Kapurush

Kapurush (1965)

Written for the Screen and Directed by: Satyajit Ray
Starring: Soumitra Chatterjee, Madhabi Mukherjee

Streaming on Mubi.

One hindrance to watch old films is that I can't relate to the way the people talk and behave. But Satyajit Ray's films are not like that. You can relate to the way people talk, behave and react even today. Not only these - you can even relate to what they're going through. A writer looking for material through first hand experiences is a bit of a niche idea even today. I can relate to a lot of conversations he's written about half a decade ago, and perhaps that's what is timelessness. It's about Roy, a screenwriter who is driving around in the country for material. His car breaks down, and a tea planter offers him shelter, but Roy is shocked to see that the tea planter's wife is his ex-girlfriend. Well, ex-girlfriend is quite a modern term and something like this wouldn't have even happened in today's world of social media.

I love the way Ray takes a premise in a short time span, and uses flashback as a narrative to explore more of the characters. It's like he peels more layers of character through flashback. I remember Nayak also having a similar structure. Here too, we see Roy reminiscing scenes from back then when they were together, about how he let her go and more. Now, I understand why Satyajit Ray was a festival favorite and not as much of a popular filmmaker - perhaps because of his stories being centered more around artists, broken souls, and these stories generally don't make for popular stuff. But yeah, these stories give you terrific scope for personal expression.