Nayak (1966 Film)

''Nayak'' (also released under the translated title ''The Hero'', and as ''Nayak: The Hero'') is a 1966 Indian Bengali-language drama film scored, written, and directed by Satyajit Ray. It was Ray's second entirely original screenplay, after '' Kanchenjungha'' (1962). The story revolves around a matinee idol on a 24-hour train ride from Kolkata to Delhi to receive a national award. En route, he ends up revealing his mistakes, insecurities, and regrets to a young journalist during a multi-part interview, while his life story is gradually revealed through seven flashbacks and two dreams. The film stars Uttam Kumar as the titular ''nayak'' (hero), and Sharmila Tagore as the journalist.

Plot

Arindam Mukherjee, a Bengali film star, is being given a prestigious award in Delhi. He did not plan to make the trip from Calcutta to accept it in person, but changes his mind at the last minute to try to escape from thoughts about the underperformance of his latest film at the box office and reports in the morning newspaper about an altercation he was involved in. As he is unable to get a plane ticket, he has to take an overnight train, but he is actually kind of looking forward to having more time away.

On the train, the parallel and intersecting stories of a number of the passengers play out in tandem with that of Arindam, including a business executive traveling with his wife and sick daughter, an advertising man willing to use the attentions of his lovely wife to get close to the business executive, and an elderly man who writes letters to the editor critical of the film industry and does not like that Arindam is on the train. In the train's dining car, Aditi Sengupta, the young editor of a small modern women's magazine, ''Adhunika'', sees Arindam. Although she has a negative view of celebrities and her magazine does not usually cover film, a fellow passenger convinces her to try to interview Arindam to attract more readers, but her first attempt does not go well, as he senses her feelings of superiority and is not interested in answering her searching questions.

After taking a nap and having a nightmare, Arindam sees Aditi in the dining car again and begins to open up about his past, regrets, and insecurities. He tells her how Shankar-da, his mentor in the theatre, urged him to stay away from films, but he took his first film role almost immediately after Shankar-da died; he talks about his first day on a film set with Mukunda Lahiri, an arrogant older star, and how he refused to help get the man a job years later, when their fortunes had reversed; he tells her about Biresh, a childhood friend who became a labor activist and wanted him to use his platform as a star to help the cause, and how, to avoid controversy, he refused. Aditi does not just listen, but challenges and pushes Arindam, leading to further introspection on his part. She initially takes notes surreptitiously, but later on, out of empathy almost bordering on pity, stops. As she begins to see behind his celebrity and Arindam begins to openly question everything about his life, Aditi even defends his work to him as something that gives many people pleasure.

That night, a drunk Arindam asks the conductor to get Aditi, and, while waiting for her to arrive, contemplates jumping off the back of the train to his death. Aditi's arrival interrupts him, and he offers to complete her interview by telling her about his fight, saying he feels a need to further unburden himself, and there is no one else he can talk to. She says she does not need to hear what she has already guessed (that he had an affair with a married co-star and the fight was with the woman's husband), and then tells him that his newest movie only flopped because his heart was not in it. Concerned for Arindam, Aditi makes sure he returns to his sleeper compartment before going back to her seat, and he says she can write anything about him that she wants.

In the morning, as the train approaches Delhi, Arindam and Aditi are again reunited in the dining car. When she asks how he is, he responds by asking her to tell him, and she says he is fine and will continue to be a big star for a long time, and then tears up her notes about their interview, deciding to let the hero preserve his public image. Arindam is surrounded by reporters as soon as the train reaches the station in Delhi, and, after one last glance at Aditi as she walks away, he slips back into the role of the star.

Cast

Production

Development

In a letter Ray wrote in 1966, he said, about the film's development:

Ray wrote the screenplay for the film in Darjeeling, where he went during the off-season from filming. While writing, he had Uttam Kumar in mind for the lead—not as an actor, but rather as a "phenomenon". When Ray finished the script, he read it to Tapan Sinha, and said, "I would choose Uttam for this role", to which Sinha replied: "This is the perfect choice. No one else can play this role other than Uttam." ''Nayak'' was the first of two films that Ray and Kumar, two icons of Bengali Cinema, made together; they would work together once more on 1967's ''Chiriyakhana''.

Casting

The role of Aditi was initially offered to Madhabi Mukherjee, the star of Ray's previous films '' Mahanagar'' (1963) and '' Charulata'' (1964), but Mukherjee rejected the offer for personal reasons. Only then did Ray think of Sharmila Tagore, who he had directed in her first two films years earlier, but had recently been busy filming Hindi films. According to Ray's son, Sandip, Tagore was dating cricketer Tiger Pataudi at the time of the shoot, and Pataudi would sometimes come to watch filming or pick up Tagore at the end of the day. The film's ensemble cast is composed of a mixture of well-known supporting players, such as Bharati Devi, as well as less-familiar faces.

