I have been writing about travels and terrains for the last two years.Is there a movie that defines the urban middle class's search for solace and tranquility in the jungles,in the still of the night?In 1969,Satyajit Ray directed "Aranyer Din Ratri"(Day's and nights in the forest).It was a movie that pitted four urban youths against the rural heartland,the rawness on life and the lust for it!It was a movie that showed the "Urban Middle Class" in search of that elusive answer.Soumitro Chatterjee(Asheem) as the main protagonist -the urban middle class model man,Hari(Samit Bhanja) as the rebel,Dhuli(Simi Garewal) as the lure and Sharmila Tagore(Aparna) as the ideal match for Asheem.Subendu Chatterjee(Sanjoy) defined the hesitant urban middle class - confused over following his own heart or his own inner fears - etched in the scene in which Kaberi Bose(Jaya) tries to seduce him.
The movie makes you think.After all,what is life?Is it an unknown journey or a quest?Is it a void that is filled with daily chores - of joy and sadness?Or is it all mapped in our palms...our paths decided...our destiny written?Is it friendship,relationships,affinities...that withers away?or is it a maze of paths that we choose that decides the outcome?Is it our missed chances or the lack of it?Are we all victims of our own karma?Or are we cursed to be living a life in which we have our physical needs fulfilled in this middle class urban psychobabble and our self actualisations unfulfilled?
I don't know because if I did...I guess I wont be asking.
