Agantuk
India,
1991, 120 min
Shown in 1992
CREDITS
- dir
-
Satyajit Ray
- prod
-
Satyajit Ray
- scr
-
Satyajit Ray
- cam
-
Barun Raha
- editor
-
Dulal Dutta
- cast
-
Deepankar De, Utpal Dutt, Mamata Shankar
- source
-
NFDC
OTHER
Satyajit Ray, 1992's Kurosawa Award recipient, has come up with his best film in several years. The Visitor centers on a wealthy upper-class Calcutta couple. Out of the blue, the wife Anila receives a letter from her long-lost uncle Manomohan, the family’s black sheep who went overseas in 1955 (the year Ray completed his first film, Pather Panchali) and hasn’t been heard from since. Husband Sudhindra is instantly suspicious: What else could this wanderer want but money? Or maybe this isn’t Uncle Manomohan, but an impostor. Suspicions aren’t allayed once he arrives; he seems genuine but behaves in a strange and unworldly manner. As they get to know the old man, they discover he’s an almost mystical character who left because he wanted to be a painter. He traveled to countries where tribal people survive, seeking inspiration from their knowledge and wisdom. In a magical scene, the family follows him to a tribal village in the Bengali hinterlands and, while watching the women performing a traditional dance, Anila is persuaded to join in. Ray tells this story with calm serenity. The story’s charm and power gradually imposes itself on the viewer, as indeed the charm of the uncle gradually imposes itself on the family. Ray, as usual, provides a subtly attractive music score.
—David Stratton, Variety
FACTOID #25
The San Francisco International showed Lina Wertm’ller’s first film, The Lizards, in 1963. A favorite of Bay Area audiences, her features All Screwed Up and The Seduction of Mimi had their U.S. premieres at the SFIFF in 1972 and 1974.
