Customer Reviews

Nayak - The Hero

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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

Indeed a masterpiece by Satyajit Ray empowered by brilliant acting from Sharmila Tagore and Uttam Kumar. The film is one of very rare gems of Indian Cinema and my eyes were glued to the screen right from the start to the concluding parts. Uttam Kumar as the main protagonist is extremely believable in his role and easily gets you involved in his life story. The whole cast performance is very precise and well done. A film not to be missed.

Nayak (The Hero) was made in 1966. It was not one of my favorite Ray films. It comprises a matinee idol and common people interacting with an idol on a train journey. Apart from the setting on a train, the past is told through backflash and dreams interspersed.

Arindam, (Uttam Kumar), a handsome, well-known movie star is taking the train to Delhi from Calcutta to collect a prize. On the train, he encounters a journalist who decides to interview him. He then reveals some of his past, his guilt by leaving the theatre for movie film, his refusal to help a friend politically, his drinking, confessing to an affair, etc.

The people on the train have a role as we see how they interact to the movie star. There are a few subplots within the characters of the train, but none seem to prove much to the core of the moral story. The film is very lengthy and at times confusing in its storytelling.

According to Andrew Robinson in "The Inner Eye", Ray wanted to investigate the psychology of a star, his adulators and detractors and to do a train journey.

Nayak had won the Critics Prize in Berlin in 1966. And in 1974, it was released in the U.S. with only decent reviews. ...Rizzo