Aranyer Din Ratri / Days and Nights in the Forest (1970) :
Brief Review -
A Carnivalesque style emphatic sojourn of four friends far away from civilization that teaches them civilised manners. I think i have said almost everything about the film with that previous sentence only and if you still have curiosity to know more then please continue reading this review and see if it helps. Let's begin with the story. A group of Calcutta city slickers, including the well-off Asim (Soumitra Chatterjee), the meek Sanjoy (Subhendu Chatterjee) and the brutish Hari (Samit Bhanja), head out for a weekend in the wilderness. They grab a bunglow to stay by bribing the watchman and starts getting along with the situations according to their comfort. Soon, they meet unknown people (mostly females to create Love angle) which gives thier trip some importance and thought-provoking push. There is nothing much in the writing as extraordinary, it's quite an ordinary writing with simple philosophies of daily life but the execution is really something. This film was one of the earliest films to employ the literary technique of the carnivalesque format in Indian cinema and that's the biggest usp of the film or should i say the only usp. A little bit of aggression in the climax portion would have lifted the film much higher for sure. Anyways, it has got performances to make it to merit list. Soumitra Chatterjee Subhendu Chatterjee, Shamit Bhanja, Rabi Ghosh, Kaberi Bose, Aparna Sen, Sharmila Tagore and Simi Garewal have put up solid performances. The screenplay is engaging with light moments and has that humour of regular life to keep away the dark tone and extreme intensity. However, it gets intense for some time in the climax but that's fine and for valid reasons too. Ray's skilful direction makes this one a worth watch but it's nowhere near to his top classics.
RATING - 7/10*
By - #samthebestest.
A Carnivalesque style emphatic sojourn of four friends far away from civilization that teaches them civilised manners. I think i have said almost everything about the film with that previous sentence only and if you still have curiosity to know more then please continue reading this review and see if it helps. Let's begin with the story. A group of Calcutta city slickers, including the well-off Asim (Soumitra Chatterjee), the meek Sanjoy (Subhendu Chatterjee) and the brutish Hari (Samit Bhanja), head out for a weekend in the wilderness. They grab a bunglow to stay by bribing the watchman and starts getting along with the situations according to their comfort. Soon, they meet unknown people (mostly females to create Love angle) which gives thier trip some importance and thought-provoking push. There is nothing much in the writing as extraordinary, it's quite an ordinary writing with simple philosophies of daily life but the execution is really something. This film was one of the earliest films to employ the literary technique of the carnivalesque format in Indian cinema and that's the biggest usp of the film or should i say the only usp. A little bit of aggression in the climax portion would have lifted the film much higher for sure. Anyways, it has got performances to make it to merit list. Soumitra Chatterjee Subhendu Chatterjee, Shamit Bhanja, Rabi Ghosh, Kaberi Bose, Aparna Sen, Sharmila Tagore and Simi Garewal have put up solid performances. The screenplay is engaging with light moments and has that humour of regular life to keep away the dark tone and extreme intensity. However, it gets intense for some time in the climax but that's fine and for valid reasons too. Ray's skilful direction makes this one a worth watch but it's nowhere near to his top classics.
RATING - 7/10*
By - #samthebestest.