When a series on Satyajit Ray’s short stories have the warning line / disclaimer of “violence, sex and language” mentioned, you know it is anything but Ray’s work!!!!
Now the big question is where to begin.
First: a thumbs-up to Netflix and Viacom18 for the tribute.
The Season 1 of ‘Ray’ is about four of his short stories – retold and recreated (if I may use these words) – by three directors. For simplicity’s sake, I will write four reviews and collate them; followed by a final comment.
1. Forget Me Not
(original: Bipin Chowdhury’r Smritibhrom )
Director: Srijit Mukherji
Story: Ipsit Rama Nair is a corporate shark with eidetic memory. He fails to place one random Rhea Saran and his world comes crashing down as he falls prey to his hubris.
Original storyline: Bipin Chowdhury cannot place one random acquaintance who says the two met at Ranchi, a place he knows he has never been to.
Srijit chooses Ali Fazal as the lead; with an aptly selected supporting cast of Anindita Bose, Shweta Prasad and others. The development of all major characters are somewhat warped; and to be fair Ali Fazal does try hard to convince viewers about his character wherever he gets a chance. But everyone actually falls short.
Camera work excels. But use of language is atrocious. Avoiding slangs was the easiest that could have been done.
But, in reinterpreting the storyline, Srijit Mukherji takes out the simplicity of the original. The reinterpretation is more on the lines of a con-job & revenge drama, clearly marking out good-bad-ugly and grey in characters. Plus, except one, I do not see most of these characters justifying their motive for revenge convincingly.
The “human touch”, that is so visible in Ray’s short stories, is absolutely missing. It is heavy on the viewer, specially ones like me who know the original!!!
2. Bahrupi
(original: Bahurupiya)
Director :Srijit Mukherji
Story: A regular make-up artist decides to extract revenge using his craft; while fate has other plans.
Original Storyline: A make-up artist decides to try a new look for the fun of it, and prove his merit, each day at a time.
I believe this is one of the most complicated stories by Ray. The lead character, Indrasish, portrayed by Kay Kay Menon, is your everyday man, one you would hardly take any note of actually.
Again, Srijit does way more than what the original author would have put in his storyline. He digresses into the dark. And not the human psychology.
The simplicity of the storyline and protagonist’s character in the original, are lost somewhere in the retelling. To be fair, the short feature is more on the lines of Srijit's own movie, Da Vinci Da. Cinematically speaking, Bahrupi is better of the two films he has tried here.
Once again you do not feel with the lead character by the time the movie ends. You are neither happy for him, nor are you waiting to see how he is extracting vengeance and so on.
Kay Kay Menon, as brilliant as he is, still needs the script to back him in a dark comedy (not linked to the Ray banner).
Once again, I am lost in the web of intellectualism weaved into the retelling!!!
3. Hungama Hain Kyon Barpa
(original: Barin Bhowmick er Byaram)
Director: Abhishek Chaubey
Storyline: A ghazal singer meets a sports journalist on train ride to Delhi (from Bhopal) and a past encounter recollected during the present journey forms the crux of the story.
Original storyline: A singer encounters a sportsman on a train journey to Delhi as the former recollects his past encounter with the latter.
Perhaps the best of the quartet of the stories; and the only one that sticks nearly to the original plot by Ray. Manoj Vajpayee and Giriraj Rao, with their subtleties, the measured underplay and bang-on expressions (where words are not required) steal the show. The story is humorous, as was the original, with a tinge of suspense. Inevitably, the story does not create heroes or villains, as Ray never took sides (of characters) in his stories. It creates people a viewer can identify with.
It is true to the spirit of Ray in all sense of the phrase!!!
PS - The Urdu-ised name comes from a ghazal sung by Ghulam Ali.
4. Spotlight
(original: Spotlight)
Director: Vasan Bala
Storyline: An actor and a godwoman face-off in their own ways.
Original story: An actor comes on a holiday, but the spotlight is not on him. Instead, people in the suburb / getaway are more interested the “immortal” who seems to be there miraculously.
Frankly, this is no Ray story that is being told here. Just the name is the same. But, the movie is pure fun.
Harshvarshan Kapoor and Radhika Madan excel and Chandan Roy Sanyal is the best supporting cast amongst those in the four. Kapoor is the actor with a chip on his shoulder; Roy Sanyal is “Rawbee”; and Madan is the surprise package.
Spotlight, I feel, excels as an independent story. It’s a movie-lover’s delight and has all the right references. It goes beyond Ray – the Bhooter Raja motif; the actor walking out of a movie called Chiriyakhana, the second most important character named Robi (if I get it right) – to include other classic references like De Niro's The Raging Bull and Kafkaesque and the Lynchian words in perhaps the most out of context usage.
I actually liked the story. And, yes, director Vasan Bala makes an appearance in the movie too.
Final outcome –
Sadly, the non-Bengali director (Chaubey) seems to have got the feel of Ray and his delve into the quirk of human psyche more bang on than others.
This seems to be the season of Manoj Vajpayee and he can do no wrong this time around.
The director's (Ray) brethren from Bengal fails, & if I may dare say, miserably.
The attempt at heavily intellectualizing Ray’s stories is something I detest in the first two cases. (Many may like this though.) Its not even retelling the story. Throwing in expletives here and there makes not a substitute for good storytelling / realistic filmmaking.
Just because there is a wafer-thin central theme of Ray's actual stories (for the first two) one should not be using the legend's name to justify these.
I have nothing to say of Spotlight.
My suggestion, as a viewer, drop the hype – the ‘Ray stories being aired on Netflix’ type of feeling; watch them as four independent stories and films. The heartbreak possibly will be less.
And those who have not read Satyajit Ray, please please please do not think that the master auteur’s works / stories are anywhere close to the first two or even the last one.
As an Indepedent series: 3.5/5
Retelling or Satyajit Ray’s short stories – 2/5
