Watched Gupi Gayen Bagha Bayen, Hirok Rajar Deshe and Agantuk after ages.
The films brought back fond memories of watching them long ago as a boy. The first two films were thoroughly enjoyable as well as politically inspiring. The innocence of fairy tale meeting political allegory in a fulfilling cinematic experience. The films haven't aged whatsoever and still remain so entertaining and relevant. What music and what acting! Comic timing at its best. Rabi Ghosh and Utpal Dutt offer master-classes in acting.
This time I liked Agantuk more than I had as a kid. The somewhat controversial ending esp. the outward movement into the open with the Santali dance sequence didn't seem forced at all. In fact, the narrative logic had started making room for that opening from the beginning I felt.
I was intrigued to think about the testamental quality of Ray's last film. To what extent did he consciously choose to clarify and qualify his position on civilization and urbanity, secularism and scientific and technological modernity in his last film? It seems to be the moot question the film unrelentingly asks and attempts to re-(de)-fine: who is civilized and who's barbaric? And the answer is anything but dichotomous, of course. Everyone in Agantuk is excellent but Utpal Dutt simply towers!
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