‘Ray’ of hope: My quick take on Netflix’s new anthology “Ray”
At last, Netflix got it right, they managed to pick the best writer for making a good four-episode anthology. With this wonderful anthology based on great Satyajit Ray’s short stories, they would have exorcised the ghost of some ill-made anthologies like Ajeeb dastan hai & Lust stories. Secondly, the choice directors hand-picked to make these 4 episodes were simply awesome, Srijit Mukherjee, a 10-time national Award winner has directed two episodes viz Forget me not and Bahurupia, while Abhishek choube, Udta Punjab Wala has directed “Hungama hai ko barpa” and the last one “Spotlight” is directed by Vasan Bala, who had given us a wonderful film “Mard ko Kabhi dard Nahi Hota”.
The best part of the anthology is that all these directors have cleverly ‘adapted’ the work of genius Ray in a very relatable context. Apart from the choice of directors, the choice of actors like KK Menon, Manoj Bajpai, Raghuvir Yadav, Gajraj Rao will compel you, rather keep you glued to the TV screen. Even someone like Harshvardhan Kapoor surprises you with his flawless acting.
Satyajit Ray is someone who cannot be fitted into ‘a category’, as he was a born genius, a writer, artist, filmmaker, calligrapher, Lyricist, Music director, editor, in short, he was a one-man university of moviemaking hence he richly deserved the Oscars. In one of the documentaries on him, I have seen the movie screenplays written by him where every page used to look like a comic book page filled with graphics and sketches of shots. As a writer he was well ahead of his times, it is said that Steven Spielberg’s movie ET is based on his short story about Aliens. (Though Spielberg denies it). Here the four episodes are based on four different short stories written by him.
I thoroughly enjoyed all four episodes, which cater to different sensibilities of “humanism”. It will be very difficult to grade these four episodes as all four are distinct and different. However, given a choice, I would say that I found Abhishek Choubey’s 'Hungama hai to barpa' very interesting. The writer did a fantastic job in adapting the story in Hindi heartland (rather than Kolkata) and the entire movie is mounted on a theater-like montage of a train journey wherein the two main characters (Manoj & Gajraj) meet each other in a train bogie and director takes you for a ride for next one hour. Unlike Choubey’s earlier movies (Udta Punjab, Son Chideya) where profanity is an order of the day, here you see a more civil choube avatar. The dialogs are quite witty, and performances are simply ‘Mashallah’. Manoj Bajpai & Gajraj Rao steal the shots whenever they are in the frame and so do Raghuvir Yadav and Manoj Pawa in their short presence.
Vasan Bala chose to direct “Spotlight”, it’s a story of a chocolate hero of Bollywood who is known for his “looks” is pitted against a Radhe ma-like character (Didi ma) played by pretty Radhika Madan. Harshvardhan Kapoor who plays this narcissistic Bollywood star proves a point that he is the best actor in his family (better than his father Anil Kapoor and sister Sonam Kapoor). He did a good job, but in my view, someone like Ranveer Singh would have done wonders in this role. This episode is slightly stretched beyond one hour which could have been trimmed.
Looks like director Srijit Mukherjee loves ‘darker’ themes as both his movies in this anthology tend towards the darker side of the human persona. Forget me not, stars Ali Fazal who plays a corporate honcho known for his razor-sharp brain. It is nice to see this Guddu Pandit of Mirzapur slip into the garb of corporate shark. He falls prey to a woman’s vengeance.
Bahurupia is another movie directed by Srijit, this one look like it is staged in Kolkata as written by Master Ray. It’s a story of a timid person who is literally ‘walked over’ by everybody. He inherits a big purse left behind by his grandmother plus a book on prosthetic makeup tricks. He then decides to use this ‘face changing’ trick to get even with all those who bothered him. KK Menon is simply brilliant in this main lead; he will remind you of Joaquin Phoenix of Joker.
I have carefully avoided elaborating on the plots of these four stories as I don’t want to spill beans as almost all these stories have an unconventional climax.
Apart from talented directors and actors, it is the technicians who are simply brilliant, the set designers, Cinematographers, choice of outdoor locations is awesome ( there are few shots from my city of Aurangabad – Ellora Caves), all in all, it gives a “Ray” of hope that Netflix has, at last, stumbled upon good content and better directors and it will continue to unearth such riches from Indian works of literature.
Don’t miss it, if you love literature-based adaptations.
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