During the second half of 1965 RAY made a film from his second original screenplay - the first being KANCHENJUNGHA a few years back.
The difference this time was that unlike his other films where his main actors and actresses were character artists ( albeit small or big ) RAY had decided to cast a larger than life figure for his second OS ( original screenplay ). RAY was at the height of his abilities and prowess as a ground breaking DIRECTOR - the first one from India and the man he decided to cast was one of the idols of Bengali Cinema and as history would prove later one of the seminal figs of Bengali Industry ever - UTTAM KUMAR.
As he had shown with Waheeda Rehman in Abhijan in 1962 & much later with a host of ensembled cast in SATRANJ KE KHILADI ( Sanjeev Kumar , Shabana Azmi , Amzad Khan , Saeed Jaffrey, Farida Jalal etc) in 1977, RAY was not averse to the BIG STARS of Bollywood - he simply couldn't use them much as his scripts would require actors who spoke fluent and sharp bengali. For Nayak though , the script demanded an matinee idol and we daresay after so many years in hindsight that ,RAY wanted to write about UTTAM and cast UTTAM in his only film that was on a matinee idol and a larger than life image . Yours truly is convinced that the Director was very clear in his mind from day 1 , as he set off for the cool of Darjeeling in the later half of 1965 to write NAYAK. RAY by then was an established phenomenon in the world of PARALLEL CINEMA and surprisingly was largely ignorant of commercial cinema in Bengal and in India and was not aware of Kumar's personal BIODATA . " He was a clerk at the Customs or Port Commissioners I think and his autograph was very much the signature of a clerk. Thats about all I know. There's an autobiography - ghost written - which I haven't read , " said a fairly disdainful RAY to his biographer ANDREW ROBINSON in the INNER EYE.
In writing his screenplay , Ray was driven by a devilish pleasure to investigate the psychology of a star which he had not done so far in his films. In doing so he also delved in the psyche of his fans and critics and last but not the least - the entire movie to be filmed on a train journey - something which Ray had never done before. The story revolves round the relationship of Uttam - a VISIBLY tired star travelling to Delhi to receive an award but actually trying to get away from the constant paparazzi and gossip seekers - and Aditi ( Sharmila Tagore) - a young journalist who edits a serious women's magazine and whose heavy glasses and pen clipped to her blouse do little to conceal her feminine charm.
I will dwell on Sharmila Tagore for some time here . Like Uttam , Sharmila was another big star of the (Mumbai) industry whom RAY used for this film. Although Sharmila was yet not upto Uttam's stature in terms of popularity and roles in industry , but she had by then carved quite a bit of niche for herself as an exquisite artist - coming a long way from APUR SANSAR in 1959 ( the iconic last part of APU Trilogy ) where RAY had cast her as a 14 year old new comer , to the more suave and sensuous roles in BOLLYWOOD . By the time Nayak was thought of ,Sharmila was quite a big name in Mumbai and to add to the fact that she was Ray's discovery added a lot to her CV.
Nayak , like most of Ray's films , has an inherently simple storyline with virtually no unncessary commercial elements. Its strength lay purely in the screenplay. The opening scenes examined Arindam's standing as a public figure and established him as someone with a calm and distant demeanor. Thereafter Ray used Sharmila to examine Uttam's vulnerabilities. Sharmila was able to break the ice and Uttam shared some of his most personal secrets. By using this approach , Ray put Aditi's character on a Pedestal and gave her equal importance as the one played by Uttam. Sharmila was still fairly new to the industry and pairing her opposite the great ' Mahanayak ' was risky , but her effortless performance and Ray's script ensured that it paid off. She was being portrayed as a strong woman with fiesty views. She hated the likes of Arindam and felt that there was no need to give importance to them. However, at the same time Ray brought out her indecisiveness & lack of experience when she let the flip of a coin decide her next course of action. This made her portrayal very layered. Sharmila did full justice to Ray’s vision and delivered a performance that brought the character to to life just the way he had envisioned. Her measured yet sharp dialogue delivery in a scene, where she taunts Arindam by saying that she has to work hard to succeed in life, helped her hold her own against the legend. Similarly, she was at her coyest best when Aditi blushes and tries to hide her face to avoid the ‘public’ while she is conversing with Arindam. Her transition from bold to coy was as effortless as as anything. Sharmila also conveyed a lot through simple gestures and her silences, which is no mean feat. A scene where she refuses to join Uttam Character for tea on the platform is a case in point. She also shared a very natural chemistry with Uttam Kumar despite the age gap. A lot was often left ‘unsaid’, which added a new layer to their reel rapport....
