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Peter Walbrook

FROM THE VAULT: 1962

Abhijan

Starring: Soumitra Chatterjee, Waheeda Rehman, Gyanesh Mukherjee

Director: Satyajit Ray

The film: Together with Akira Kurosawa, Satyajit Ray was one of the first Asian filmmakers to find favour in the west, back in the 1950s. But while it took Kurosawa seven years and 12 films to gain international recognition with Rashomon (1950), Ray sailed onto the world stage in 1955 with his  first effort, which was made on borrowed time and money, with a cast and crew of amateurs. It was called Pather Panchali, and still heads many film critics' top 10 lists today.

That Ray's name is less familiar than that of Kurosawa (who once said that 'not to have seen the cinema of Ray means existing in the world without seeing the sun or the moon') is down to availability more than anything else. Other than The Apu Trilogy (of which Pather Panchali was the first part) box set by Artificial Eye and a lacklustre version of The Chess Players by Kino Video, there has been nothing by Ray available on DVD until now. Eureka Masters of Cinema's new release of Abhijan (The Expedition), then, is a  welcome one, even if it's not one of Ray's  best films.

Soumitra Chatterjee  plays Narsingh, a man of warrior caste who is reduced to driving a taxi, a profession that he nonetheless carries on with pride and dignity. Eventually, this attitude gets him into trouble with the local Bengali taxi drivers association and he finds himself over the border in Bihar with the offer of setting up a taxi service exclusive to a small town, with a covert opium dealer as

his sponsor. Heavy with the noblesse oblige of his warrior blood, Narsingh is conflicted by his twin aims of bettering his status and doing the right thing. Having been deserted by his wife, he also has some reconciling to do regarding his newfound misogyny and gallant urges when an enslaved woman (Waheeda Rehman) held by his sponsor comes to him for help.

A morality tale filled with subtleties and cultural nuances that will often be unfamiliar to an international audience, Abhijan taken at face value is less immediately impressive than a lot of Ray's output. But it is still an engaging film for anyone with an interest in Indian culture and especially in Bengali cinema which, thanks to the efforts of the likes of Ray, Mrinal Sen and Ritwik Ghatak, has long been the most critically respected branch of Indian filmmaking.

The extras: At the 1992 Academy Awards ceremony, Audrey Hepburn presented Ray with an honorary Oscar 'for his rare mastery of the art of motion pictures and for his profound humanitarian outlook, which has had an indelible influence on filmmakers and audiences throughout the world'. Or at least she presented Ray to the audience. He accepted with a pre-recorded message filmed from his hospital bed in Calcutta, where he died three weeks later. This is one of the highlights of a 15-minute documentary included in the extras and produced by the Ray Foundation & Study Centre, whose director, Dilip Basu, also gives a 20-minute interview on Ray and Abhijan. Also included is a 36-page illustrated booklet with essays on the film's restoration, Ray's preliminary written treatment of the film, several pages of his sketches and more. For a 45-year-old Indian film, the transfer looks quite good, with any remaining defects and damage (much restoration work was undertaken for this release) somehow adding to the authenticity of the viewing experience.



Abhijan