Abhijan (1962)

  'Abhijan' (The Expedition) is a 1962 Indian film directed by Satyajit Ray.

  Narsingh is a taxi driver, who gets fired from his firm for dangerous driving. He decides to travel, with his loyal taxi-partner Rama, to his ancestorial homeland of Rajput, when on the way he meets a merchant (Sukharam). The merchant persuades him to stay in the town, due to there being no taxi service. He becomes friends with a Christian school teacher but mistakes her friendly personality for true love.

  Satyajit Ray is an amazing film-maker, who is thought of as a legend in India. He showed Indian cinema to the world with the wonderful 'Pather Pachali', and continued to make great films until his death in 1992. Ray was awarded an honorary Oscar months before his death, which is well-deserved, especially because he made a total of 36 films. It's a shame I haven't seen many of his films (only the Apu trilogy), so I bought the rare Masters of Cinema DVD of 'Abhijan', in hope to change that.

  'Abhijan' is a little known film from Ray's large filmography, that surprisingly few people have seen. It's his biggest film in Bengal, but apart from that it's rarely spoken about. My overall opinion was that the film drags a bit in the middle, but is fully enjoyable and contains many great performances.

  The plot of the film is constantly changing, so therefore, it's hard to figure out where the film is heading, with it starting as a 'fish out of water' protagonist entering a miserable town (the type of film where he makes friends with everyone by the finale), and then changes into a protagonist takes an evil job and looses his friends. The hopeful atmosphere of the film turns into a tragedy, where it feels as if the main character is doomed by his immoral actions. The protagonist switches from bad to good to bad and finally to good again, so by the end of the film I wasn't entirely sure if I liked him or not. The film adds a couple of sub-plots, (the Christian girl, the fight etc) to help fill up the long 2 1/2 hour runtime, but they do get tiresome for a while. 150 minutes is a long time, and I felt like there was not enough interesting events to sustain the brilliance created at the beginning of the film.

  If I was to say "Indian cinema" you would think the colourful singing and dancing exoticism of Bollywood. 'Abhijan' and Ray's other films are far from Bollywood, although they are immersed in Indian culture. Nowhere in the world could make a film combining exotic barren landscape, clanging sitar music and the unfamiliar yet alluring mise-en-scene. I prefer this film to a Bollywood hit like 'Mother India', as it doesn't have the unnecessary singing and dancing, as well as not feeling false and unreal. 'Abhijan' could have genuinely happened in Bengal at some point in time. The film features realistic people in realistic situations, something not seen in the dreamy land of Bollywood, and its a shame they still don't make their films like this.

TO CONLCLUDE
A superb Indian film from directorial maestro Satyajit Ray. It's never considered one of his greatest, but I fully enjoyed it regardless.

SCORE
78