50 years of ‘Aranyer Din Ratri’: A mirror to the 21st century generation

Mentored by the great French filmmaker Jean Renoir in his early career, Satyajit Ray created a tribute to Renoir’s classic ‘Partie de campagne (1936) with this film, transplanting the scene from pastoral France to the forests of north-eastern India. ‘Aranyer Din Ratri’ was adapted from Sunil Gangopadhyay’s novel by the same name but Ray made some striking changes to the original story to make it suitable for the screen. Like the Renoir film, it’s a story about middle-class city folk taking a holiday to the countryside. Four male friends from Calcutta go on a road trip to rural Bihar, where they lodge at a forest guest house despite the protestations of its caretaker. They’re from the big city: brash, confident, careerist, and ready to lord it over the more ‘backward’ tribal communities living on their new doorstep. They vow not to shave, but that goes out of the window when they come across two beautiful women staying nearby, Aparna (Sharmila Tagore) and her sister-in-law Jaya (Kaberi Bose), and an elegant game of flirtation and embarrassment ensues. “When people leave Calcutta, they become younger,” says one of the friends in the car, as they’re first heading out for the country. They’ve come in search of booze, relaxation and women, but Ray lets us warm to their more obnoxious traits, bottling a happy holiday mood that’s ripe with chance and rife with lessons to be learned. Among the four friends, Asim (Soumitra Chatterjee), the leader of the group, owns the car they drove in. He has a cushy job, likes to be with the girls and yet is always conscious of how women would perceive him. He falls for the elegant and enigmatic Aparna, but can’t keep pace with her composure, presence of mind and intelligence. Sanjoy (Shubhendu Chatterjee), a labour executive, likes to immerse himself in literature. Shy and inhibited in nature, he likes Jaya, a widow with a child. Meanwhile, Hari (Samit Bhanja), a open-hearted and straightforward cricketer, wants to forget the girl who ditched him. He is attracted to a tribal Santhal girl Duli (a memorable performance by Simi Garewal in barely recognizable dark-skinned look), as he seeks relief from his recent heartbreak. Last but not the least, Shekhar (Robi Ghosh) is like a jester of the party, the only one who doesn’t have a job. Despite having a roving eye he tries to stay sober when his friends get drunk and start venting their frustrations. Now, watch closely – Aren’t these four men and their rootless journeys into nowhere show the universality of Ray’s characters and the relevance of this film even today? When ‘Aranyer Din Ratri’ was released, the “individualism and materialism” of these boy-band characters were not seen as “truly Bangali” by the typical Tagore-obsessed Bengali. Asim, the successful executive who has everything but don’t have something and his mission-less journey to the tribal heartland leaving behind urban rigmaroles was termed more familiar to the western culture than the middle-class Bengali that time. But today, Asim is more like one of us.