Chat-bots. Likewise, in the film, there are several situations where questions create a deep impact on the minds of the viewers. What is the essence of civilization? How far is too far in terms of technological growth? How can we be more responsible when we are using technology? What can bring utter destruction to humanity? What is tradition and why is something not “traditional”? What is wrong in tradition and orthodoxy? Many such questions are raised in the film. Some get answered, some stay open, some remain half-answered. Towards the end, the questions take a back seat, and human emotions are once again brought to the fore. But the impact of those questions still lingers on our heart and mind. Once again there is a reason why Agantuk becomes immortal.

Now, let us bring together the pieces. The film Agantuk was Satyajit Ray's last film. Right from his first film, the cult Pather Panchali, Ray has been driven by multi-culturalism, social justice, fair standing of human relationships and a lifelong pursuit to know the unknown. All these come together in the film. 

But what comes through in addition are the following - a subtle mechanism to reach out to the middle-class to see if they can get touched by idealism, and thereafter make an attempt to change. Not every dealing is business, there is a still tenderness, gentleness and a mentality of "no urge to get a return" left somewhere. Satyajit Ray puts all the onus back on the viewers - he tells them, look, there are still good people out there and this is a hard reality. Much like how there are bad people too. But shall we only get concerned with the bad? Or shall we also have some element of trust-structure left within us?

Ray also states unequivocally that a film is a piece of real life. Next time when we see a stranger like the protagonist, we know something like this is already seen in a film. The chemistry between the central character Utpal Dutt and his distant grandson is very common, even in today's Gen Z. He wants us to celebrate these relations and make these part of our "real life".

The best thing that happens through the film is what I mentioned before - Ray projects himself through the protagonist to his audience and fans. This is the swansong, a farewell he creates for himself. The young 40-ish filmmaker who had once started filmmaking in the 50's has now become direct, forthright and crystal clear. A spade is a spade. What is wrong is wrong. What is good is always good, it cannot be sometimes good. Toxicity is within us - we better find it and throw it out of our system. 

Agantuk thereby defines Indian cinema in ways no other film has probably done - and Satyajit Ray draws curtain to his career with this concrete movie, a mouthpiece of his own beliefs.