ABSTRACT
In Satyajit Ray’s Fellini-esque film Nayak (1966), a train journey to Delhi becomes the stage for searching self-introspection for Arindam, the famous film star. As he seems gradually to lose control of himself, Arindam becomes racked by disturbing memories. In a chilling flashback, his mind reverts to the moment when, as a young actor, he was originally tempted by an offer to go into films and give up the theatre. The scene shows Shankarda, his mentor, a somewhat overbearing theatre director, warning him that if he goes into film, he will lose his self and fall into the power of cinema’s abstract machine, becoming a mere puppet on the screen. As always in Indian cinema, English is used to make a point emphatically:
Shankarda: [In Bengali] I know this for certain – I’ve done a detailed study of it. [In English] A film actor is nothing but a puppet. [Switch again to Bengali] A doll. A puppet in the hands of the director, a puppet in the hands of the cameraman, and the sound recordist. Then there’s the man who cuts the film and sticks it together again – a puppet in his hands too.
