Nayak - The Hero
by Satyajit Ray
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DVD details
Actor: Uttam Kumar Sharmila Tagore Bireswar Sen Somen Bose Nirmal Ghosh Premangshu Bose Sumita Sanyal Ranjit Sen Bharati Devi Lali Chowdhury Kamu Mukherjee Susmita Mukherjee Subrata Sensharma Jamuna SinhaDirector: Satyajit Ray
Audio: English (Unknown)
Format: Dolby, NTSC
Running Time: 120 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-06-01
Studio: New York Film Annex
DVD Reviews of Nayak - The Hero
DVD Review: The long-awaited release of a key Ray film
Summary: 4 Stars
NAYAK remains one of the more stylistically more daring entries in the cinematic career of Satyajit Ray. It isn't quite the knockout that some of his other films are, but it remains one of his more obscure works (unfortunately) to Western film aficionados, and there are more than enough intriguing experiments going on here to make it worth seeing.
At a basic level, NAYAK presents a character study, of matinee idol Arindam Mukherjee (Bengali star Uttam Kumar) as he travels by train from Calcutta to Delhi. The casting choice of Kumar was a brilliant move on the part of Ray, who was interested in creating a film that would focus less upon a star's star-power, and more on a star's inner world, and Kumar's performance is a must-see, with great psychological implications revealed through drama, but also through the slightest of gestures or expressions.
Kumar is paired here with Sharmila Tagore. Tagore - along with Soumitra Chatterjee - appeared in many of Ray's films, and this is one of her finest performances; among other qualities, her character offers an image of a very 60s sort of coolness that would rival that of Jean Seberg in Godard's BREATHLESS. This noted, her character here - an initially reluctant journalist who approaches Mukherjee in a dining car for an interview - is predominantly striking for intellectual reasons: confident, independent and riveting.
The interview and conversation between the two rapidly shifts away from typical star-interviewed-by-journalist territory into something more psychologically intrepid, with hopes and fears and any number of personal anxieties delved into. Ray's decision to build a narrative out of the unguarded moments of two individuals who would normally (for personal and professional reasons) be considerably less open is ambitious - a certain amount of 'demystification of celebrity' goes on, and I would guess that it had to make for difficult filming: how to cinematically visualize a story built upon inner moments? Ray elects for a nonlinear approach, with an abundance of flashbacks, and a spectacular, Fellini-esque dream sequence (centered around Mukherjee's greatest fears). This approach is a bit disjointed, and the film has a certain difficulty in sustaining it's rhythm, but it works visually, affording Ray the opportunity to delve into a variety new-wave influences, which lends the film a brisk stylishness.
Recently released on DVD in the US, one would hope that this portends further releases - Ray's most famous films have gone out of print in the US, and a handful of key films - KANCHENJUNGHA, the sublime DAYS AND NIGHTS IN THE FOREST, and the magical ADVENTURES OF GOOPY AND BAGHA have never made an appearance on DVD in the US. As another of his key works, it's great to see NAYAK finally getting a long-overdue release.
-David Alston
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