Ray’s Kapurush and that story on TV
I watched Satyajit Ray’s Kapurush few weeks back and it brought back nice memories and interesting thoughts. While watching the movie I was reminded of a telefilm I watched on DD long back. I think it was based on a story by Chekhov (and no it was not a part of the lovely series ‘Chekhov ki kahaniyaan’ which used to be on DD long time back. Whatever happened to our good old DD?).
The plots of both of the films are strikingly similar. A married couple, an outsider and a secluded place. What is interesting is that although both the films conclude on the same note, the entire narration and characterizations are so completely different!
Kapurush starts with Amitabh Roy (Soumitra Chatterjee), a screenwriter by profession, whose car has broken down and he is left stranded in the middle of nowhere. A rich tea-estate manager comes to rescue and takes him home where Amitabh finds out that the manager’s wife is none else but his ex-girlfriend Karuna (Madhabi Mukherjee). Being used to loud background music and equally loud camerawork in these kind of situations in most bollywood movies, the subtlety with which Ray depicts the uncomfort and awkwardness of the situation was very pleasant to watch.
Unaware of their past, Karuna’s husband talks incessantly over a few rounds of drinks, cracking jokes and passing remarks boorishly while Amitabh tries desparately to catch Karuna’s attention or even an eye contact but Karuna remains cold, almost refusing to recongnise him.
A series of flashbacks reveal that it was Amitabh who had decided to step back for his fear to stand up to his love. He was a student back then and was unwilling to elope with karuna against her family’s wish. He had expressed his fears and insecurities on the fateful night when Karuna had come to him with all her hopes, to start a life with him. Amitabh’s lack of conviction and betrayal of her trust had forced them to part ways. The scene in Amitabh’s small hostel room is brilliant.
Amitabh is inclined to believe that Karuna is not happy with her husband. Karuna on the other hand refuses to answer the question as to whether she is happy or not. Her restrained behaviour and her indifference, as if she is trying to punish him for what he did to her, make things worse for him. Unable to read her silence, frustrated and confused, Amitabh leaves her a note to meet him at the station in the night if she wanted to come back to him.
Anyone can guess what happens at the end but the brilliance of Satyajit Ray is in the execution of it. How does it happen? Does she confront him finally? Does she tell him that he is not only foolish but also detestable to expect her to elope with him now? Does she answer his persistent question about her marriage?
The last scene is excellent…subtle and depressing, it leaves you with a disturbing unsatisfied feeling which I guess was the idea.
The scene where Amitabh drops the note into Karuna’s lap while her husband is sleeping with a burning cigarette in his hand is brilliantly executed. It’s amazing how Ray involves the audience into the film. The tension in this scene and also in the one mentioned above where Karuna, her husband and Amitabh are sitting in the living room, talking over drinks, is conveyed perfectly. One could feel the tension, the thrill of what will happen next in these two scenes very strongly. I mean after all said and done, its a sad love story, a drama full of emotions and awkward situations but not in a single scene does it get melodramatic or annoying.
Madhabi Mukherjee, both as a helpless young woman in love in the flashbacks and as a cold indifferent married woman, is very impressive.
Coming to the Chekhov’s story which also has a similar plot: A married couple on a vacation at a hillstation (as far as I remember, the female is shown to be much younger than her rich husband) come across an old acquintance (or was it just another guy on vacation they happen to befriend?…don’t remember that). The outsider is the narrator. He, through his monologues, is sketched out to be an overconfident womaniser. He tells the audience that he has taken a liking to the female who according to him is stuck in an unhappy marriage. The obvious conclusion of the woman being unhappy in the marriage and needs to be rescued is so similar to Amitabh’s attitude in Kapurush, except that in Kapurush he has more reasons(their past) to believe so.
Anyhow, he woos her by his charms, poetry, romantic letters and the woman falls in ‘love’ with him. Finally he asks her to leave her husband and elope with him. He writes her a letter asking her to meet him at the graveyard in the middle of the night. Standing in the graveyard, smiling at his triumph, he tells the viewers that she is now madly in love with him and that he is sure she will come…and she does. But she refuses to elope with him. The refusal, unlike Kapurush, comes with a harsh lecture on how it was detestable of him to charm her when he knew all the while that she was married, how despicable it was to expect her to leave her husband who loves her and with whom she had spent all these years without a shred of doubt about the potency of their relationship and that her contempt for what he had done will always supersede her love for him.
This short telefilm lacked the visual brilliance and excellent scene executions of Satyajit Ray’s Kapurush but it stand on its own because of the close to reality treatment of the characters. The final outburst of the woman is very real….that’s how things will happen if they happen in real life. Whatever one does with the camera and acting, one cannot take away the effective characterization and narration that Chekhov provides to the story.
Kapurush, I believe, is also based on a short story. It’s almost like they were given the situation, the characters and the basic idea and both of them came up with different stories. Of course one does not expect the same dish with same ingredients cooked by different people, to taste similar but it’s always a delightful if both taste splendid.
Kapurush makes an involving watch for a lot of things but most importantly its subtlety. On the other hand, Chekhov’s story may seem loud, but it is more real.
Anurag Kashyap
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Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
No high-fi adj and phrases to describe Kapurush. Neeraja, you’ve described the story in such simple language and so well. I really want to see this film now. I’ve seen just one Ray film – Ghare Bhaire but couldn’t sit through it completely. I didn’t find anything ‘diferent’ or ‘unique’ about the film. If I hadn’t known before I wouldn’t have guessed that this is a Ray film. But the way u’ve talked about Kapurush here makes me want to see this film…Start afresh in a way and understand Ray’s films better…
Ghare Baire is one of the few mediocre works by Ray. But Kapurush is awesome. That was a very nice writeup, Neeraja! Keep them coming!
@Arthi V
I haven’t seen Ghare Baire…but do watch Kapurush if you can get hold of it. It’s only an hour and few minutes long
@ Neeraja, Kapurush was actually one part of a Double Bill entitled “Kapurush O Mahapurush” (The Coward and The Holy Man), both adaptations of works by Premendra Mitra and Parashuram respectively, both literary giants of Bengal. “Mahapurush/ The Holy Man” is an excellent satire on the omnipresent Godmen and the extent of their impact on the society…the execution although is overtly comic, arguably….
@Amborish
Have watched ‘Mahapurush’ and loved it but felt that reading the story would have been a better experience…didn’t feel anything like that while watching ‘Kapurush’.
@Neeraja
. It was a story where the writer is brought to the house by the husband and the wife was once his girl friend… Their daughter develops a fondness for the writer and asks him to narrate stories. The writer leaves mid way during the night leaving a note for the wife..and she is seen sobbing..explaining to her daughter the story of how the Raj Kumar and Rani are seperated :D
I dont remember if it was a part of ‘Chekov ki Kahaniyaan’ but I clearly remember having watched a similar story on DD when young
Looking forward to watching Kapurush though!