Nayak is one of the most unique, underrated, & comparatively less known Ray movies. Where a lady reporter (Aditi, played by Sharmila Tagore) discovers the undisclosed & vulnerable life of a legendary film hero in the hands of his industry, fans & his success, during a train journey. Satayjit Ray has used allegory through train (viz. Pather Panchali, Aranyer Din Ratri) several times in his movies. This journey eventually takes place from east to west, that was the direction world civilization used to move at that point in time, best work is most appreciated & sun, still sets today. After introduction with the journalist the hero looks back at his past from the peak of his career (like the afternoon sun) to recollect phases & people in his life (like rising of the sun). With his larger than life profile, magical smile, mesmerizing voice, killer looks - he soon becomes a very lonely & ordinary man to us. The fans of 'Arindam'(The protagonist played by Uttam Kumar), like whom all other men wanted to be, even becomes sympathetic to him.
Several characters makes a nice collage in the film. The script so amazing that one can hardly dare to take a break during this 120 minutes. The dreams shots are at par with the best same kind shots of Luis Bunuel & Ingmar Bergman. Editing, background music & sets are also magnificent. The light & shadow has been used to portray good-bad, past-present in a shot as good as never before in Indian panorama when 'Arindam'(protagonist) meets 'Mukundo Lahiri'(his past rival) after his success. Human emotion, greed, ambition, selfishness, simplicity has been portrayed with delicacy & satire. Ray was the maestro in extracting the best performance of an actor. Hence acting quality of all actors was splendid & Uttam Kumar, the Bengali film legendary romantic hero, delivered the performance of his life keeping the everlasting discussion-topic how underutilized he was by all other directors of his time!
Several characters makes a nice collage in the film. The script so amazing that one can hardly dare to take a break during this 120 minutes. The dreams shots are at par with the best same kind shots of Luis Bunuel & Ingmar Bergman. Editing, background music & sets are also magnificent. The light & shadow has been used to portray good-bad, past-present in a shot as good as never before in Indian panorama when 'Arindam'(protagonist) meets 'Mukundo Lahiri'(his past rival) after his success. Human emotion, greed, ambition, selfishness, simplicity has been portrayed with delicacy & satire. Ray was the maestro in extracting the best performance of an actor. Hence acting quality of all actors was splendid & Uttam Kumar, the Bengali film legendary romantic hero, delivered the performance of his life keeping the everlasting discussion-topic how underutilized he was by all other directors of his time!