Agantuk (Bengali Movie)

[sonali]

We watched Agantuk (the Stranger) last night. This is a wonderful and nuanced movie by Satyajit Ray - actually, his last film.  If you can find it with subtitles (or you are lucky enough to understand Bengali), I HIGHLY recommend it.

The story is about a woman who receives a letter from her long-lost uncle, who has been gone since she was a baby. She is his last remaining relative, and he wants to spend some time with her while he is in Calcutta. But how is she to know it is really his uncle? Can she trust him? She, her husband, and her young son all react differently to the news of this stranger and to the stranger himself...

But the story is not only in the main plot. As in Satyajit Ray's other movies, there are little hidden nuggets of knowledge and morals not moralistically spelled out. The acting feels real, and the dialogues really make you think.  I have been thinking about this movie all day and wanted to share it with you. This is Indian cinema at its finest

[IndianTies]

Sounds cool!  I'll have to try and find it with subtitles - since my husband won't be much help translating his "mother tongue" that he barley speaks! lol! but seriously - sounds like a good movie.  Anyone else seen it?

[LinZi]

I haven't seen the stranger but I have seen a few other Satyajit Ray films... the Apu Trilogy  is wonderful.. it was the first Satyajit Ray film I saw (or... er... three films)... they were amazing... and made me cry... and hardly ever cry during movies.  I also saw his film"mahanagar"... here is a summary of it:

"Mahanagar is set in Calcutta during the 1950s. It explores the evolving independence of a middle-class woman, Arati Mazumdar (Madhabi Mukherjee), as she takes her first job because of increasing financial pressure due to her husband's income not being enough for the family to live on. This decision is purely a financial one and is made in spite of opposition from both families. Arati subsequently grows to delight in her newfound financial and psychological independence.Eventually, her husband loses his job and she becomes the sole breadwinner. Arati grows increasingly independent and befriends an English-speaking, Anglo-Indian colleague (representative of the legacy of the British Raj) Edith (Vicky Redwood), a move which raises suspicion and increases conflict. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahanagar)"

It was also really great.. I saw another one.. it was three shorter films together... I *think* it was titled teen kahnya or something (which could be the bengali equivalent of 3 stories... I am probably not spelling/pronouncing it right) that was good too....  I have downloaded some of those from online with subtitles... that was good too... there was one Satyajit Ray film I didn't like... Kapurush... it was made in 1965... which was one of his later films, I think, and it wasn't BAD. It just didn't draw me in or connect me to his characters like the other films of his that I saw.