Filming

The film was shot in the latter half of 1965. The scenes onboard the train were filmed in Studio 1 and 2 of New Theatres' Calcutta studio, where art director Bansi Chandragupta, after observing the construction of train compartments at Santragachi Junction, built a set based on the luxurious train cars of the Rajdhani Express. Images and sounds captured by Chandragupta during a train journey from Calcutta to Delhi were used for rear projection and the film's audio track, respectively. Some scenes set outside the train were shot in Howrah Station, and the scene in which Arindam disembarks to get some tea was filmed at Khanyan Station (though the shots of Aditi sitting on the train in this scene were filmed in the studio).

Shortly before making ''Nayak'', Kumar had a bout of chickenpox that left pockmarks on his face. He was upset when Ray told him on the first day of filming that he was not going to be wearing any makeup, but Ray reassured him, saying he would not be without makeup for the entire shoot.

In the scene in which Aditi asks Arindam for an autograph, Kumar took the pen out of his pocket to sign, but it did not work. Ray was about to say "Cut", when Kumar, while continuing to say his lines, lightly shook the pen and tried to sign again. It still did not work, so he dipped the pen in the glass of water in front of him and signed successfully. Ray included this take in the film, and felt the incident shows Kumar's genuineness as an actor.

Ray was known for his perfectionism. According to Ramesh Sen, an assistant director on ''Nayak'', even when picking out Arindam's shaving brush, which only appears onscreen in the finished film for a fraction of a second, Ray rejected 60-some options before finally selecting one.

After Kumar's death, Ray wrote: "I hardly recall any discussion with Uttam on a serious analytical level on the character he was playing. And yet he constantly surprised and delighted me with unexpected little details of action and behaviour which came from him and not from me, which were always in character and always enhanced a scene. They were so spontaneous that it seemed he produced these out of his sleeve. If there was any cogitation involved, he never spoke about it." He also said that, while he might have made some mistakes while making ''Nayak'', Kumar did not, and every shot was achieved in one take.

Release and reception

''Nayak'' premiered at Indira Cinema Hall in Calcutta, with Kumar in attendance. Thousands of people gathered to see him, and police were employed to handle the situation.

The film was released on 6 May 1966 in India, and it was a box office success. It was screened at the 16th Berlin International Film Festival that summer, and received critical acclaim. A US release did not occur until 1974.

Kumar later said that he considered ''Nayak'' one of his best films, and it gained him international recognition. When the Hollywood star Elizabeth Taylor saw the film in London, she reportedly was impressed by his performance and screen presence. For his work in ''Nayak,'' Kumar was included on ''Forbes Indias list of the "25 Greatest Acting Performances of Indian Cinema".

Awards

;1966
Berlin International Film Festival:
*Special Jury Award (won)
*Critics' Prize (UNICRIT Award) (won)
* Golden Bear for Best Film (nominated)
;1967
National Film Awards:
* Best Feature Film in Bengali (won)
Bodil Awards:
* Best Non-European Film (won)
Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards:
* Best Director – Satyajit Ray (won)
* Best Actor – Uttam Kumar (won)

Analysis

The film's plot has been compared to that of Ingmar Bergman's Wild Strawberries (1957) and Federico Fellini's ''8½'' (1963).

In a 2018 article on ''Firstpost'' from a series about Ray's films, Bhaskar Chattopadhyay wrote about ''Nayak'':

On the occasion of the 94th anniversary of Kumar's birth, Murtaza Ali Khan wrote, in an article about the film on ''A Potpourri of Vestiges'':

Preservation and restoration

The Academy Film Archive preserved the film in 2004.

''Nayak'' is one of four Ray films which were digitally restored and set for a re-release in January 2014.
It was screened at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival, and the re-release was a success.

Legacy

The 2010 Bengali film ''Autograph'' directed by Srijit Mukherjee was made as a tribute to ''Nayak''.

References

External links

Nayak (SatyajitRay.org)
*
*
''The Hero: Depths and Surfaces''
an essay by Pico Iyer at the Criterion Collection

{{Satyajit Ray

1966 films
Films directed by Satyajit Ray
Bengali-language Indian films
1960s psychological drama films
Indian black-and-white films
Films about actors
Films set on trains
Indian psychological drama films
Films with screenplays by Satyajit Ray
1960s Bengali-language films
1966 drama films