Jana Aranya (The Middleman) [1976]

 ‘Calcutta Trilogy’, which represented a radical shift for Satyajit Ray – into terrains that were darker, themes that were furiously political, and a form that was edgier – culminated with the Dickensian parable Jana Aranya, arguably the bleakest, murkiest and most cynical of the troika. While the books that Pratidwandi and Seemabaddha had been adapted from were excellent too, the novel by Shankar was the richest and most dazzling of the lot, and the wry, ironic and episodic tale – which progressed towards a desolate climax through seriocomic vignettes – couldn’t have provided for a more apposite finale, and in turn a mirror to the troubled times, and therefore the moody subtexts that Ray had in mind. The film’s caustic opening sequence – students nonchalantly cheating in a university exam, surrounded by classroom walls laden with political graffiti calling for armed rebellion against the state – provided a deadpan introduction to Somnath (Pradep Mukherjee), who doesn’t cheat himself but passively enables the illegitimate act. Though he struggles for a conventional job before being drawn into self-employment as a middleman by an street-smart elderly acquaintance (Utpal Dutt), Somnath doesn’t possess the existential angst or political consciousness of Siddhartha in Pratidwandi; rather, he goes on to demonstrate the elastic moral compass and willingness to participate in rat race of Shyamalendu in Seemabaddha, even if his milieu is his polar opposite – viz. the city’s underbelly where everything is purchasable. This Machiavellian corruptibility is epitomised by Natabar Mittir (played with stinging brilliance by Rabi Ghosh), a “public relations expert”, who persuades Somnath into the sordid act of pimping to win a lucrative contract. Despite its many amusing moments, the film’s vision of urban desolation was simultaneously unnerving and transfixing.

p.s. This is a revisit.

Director: Satyajit Ray

Genre: Drama/Urban Drama

Language: Bengali

Country: India