Aditi walks over to Arindam's table in the dining car , introduces herself as an autograph seeker , and quickly adds she wants it for her cousin. They strike an immediate rapport as Arindam is relieved that he doesnt have to play the star with her. It soon leads to his pouring out his life story , prompted by her initial question , ' In the midst of having so much , dont you feel there's something missing in your life? Some emptiness somewhere ? ' In a series of conversations with Aditi , interpersed with alarming dreams , he reveals his guilt - about leaving the theatre for films against the wishes of his old teacher , about taking to alcohol to steady his nerves , about his rejection of an ageing actor desperate for work in revenge for an old insult, and his refusal to help an old friend in politics. Finally half drunk on whisky and half comtemplating suicide from the train , he requests for Aditi. He begins to confess an affair with a women who'se married and who wanted a part in one of his films, and a fight that he had with her husband , but Aditi stops him , moved to pity by his condition. At this point a lot was ' unsaid' about their on screen chemistry which RAY very deftly left for the viewers' to make assumptions. The UNSAID portions form a major part of the chemistry between Uttam and Sharmila.
The Other passengers in the train who interact with him , help to explain his state of mind without one's feeling for a moment that they have been put there by RAY for a purpose. Their various reactions show them to be haplessly star struck , unable to be indifferent about a movie star's presence amongst them.
Nayak , undoubtedly draws comparison with Kanchenjungha , Ray's first original screenplay. It lifts a group of well flourishing characters out of their usual setting & thrust them together for a brief period of time. It sets up a situation tailor-made for romance and then stalls it. The emotions are generally speaking very restrained & it has a woman for its conscience keeper.
Kanchenjungha is a better film though. Apart from the technical disadvantage of being a film about trains shot entirely in a STUDIO, NAYAK suffers from 2 significant weaknesses : a sense of artifice in some of the patterning & an incompleteness in the two central characters.
Ray wrote in 1966 , " Planning the story of Nayak - I dismissed quite early the notion of an orderly step by step account of the making of a matinee idol. That seemed to belong to the cinema of the 30's and 40's. In the film, the hero's past is revealed in flashbacks and dreams which make inroads into a very tight time-space pattern ( 24 hours in a train) ."
The problem of the central performances is harder to pin down. There seems to be some missing ingredient in Arindam and Aditi - but only seemingly. At basics , Arindam doesnt project the real star that would make him so loved & hated at the same time. He lacks elan and is insufficiently masculine for a matinee idol . With his penchant for self pity and alcohol, Arindam seems to inherit some traits of earlier BONG Heroes whom RAY himself disliked a lot. Some of that feeling in creating Arindam, coupled with Ray's comparative lack of empathy for UK , may have prevented him from visualising the role of Arindam as consistently from the inside as he normally did. He admired Uttam Kumar's talent in many ways and accepted the fact that there would never be another UK - speaking after MAHANAYAK had passed away , and that Nayak was written only and only keeping him in mind , yet Uttam's intellect was something he never admired and to him Kumar was a IDOL not a great actor.
Nayak by all means is an experience considering the uniqueness of the script in shooting it in a train and that it was the only film which conceptualised and portrayed the larger than life image of a STAR at the pick of his power and aura - and that NAYAK was a film which many top directors would aspire to direct , yet it was never RAY's best work or anywhere near it.
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