Nayak

I take back what I said before. I love the tone and rhythm of Nayak; the way the train centers everything; the grand and the quotidian; the music and the sound.

What starts as a fairly predictable road drama about a hotshot moviestar confronting "reality" turns into a wonderfully enigmatic peek through the cracks of the public persona of "The Hero." Superficially this feels quite dated & obvious but what brings it to life is Ray's uncanny atpitude for unassuming everyday lyricism that sneaks up on you. With its introspective ruminations & dream sequences this kind of reminded me of Fellini but with an althogether more subtle & naturalistic approach.

Satyajit Ray's answer to Wild Strawberries? A man travels to receive an award, and during the journey reflects on his life in flashbacks and dreams. Ray's protagonist is a much younger man, but the similarity seemed striking to me. Ray's film contains less revealing human insight than Bergman's, although he does get in some good criticisms of the film industry. Overall, it's a fine film that slowly sucked me in. Good performances and direction but I had hoped for something a little deeper.

A bit lighter lighter than other Ray films--with more pointed and topical humor, compared with the gentler moments of humor in his "great" films--and quite absorbing and entertaining. Ray later said that he wrote it with Uttam Kumar in mind as the lead, and if he had refused, he would have ditched the project completely. One can see why: he is perfect, and so very pretty--even prettier than the journalist lead actress, Sharmila Tagore (of The World of Apu renown), who is very pretty indeed.

91.50

As in The Music Room, it is heartening to see Ray find compassion for apparently unsympathetic characters. Even an ostensibly artless and superficial person contains a wellspring of formative experience. The unexamined life is not worth living, but it's not all solemn existentialism. This film is often in good and playful spirits.

Slow paced, timeless reflection on a man's life and the paths he follows.

Remarkable.