THE ACCESSIBLE ACTOR’S CLEAR SECULARISM MUST BE EMULATED
Annie Domini
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2020-11-21 18:02
In a scene from the 1966 film Nayak, the hero Arindam Chatterjee, played by the Bengali matinee idol Uttam Kumar, refuses to alight from his car and address a striking workers’ gathering, despite his trade unionist friend pleading him to say a few words to the hungry labourers. Soumitra Chatterjee’s one abiding regret had been that Satyajit Ray denied him the lead role in Nayak, and had Uttam Kumar bring to life a character that was the celluloid demigod’s doppelganger, as it were. Yet, Chatterjee knew deep in his heart that it was a role that he couldn’t have essayed as viscerally as Uttam had. For Chatterjee would have got down from his car and addressed the workers, perhaps even given them company in their strike, until their demands were met.