Rating : ⭐️
Genre : Anthology
Year : 2021
Running Time : 1 hour (per episode)
Director : Srijit Mukherji, Vasan Bala, Abhishek Chaubey
Cast : Ali Fazal, Manoj Bajpayee, Gajraj Rao, Harshvardhan Kapoor, Kaykay Menon
Kid Rating : PG-13
Amazon Prime’s Ray is an anthology or a series of 4 episodes – view it how you like. Each episode is a 1 hour short film directed by one of 3 directors. The 4 films are inspired by Satyajit Ray’s short stories. I have not read them, and I do not know to what degree the films are based on the stories. They seemed dark and grim, philosophical and inward-looking – which is fine. But they are also weak, and I don’t know if that’s because of the stories themselves or the way they were adapted. In short, Ray will not make it to the Best Anthologies of 2021 🙂
My favorite film out of the 4 was the 3rd: Hungama Hai Kyon Barpa. This is based on Satyajit Ray’s short story Barin Bhowmiker Byaram ( Barin Bhowmick’s Ailment). It has 2 main characters – singer Musafir Ali (Manoj Bajpayee) and wrestler turned journalist Aslam Beg (Gajraj Rao). The 2 men meet on a train, sharing a compartment. During the journey, they converse and Musafir Ali remembers that he has met Beig before in not very pleasant circumstances.
Manoj Bajpayee is a wonderful actor and he turns in an immaculate performance, as does Gajraj Rao. The film itself is delicately handled and the nuances come through; we see these fallible men and nod our heads in sympathy. Director Abhishek Chaubey knows what he is doing; you might remember him from his earlier spectacular work – Udta Punjab, Sonchiriya, Ishqiya.
Now, for the rest of the episodes: The first film of the series is Forget Me Not. It is about a technical nerd Ipsit Rama Nair who starts to lose his memory and is unnerved by it. We see him on the brink of success, revered by all, in awe by many, a friend of friends, a dynamic successful go-getter. But then, this uncharacteristic forgetfulness! It starts to gnaw at Ipsit.
Srijit Mukherjee directs Forget Me Not. This films starred Ali Fazal as Ipsit, who is a decent actor, and he does well. The story is about poetic justice, having your chickens come home to roost etc, so it does hold your interest. Also, Mukherji layers the characters nicely; at first we see the outward projection, but gradually Mukherji peels back the layers to reveal the truth. Forget Me Not was passable.
The second film is Bahrupiya and I can only describe this as grotesque. In this story, Indrashish Shah, an office worker with a creative side, is bequeathed an interesting inheritance. His creative, eccentric grandmother, on her death, has left him her treasure trove of tools and books about prosthetics. Indrashish uses these to disguise himself and run a few social experiments of his own.
Kay Kay Menon plays Indrashish and while Kaykay is a fine actor, the disguises obscured his face so you couldn’t really see him emote. His character is obviously a complex and troubled man, but we watch him from afar; the film can’t make him real or relatable.
The fourth film, Spotlight, is about film star Vik (Harshvardhan Kapoor). Vik is losing his USP, his “look”, amid an existential crisis. This is further heightened when he comes across Didi (Radhika Madaan), a religious leader who trumps him in celebrity status. The only good thing about this film was Chandan Roy Sanyal who plays Vik’s manager, Roy Ghosh.
In summary, apart from Hungama Hai Kyon Barpa, none of the other stories bring depth to their characters. There is no pleasure in shallow retellings; hence the poor rating.
Kidwise: A few adult situations, talk of prostitution.
