@ wpqx

ain't upset your dislike of the film made me more convinced that the DVD/VHS should have a commentary by a perceptive film scholar, as well as sensitive subtitling. It is a difficult film, even for many people in India, because it captures the last vestiges of feudalism (many of us were born after its demise). The old man, who you found so irritating, is really an anachronism amidst the ruins of a fleeting way of life. The more he becomes redundant, the more he tries to hold onto the only lifestyle known to him, till he becomes a caricature of a man - absurd, lonely and pathetic. But Ray's deft handling prevents one from dismissing him completely. A stinging critique of feudalism's display of power and grandeur, the film also invites compassion for a man who knows no other way of life. There are several layers to this film that make it far more complex than a straightforward critique. Against the landed gentry of old feudalism, you have the nouveau riche without a noble pedigree. The rules of the game, as it were, have changed (Ray as all of you know, was extremely fond of Renoir), but the game remains vapid and cold. What, I think, rescues the film from being a tirade against a social class and its dominance in the recent past, is the music. Everything was not wrong with feudalism. The landed gentry served a very important function as patrons of the arts. While the motivation for patronage might partially have been self- aggradisement, many of these zamindars were true connoisseurs of the arts, and they were responsible for the survival of many artists and their practices. It is this highly nuanced perspective, the ability to look at something from different points of view, that makes the film a great work.

@ A
I work for an organisation called the India Foundation for the Arts, and we make grants to projects across the arts. Will talk about what i do in the introduction thread.

M