Page 3 - THE CHANGING WORLD OF RAY
P. 3
The Stranger
ism in the 1970s, followed The Stranger
by the rapid transformation
of India in the 1980s. Ray’s Agantuk (translat-
films reflect upon the chang-
es in the conscious collective ed as ‘The Stranger’ or ‘The
of the society and the time Visitor’) was Satyajit Ray’s
they were produced, while last feature, produced in
1991 and 1992, the year of
offering a historical record the director’s death. The film
of this transformation of
his imagined India, the ‘In- was based on Ray’s short
dia’ that I got to know while story entitled Atithi (‘The
watching his films; an ‘In- Guest’). It completes his life
and working cycle, stretch-
dia’ that I can relate to. The ing over four decades: from
paper highlights an affinity
between Ray’s method of the declaration of Indepen-
film-making with ethnogra- dence (1947) and the period
phy and amateur anthropol- of industrialization and sec-
ularization of India in the
ogy. 1950s and 1960s, to the rise
For this, it returns
to the notion of the charis- of nationalism and Marxism
matic auteur as a narrator in the 1970s, followed by the
of his time, working within rapid transformation of In-
dia in the 1980s. Agantuk’s
the liminal space in-between opening sequence depicts
fiction and reality, subjectiv-
ity and objectivity, culture the arrival of the protago-
and history respectively, nist of the film, Manomo-
in order to reflect upon the han Mitra (played by Utpal
Dutt), a lost uncle, returning
complementary relationship to Kolkata on a train after
between the charismatic au-
teur and the role of the am- thirty-five years of absence.
ateur anthropologist in an He is an experienced, clean-
ever-changing world. shaved gentleman, who con-
fidently places his feet on
the wagon seat. He is wear-
