Movie Review: Satyajit Ray's Agantuk (The Stranger)

I've never watched a movie like this before - in a language that I don't understand, with a remote in my hand to constantly pause and get translation from Suz...and it's not completely pleasurable - for example, she'd say, "Wait, wait, Bengali is such a language where you have to listen a lot and to multiple sentences before you can translate" and then she'd burp out one short sentence after 5 or more minutes of the movie was over. Huh? What about all those other long sentences - what does it mean? No answer. Anyways, I got a sense of Agantuk and loved it! Satyajit Ray is a genius without doubt and his genius lies in his movie's simplicity. To make something simple one has to think complicated and work really, really hard and he does this with unbelievable ease. How can you make such an entertaining and meaningful movie with mostly just 4 main characters and 1 house?

Many years ago during the Satyam days in Atlanta, Bhaskar had narrated Agantuk's story to me and had highlighted one phrase from the movie: Kupa Munduk- a frog stuck in a well. That phrase was a turning point for me - it's amazing how and why somethings appeal at some points of time. I also recall a reference to Peru and Machu Pichu (the first time I'd heard it) and when we moved away from Atlanta I had given him a sketch of Machu Pichu. So it was revelation for me when I found the movie at Crosswords yesterday afternoon - subtitles or not I had to watch it.

Back to the movie...a family receives a letter from the wife's "uncle" who had disappeared 35 years ago to travel the world. The letter says that he's to visit them in a few days in their upper middleclass Calcutta home. Why is this uncle visiting now? Is he real? What does he want? Is he going to steal and what?...these and many other questions become the bone of contention between the husband and wife. As the titles open, the Agantuk (Utpal Dutt) arrives. His conversations are amusing but natural - every dialogue reveals a great depth in understanding of the mind, the world and everything in between. He's traveled mostly in the "occident" and now wishes to travel the east - he's enroute to Australia. Previously, he was in Europe and the Americas spending time in learning about the simplicity of human existence through various tribes. He's finished a degree in anthropology and the university/ society funds his travels as long as he sends them his field notes and pictures. Satyajit Ray allows us glimpses into the uncle's varied experiences through brief his conversations with the family's guests and mostly through the young 8-year old son of the couple. Ray adds to the masala by introducing a situation of inheritance and money that is due for the uncle. The stranger intrigues the kid by talking about Peru and Machu Pichu, about people who eat amorillos but make toys, about the magical shapes of the sun, moon and earth and so on...he intrigues the family's visitors too by arguing about what true "adda" (a colloquial Bengali term used to mean the casual, lazy conversations among youth) meant for Plato and Socrates in ancient Greece, about what true civilization is, about culture, about religion ("I don't believe in anything that creates difference"), about science and architecture ("Isn't an igloo that is both opaque and transparent an architectural marvel?")...most of the movie serves as a reflection for the family members (and the viewer) to examine their own lives through the life of this agantuk.

Often the principal character in a movie serves as the director's mouthpiece and agantuk does that without difficulty for Satyajit Ray. His core beliefs, ideas, ideals, his visions of the world, whom he trusts, whom he finds difficult to trust - it is all revealed through agantuk. The actors are super brilliant - particularly Utpal Dutt. The movie is very much entertaining, the direction and script is tight and there are plenty of comic situations albeit in a subtle, laidback way - something that'll not make you laugh out loud but grin with glee. In the last scene, he hands over a letter in an envelope to the husband uttering the word - "floccinaucinihilipilification" - the husband responds, "Ah, the longest word in the English dictionary!" The agantuk smiles and replies, "It means of little value" and leaves for Australia. The envelope - as the viewer would easily guess - is him transfering his inheritance to the family.