Satyajit Ray import DVD round-up, part 2
Posted by martinteller on May 25, 2009
Devi (rewatch) – Bah, I’ve pissed away my Saturday. It’s after 5:00 already, and I’ve only gone through one movie. Having just received another batch of DVDs from India, I’ve got a lot of watching to do. Satyajit Ray has no less than 10 films I would consider masterpieces: the “Apu trilogy”, the “Calcutta trilogy”, Mahanagar, Charulata, Jalsaghar, and this one. A haunting and effective condemnation of blind religious fanaticism. Sharmila Tagore was only 14 when she made this! Rating: 9
Mahanagar (rewatch) – My favorite Ray film, but this is my 5th time watching it so I don’t think I have anything new to say. The subtitles on the disc were pretty bad. Rating: 10
Nayak (rewatch) – Second-tier Ray is like second-tier Bergman or second-tier Hitchcock… still damn better than most other stuff out there. This one grows on me a little more each time I see it. Rating: 8
Aranyer Dinrati (rewatch) – My opinion of this one has elevated as well, despite the horrible subtitles on the disc. Ray has done other films with unsympathetic protagonists (namely Jalsaghar and The Chess Players) but rarely is he so disdainful to them. When I first saw this several years ago, I said he lets them off too easy, but now I don’t think so. People like this rarely get any kind of comeuppance, instead they use their wealth and influence to sail through almost any situation. In fact, I think Ray is wise to give them a hint of humanity, which allows him to be scathing without appearing like he’s shooting fish in a barrel. The film is also noteworthy in that it deals frankly with sexuality, at least far more so than one ordinarily sees in Ray’s work. Superior camerawork as well, and the music is not nearly as poor as I initially thought. Rating: 8
Seemabaddha (rewatch) – Bad subtitles again… in fact, some of the worst I’ve ever seen. Large patches of dialogue go untranslated, heaps of spelling and grammatical errors, and the English phrases that were subtitled were way off the mark, which means the Bengali probably wasn’t translated much better. Fortunately, it doesn’t do much to lessen the impact of this powerful fable about ambition and corruption in modern Calcutta. As a sidenote, lead actor Barun Chanda looks for all the world like Jeff Goldblum with a heavy tan. Rating: 9
Jana Aranya (rewatch) – The last of my Ray purchases, and it’s just as well. Even with your favorites, you can get burnt out. At least the subtitles were good on this one, though. It’s interesting how the Calcutta trilogy (this is the second one, and appropriately titled “The Middleman”) progresses from the upper to the lower classes. As you get further down the ladder, the ambitions get smaller, and the integrity gets greater. This is one of Ray’s finest morality tales, and watching Somnath struggle with his principles is a nail-biting experience. Rating: 9
