Aranyer Din Ratri

As a passionate movie buff, I have the highest regard for Ray's films. That has been reconfirmed after watching this subtly nuanced film from Ray. To the casual viewer, it might seem like the escapades of four middle class gentlemen when they go out of their constrictive surroundings into the wilderness and meet three women. However, a rigorous viewing will expose different layers, some surprising, and others not so surprising. With flawless and fluid direction, Ray tells a story of love lost, confidence regained, inhibitions of a conservative society blown away, overwhelming sadness, and the joy and freedom of coming close to nature. Even though it is quite an old film, it speaks of the human nature and its eternal characteristics so beautifully, that it does not seem dated at all- which is the mark of a classic. Highly recommended.

Story is about friends going to a vacation to disconnect from daily life for a while. The writer, Sunil Gangopadhyay, is one of the best novelists of Bengal who wrote beautifully about youth and thus this film too. There are scenes of them drinking which has been served as a reference for drunk scenes for decades. Also, the memory game scene breaks the classical expositions in film and a source of many pop quizzes, memes and minimalistic posters. At least 2 post-millennial film I can remember directly inspired by this - Goutam Ghose's 'Abar Aranye', a sequel and Anjan Dutt's 'Chalo Let's Go', a remake?!. Again, like all his films, Rabi Ghosh steals a lot of scenes. And again, lot of sexy women.

We always loved our friends. When we wish to do anything we go to our friends. Friends like a shelter. Whenever we need help friends to come over to us. Any kind of help if we need to kill someone they help us.if we fall in love mostly help us, friends. They play a vital role in our life.

This movie is typically a Roy film. Sunil babu writes this novel and outstanding idea come over to film by Roy. This plot comes over four friends. Based on forest and four friends go together and they enjoy the forest life. WE all try to do government jobs. Our fours heroes are not different. They do a job in Kolkata and when they have any kind of vacation they go to the near jungle. The story begins in a jungle and there have a lot of stories. And they find two girls who have also come on vacation.

This movie is smashing. If we talk about Roy he is awesome in his direction. Sarmilla thakur look like a queen. What a beauty!

Probably one of the most underrated works of Satyajit Ray....this is a beautiful take on life of few middle urban class people as they go on a vacation.......There's so much depth in every characters and sequences that is handled with so much immense realism......The Memory gane scene alone is enough to make this film into the top tier......

Film opens with a shot of paddy fields while a man traveling with his pals in a car ,reads the following " Bengali people are as happy looking at seasons and nature, as they are at looking death in the face". Now I'm not very sure whether this statement is true, but I suspect that this kind of cultured stoicism aptly applies to the director of this movie - Satyajit Ray. Four friends - all young men from Calcutta- go into a forest and plan to stay in a rest house there, while aspiring to have sexual fun with tribal women who are presumed to be liberal in such matters. Of course, this sort of plot is not standard territory for the said director but even with this unlikely template, Ray directs his masterly rays of perspective to illumine the hinterlands and give larger wings to a fledgling premise.

Though it is not set in the city or even a village, the film is a composite shot of civilization in decline. But in Ray's world, there is always hope, a calm sense of being obliged to emerge from the ruins, and in A.D.R we also see a beautiful example of strong but tranquil feminism.

This latter aspect emerges in the form of Sharmila Tagore who registers a great performance in this movie. In Ghare Baire, Ray made Victor Banerjee essay a model man, and here he has Sharmila Tagore giving us a portrait of the model woman. Kohl-lined beautifully curving eyes, luxuriant hair coiffed into a bouffant, and a softly contoured figure clothed in sari ,all set off a face that can essay feminine mystique as smoothly as it can show child-like amusement. Aparna (Tagore), it is steadily revealed, is gifted intellectually, bears the weight of the past, nurtures a humane mind and yet sequesters all these facets beneath a regally controlled visage that can hint at displeasure as beautifully as it can sport a smile.

Technically too, this is an accomplished film with superior camera-work by Soumendu Roy. There is a famous static shot in which the lens stands just outside the car window and looks inside, through the car compartment, and past the other window into the background -4 visual planes hold four different people ,all sporting a range of interesting expressions and emotional dynamics. The other memorable sequence is the Memory Game wherein all the players are seated in a circle, and the lens flicks from one face to another as they play the game.

Starting with this script, countless other story-tellers might have produced a work of dissipated effect, but Satyajit Ray makes fine use of the novel by Sunil Gangopadhyay to present not just a sylvan jaunt enjoyed by four young men, but also an elegantly presented humanist tapestry. Some directors don't need the Midas touch, they possess something greater.

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