Two Gentlemen – One Sells Cotton, The Other Spins Yarns – Meet when the Former, Sleepless in Ahmedabad, Employees The Latter, Ana Inveterate Raconte Raconteur from Calcutta, to Tell Him Original, UNPUBLIES Deal with insomnia.
That, the kernel of The storytellerIs derived from a short story by satyajit ray. Screenwriter Kireet Khurana Develops a Larger plot Around It. In an unflashy but witty tribute to the master, the film explores creation and appropriation, delusion and actualization. To its credit, it is anything but imitative.
Ananth Narayan Mahadevan’s Film Adds New Strands to the Story to Probe The Differing Mindsets of the two men. Yeh Duniya Sochne Waalon Ki Nahin Karne Waalon Ki Hain (This world is not for thinkers but for doers), mild-mannered ahmedabad trader Ratan Garodia (Adil Hussain), Taunts the Hired Storyteler, Tarini Bandopadhyay.
The two characters at the core of ray’s Golpo Boliye Tarini Khuro ,Uncle Tarini, Storyteller) Are Poles Apart Culturally and Tempementally. It is the chasm between them as individuals that The storyteller hinges on.
Be it the fate of a tree in the aravalli forests one hundred years ago (Told through Lively Animation) or that of a Captured Second World War Spy Pigeon, Any Idea That Strikes Tarini Is GrisT Forryling Milling The listener is all ears.
While most of the departures the film makes from the original text pass Muster, Not all are effective effective. At least one of the tweaks Amounts to over-simplification. Ray did not intend to harp on the degrees of Separation Between Bengalis and Gujaratis.
He used the difference between the two men to point to divergent ways of looking at life prints, priorities and paradoxes, and at the process of telling, grasping and decminating stories. He Had No Avowed Interest in the Food Habits and other idiosyncrasies of the two men. The storyteller Does.
It tends to stereotype the two linguistic groups. The Bengali is predictibly defined by his love for fish and durga puja, the Gujarat by his obsession with pecuniary duty. A Little More Imagination would have helped skirts this pitfall.
The storyteler, Streaming on disney+hotstar, begins with flipping a man ray quote: “to create is human, to reproduce is divine”. The Avant-Garde Visual Artist meant the exact opposite: Creation is motivated by inner desire; Imitation by Mere Necessity.
In Ray’s Story, Tarini’s recording of his experience with garodia goes back to a time two decades ago, when they were in their 40s. The screen adaptation is expectedly set in an era of rotary telephones and ambassador cars.
In the film, Tarini as a sexagenarian (which is what rawal is in real life). The character is superannuated. His Son Wants Him to Visit Him in the Us. Tarini Stonwalls Him. To Him, America is a rakto-chills (blood-student) Dracula.
Gently Wending Its Way Through Shadows Cast on it by and Tagore (Especially His Musical Compositions, which are either hummed by tari or woven into the Backerounds GORKINDES, Asso, The storyteller delves into the predilections and memory of Ratan Garodia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc6dn6Hzei
The entrepreneur is surrounded by books he has been read and paintings he cannot comprehend. Ray made no mention of this aspect of the cotton merchant’s life. Mahadevan uses a reference (by ray) to the baron’s struggles with sleep and turns it into a Pivotal Character Trait.
It is Garodia’s insomnia that brings the fish-eating and capitalism-detesting calcutta storyteter
Tarini, Whose Late Wife (Anindita Bose) – One of Several Characters who are Ray’s Fictional World – Gifts Him A Pen on His Birthday (In A Flashback) Ories, is acutely reluctant to Put pen to paper. He is happy doing what he does.
Garodia, in turn, suffers from a complex about his limited education and garodia, in turn, suffers from a complex about his limited education and perceived Lack of Sophistration. Your inability to catch a less winds is a byprowct of capitalism, tarini say to him.
The two men disagree on most things. But Tarini takes the job very serially. Garodia Gives Him No Reason Not to Enjoy His Time in the Sprawling Household Run by Resident Manikchand (Jayesh More).
A pet cat – the “right creature” in the “Wrong place”, Quips Tarini – Roams Around the Garodia Household and Steals from the Fish Tank. Its fortunes turns when the Bengali house guest conspires to smuggle fish into the kitchen and persuade manikchand to cook it for him.
Ray’s story has only three characters, including an Editor of a Gujarati Literary Periodical. Apart from adding a handful of new figures, the film replaces the editor with Librarian Suzie (Tannishtha Chatterjee), Whoose Family Name, Fibert, is a Wink at Her Propentsity to Fib OutRage
Also in the film is Saraswati (Revathy), Who, Once upon a time, was an important part of garodia’s life. Both Suzie (A Guardian of Books) and Saraswati (Named after the Hindu Goddess of Learning) Indirectly Help Tarini Stumble Upon Truths About The Dificult-TO-Fathom Garodia.
The storyteller is an earnest, assiduously composed hommage – an instrumental version of a composition from ray’s Hirak Rajar Deshe Plays over the end credits – and a genteel ode to the stories we experience, tell, comeit to memory and, when needed, borrow or steal to make sense of life and its complexities.
Rawal and Hussain Bring Great Solidity to the Table. Consistently at the top of their game, they employed Aptly Dissimlar Styles to play men from two different orbits of experience of experience. Wry humor run all through their layered portrayals and gradually unfolding engine.
It may seem odd that rawal plays the bengali storyteller and hussain essays the gujarati merchant. The former has to spendak a fair bit of bangla. You cannot but wonder at time if the latter would have been better suited for the role. But coming to think of it, the ostensibly askew casting adds a quirky dimension to the film.
Not that there is noting else in The storyteller to pique our interest. There is placenty.
