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Mahapurush – A Film I Loved to Watch

May 5, 2020 | By

11-year old Akash Nag, has all the questions in the world while watching films. While he likes Satyajit Ray’s ‘Apu Trilogy’, he absolutely loves the Feluda stories, mostly because of Soumitra Chatterjee, his ‘Soumitra Dadu’. On 2nd May, when Akash’s father announced that they would be watching a Ray film, Akash was apprehensive because he didn’t want to repeat the Ray films he already watched, nor he wanted to watch those which were for ‘adults’. He was almost coaxed into watching Mahapurush, Ray’s comic masterpiece. In the end, Akash didn’t object. He liked the film to the extent of writing a short review of it.

Mahapurush 1

I have watched this film yesterday. It was shown by my father. It is a Satyajit Ray film. The film started with the Mahapurush man who was throwing worship offerings to his followers. All of them prayed for it but the last piece of offering was given to the stationmaster. When the train started everybody was touching his feet. I hated that man because he was actually fooling people.

Mahapurush by Satyajit Ray

Mahapurush in the train

In that train he met someone called Gurupada and his daughter. I hated that part when he faked that he was controlling the rise of Sun. He was actually a learned man and was aware of when the Sun rose and set every day. He was a fraud. He understood that Gurupada was a rich man and he knew that he could earn a lot of money by using Gurupada. He looked as if he was a ‘godman’ from outside but we know that he wasn’t in the inside. I did not like that Gurupada believed such a fraud man. I think that Gurupada was not a very wise man because he thought of making the Mahapurush his ‘guru’ and let him stay at his house.

Mahapurush review

Satya depicts his experience of the Godman

Every evening there was a meeting at his place. Many rich men and women came there and all of them believed the way the Mahapurush talked. The plan of the Mahapurush was to earn a lot of money by bad means. But how can anyone believe such a man? Because how can a man live for such a long time to have seen Jesus Christ and Buddha? Nibaran didn’t believe the man at all. I liked him though he did take some time to disbelieve that man. I love Satya. He behaved like cartoon characters. He was very funny. He would talk a lot and ask a lot of questions.

Nibaran had a scientist friend Nani. He would do a lot of strange experiments for timepass. One of them was boiling grass. He talked about a lot of different words I don’t know about: oxide, a type of acid, etc. to Nibaran. The actor who played Nani was the same actor who played the role of Jatayu in the ‘Feluda’ films. Nani wasn’t a great scientist though he knew a lot of things.

Mahapurush by Satyajit Ray

Nibaran could make out the trick the Godman was using

Nibaran thought of something to expose Mahapurush. He was successful to do the trick with the hands which the Mahapurush did to astonish his followers. It took me 2 days to completely achieve it. It wasn’t that easy. One hand should move in a clockwise direction and the other in an anti-clockwise direction. A person needs to do it together. The followers probably never tried and that’s why they thought it was impossible. If all the followers would have practised then he probably wouldn’t be called a great godman.

Mahapurush film review

Satya, Nibaran and a friend attend the last meeting with the Godman

I hated that part when he transformed as Bramha. It was actually the assistant’s shadow. Not a single thing was true. It was just made-up stories. I loved that part when I saw the real face of the Mahapurush. He wasn’t wearing his cap. If Gurupada would have entered and seen the real man then there would have been total chaos. I hated the assistant of that godman. He acted as if he never asked or needed anything in his life.

I loved the last idea of Nibaran. It was really a great one. He planned to use white and thick smoke. When everybody would shout about the fire then Mahapurush had to stop his meditation. Then Nibaran would catch him and expel him from the town and warn him never to come near this town again. The idea of Nibaran worked fantastically. The man had to run away but there was a bad part. Gurupada was sad and shocked to see that the man he believed was gone. I felt bad for that poor man.

I learnt that fooling people is never a good deed. No one should ever fool anybody except on April Fool’s Day. I thoroughly enjoyed the film and everyone’s acting in it.

Click here for exclusive features on understanding Satyajit Ray’s films coming up as part of Ray@100 Centenary Series.

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Akash Nag is a student of Garden High School, Kolkata. He swears by cricket but loves swimming and watching football as well. When in a good mood, Akash loves to draw the world of his dreams.
All Posts of Akash Nag

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