The Hero (Nayak) unpacks the superstar phenomenon of Kumar in the guise of matinee idol, Arindam Mukherjee, as he travels in the first class carriage of a train from Kolkata to Delhi to receive a prestigious acting award. En route, we see Arindam through the eyes of a number of the well to do passengers, whose reactions range from speechless adulation to defiant interrogation, the last foregrounded by Aditi (Sharmila Tagorea), a feisty journalist who wants to get behind the star's slippery exterior. After refusing her advances, a disturbing dream prompts Arindam to open up, plunging the film into a series of flashbacks that piece together to build a more sympathetic picture of our hero.
I have yet to find a hunger for Ray's films, even though when I start with any serving I thoroughly enjoy the meal. I struggle to get involved for a good while. I'll pick around the edges and then, usually about half way through, something clicks. Up until now I've put this down to my unsettled frame of mind but I'm beginning to get an inkling that it actually has more to do with Ray's approach to narrative.
The Hero, once again, presents a generally unsavoury protagonist who is redeemed over the course of the film, albeit retrospectively in this case. Arindam's haughty persona and the nonchalance with which he washes his hands of the bar brawl that hits the headlines in the film's first scene, set him up with suitably stereotypical arrogance. He's by no means a likeable chap. It is almost as if Ray sets himself a challenge: put the audience off within the first twenty minutes then go all out to win them back by the final frame. To his credit, he succeeds both in fleshing out Arindam's somewhat tragic past as well as making comment on the nature of celebrity, the state of sub-continental cinema and the importance of human connection.
Given Ray's international art-house credentials, which were more than established by the time The Hero hit cinemas, place him apart from Arindam/Kumar, and therefore distance him to some degree from comparisons to Fellini's better known treatise on the act of creation in the public eye. This distance from the film's subject adds a slightly voyeuristic element to Ray's take on the material. He has an insider's knowledge but isn't necessarily invested in the beast of stardom; he is not biting the hand that feeds, if you will. Instead, with the complicity of Kumar (who is, perhaps, having a nibble at said hand), Ray is able to explore the "hero" mindset from within, as well as adding authenticity first hand nuts and bolts of the film making process.
The mix is captivating. On the one hand Ray's sympathetic outlook sparks interesting reflection on the difficulties inherent in having to constantly guard one's public persona and how this persona's acceptability and desirability becomes a barrier to authenticity and authentic human connection. On the other, Ray's position within the industry (and to some degree outside of it) allows him the freedom to throw in a couple of jibes at the outmoded aesthetics of more mainstream Bengali cinema and the supposed artlessness of popularity. From both these angles, and a few others, Ray shows there is more than one side to our protagonist's story, which gives The Hero a satisfying balance and holds the film back from falling into the deifying trap it goes to such pains to call out.
Next up: Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne...
This post contributes to Director Focus: Satyajit Ray.
No comments:
Post a Comment