Mahapurush

A religious charlatan claims to have been around for thousands of years, and no matter how outrageous his lies, has an entire village rapt and under his influence. This includes a widower and his daughter, upsetting the plans of marriage for her suitor, so the young man turns to his friends for help. The film is based on a short story by Parashuram, but it seems like a variation of Molière's Tartuffe, or reminded me of it anyway. I certainly like the concept of exposing religious hypocrisy anywhere and everywhere, but the story here is too linear and simple to make a great film. Ray doesn't flesh out his characters or develop any other subplot, so even at 65 minutes it felt a little dry. It's kind of interesting to compare this fictional character to other con-men though.

This may be a short film, but it is packed with clever dialogue. And a comedy that uses words to be funny is worth celebrating.

Charuprakash Ghosh plays a holy man (Birinchi Baba) who talks a good game of spiritual enlightenment. He travels with his assistant (played by Rabi Ghosh), looking for believers who might be tricked by his "wisdom". Actually, many of the things he says are somewhat meaningful or half-truths, and he is quite intelligent. But he really goes overboard, claiming to have known and educated everyone from Albert Einstein to Jesus and the Buddha.

The monk-ish mountebank and his attendant meet a grieving man and his daughter on a train, dazzle them with petty witticisms and cheap tricks, and establish a cushy existence in their care. But there are others who are not so easily duped; they seek a way to expose the charlatans.

It's a funny story that reminds me of O. Henry's humorous tales. Director and co-writer Satyajit Ray deserves credit for this comedy with a cautionary core.

Watch for the trick with the fingers that must have had viewers trying to replicate it.

I was there said the Holy Man and many other claims were made by the clever con from India who has camped out at a believers house. However Love conquers Con and a camp fire puts the Holy man on the run, but not without compensation!

Those who are into the afterlife, this a a must movie to see. Beware of false prophets and you will overcome such scams.

(1965) The Holy Man/ Mahapurush (In Bengali with English subtitles) COMEDY DRAMA

Adapted from the story "Birinchi Baba" by Rajshekhar 'Parashuram' Basu, music, co-written and directed by Satyajit Ray that has popular spiritual leader, Birinchi Baba (Charuprakash Ghosh) and his sidekick, Kyabla (Rabi Ghosh) happened to share the same boxcar with a retired lawyer and his daughter, Buchki ((Gitali Roy) welcoming them to their home. It is there, is when things become complicated is when the daughter, Buchi were given instructions by the guru to stray far away from the student, Satya (Satindra Bhattacharya) who happen to take a liking to her. Once Satya and his peers begin to realize this, they then attempt to go to great lengths to expose the guru, Birinchi Baba and his sidekick for who they really are, as a fraud or as con men.

Saw this on TCM and was late at night after seeing Satyajit Ray's other movie "Devi" or "The Goddess", and although it was labelled as a comedy, I did not see a single thing I thought was funny. It was amusing but it could be the fact that I was kind of tired, despite spiritual con men is still happening today.

We came to know about the concept of double-features from the 'Grindhouse' project made in 2000's. This one, even though having completely different source, was released together with the yin and yang kind of title; even I have seen photos and posters of these getting released in some theatres in Calcutta. Kapurush : story of a coward lover in a dark themed drama; speaking about contemporaneous, do not miss this. Mahapurush : story of a con godman in comedy genre - speaking about relevance, watch this right now. I think this was the first project of Ray with Soumendu Roy as his new DoP