Satyajit Ray’s birth anniversary: Public ‘Enemy’ and ‘Two’  

Satyajit Ray was ill and had suffered a heart attack. He had been advised rest and restricted movement when he shot ‘Ganashatru’ or the public enemy. It cramped his style and having to shoot almost the entire film in the studio took a toll on his cinematic imagination. Not surprisingly, critics do not count this film among his best.

A foreign critic wrote after seeing the film, “Its message, about the perils of greed, religious fanaticism, and environmental pollution, may be topical, but the film is too static to have total impact. Still, there are enough flashes of Ray’s brilliance to make it worthwhile.”

The film strikes a chord in 2020 because of the conflict between science and superstition, religious intolerance and fanaticism that we see in not just India but in various parts of the globe.

The film is an adaptation of a play by Henrik Ibsen: An Enemy of the People. Ray chose a play over a novel because a play would suffer less if it is entirely shot in the studio

The film is set in a small town in Bengal. Dr. Ashoke Gupta (Soumitra Chatterjee) is the head of a town hospital. Gupta’s younger brother, Nisith (Dhritiman Chatterjee), is the head of the committees running the hospital and a temple. Both were built by a local industrialist. The temple is also a big tourist attraction.

Dr. Gupta is convinced that the holy water of the temple is contaminated due to faulty pipe-laying. It is causing an epidemic in the town. He warns his brother Nisith.

Nisith, the industrialist and other town officials reject the idea that holy water might be the cause of the epidemic. They refuse to close the temple to carry out repairs.

The doctor wants to write an article in the newspaper to warn people, but giving-in to the pressure from the powerful people, the editor refuses to publish it.

Left with no alternative, he plans to address a public meeting that is also sabotaged. And the doctor is proclaimed an enemy of the people.

But Ray, while acknowledging that outdoor shooting on locations would have given a different dimension to the film, told Andrew Robinson, his biographer: “I found that for once one could play with human faces and human reactions, rather than landscapes and nature in its moods, which I have done a lot in my films. Here I think it is the human face, the human character which is predominant.”

The film, freely available on the Net, is particularly relevant in view of the cries of ‘anti-national’ that is so common these days.

‘TWO’ for Television: The 15-minute short and silent film was made by Ray, who had worked in advertising, in 1964. The film was made for Television and while he was asked to make the film in English, he decided against using any word. The result is what Oscars.org describes as an ‘obscure gem’.

The Academy archive retrieved a print and restored it digitally before posting it in 2016. While the film has been described as a ‘Parable of Two’, a poignant fable of friendship and rivalry, to most viewers today, especially in India, the film would resonate as a commentary on the rising inequality among people.

The viewer is likely to be reminded of the harrowing images of migrant workers walking back home from Indian cities after the country was locked down last month. As the well off exchanged notes on films, books, recipes and board games, the workers stoically and silently walked through deserted streets under a hot sun and at night.

‘Two’ also deals with a rich boy and a poor boy. The rich but lonely boy confined to his plush house, getting bored with his toys, robots and toy guns. The poor boy in tattered clothes outside, of the same age, playing on a flute, flying the kite and running free, looking decidedly happier despite his poverty.

The two boys eye each other with curiosity, the rich boy from his first floor window and the poor boy on the ground outside. A rivalry soon develops between them and the rich boy brings out a bigger flute, a better mask and a mechanized drum to get the better of the boy outside. But though the rich kid brings out an air gun and puts a pellet through the poor boy’s kite, the latter’s shock is short lived. He soon happily reverts to his flute as the rich boy, defeated, sulks in his room. Though made 56 years ago, the film remains a metaphor for our times. The haunting background score by Ray is an additional bonus.