''Ajantrik'' (known internationally as ''The Unmechanical'', ''The Mechanical Man'' or ''The Pathetic Fallacy'') is a

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

Bengali film written and directed by revered

parallel Parallel is a geometric term of location which may refer to: Computing * Parallel algorithm * Parallel computing * Parallel metaheuristic * Parallel (software), a UNIX utility for running programs in parallel * Parallel Sysplex, a cluster of IBM ...

filmmaker

Ritwik Ghatak Ritwik Kumar Ghatak (; 4 November 19256 February 1976) was a noted Indian film director, screenwriter, and playwright. Along with prominent contemporary Bengali filmmakers Satyajit Ray, Tapan Sinha and Mrinal Sen, his cinema is primarily remembe ...

. The film is adapted from a Bengali short story of the same name written by Subodh Ghosh. A

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

film, ''Ajantrik'' is one of the earliest Indian films to portray an inanimate object, in this case an

automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with Wheel, wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, pe ...

, as a character in the story. It achieves this through the use of sounds recorded post-production to emphasize the car's bodily functions and movements. The film was considered for a special entry in the

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival he ...

in 1959.

Plot

Bimal is a taxi-driver in a small provincial

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

. He lives alone. His taxi (an old 1920

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and ous ...

jalopy which he named ''Jagaddal'') is his only companion and, although very battered, it is the apple of Bimal's eye. The film shows episodes from his life in the industrial wasteland, delivering people from one place to another. Film critic

Georges Sadoul Georges Sadoul (4 February 1904 – 13 October 1967) was a French film critic, journalist and cinema writer. He is known for writing encyclopedias of film and filmmakers, many of which have been translated into English. Biography Sadoul was ...

shared his experience of watching the film in this way. He said, "What does 'Ajantrik' mean? I don't know and I believe no one in

knew...I can't tell the whole story of the

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

...there was no subtitle for the film. But I saw the film spellbound till the very end". According to the noted

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

poet and

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

scholar Alokeranjan Dasgupta, "The merciless conflict of ethereal nature and mechanised civilization, through the love of taxi driver Bimal and his pathetic vehicle Jagaddal seems to be a unique gift of...

modernism Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

Cast

Kali Banerjee Kali Banerjee (20 November 1920 – 5 July 1993) was an Indian actor, who worked in the 1950s–1970s in Bengali cinema. He is best known for his work with film directors like Satyajit Ray in ''Parash Pathar'' (1958) and Ritwik Ghatak in ''Na ...

as Bimal *

Gangapada Basu Gangapada Basu (as known as Gangapada Bose) (12 March 1910- 23 May 1971) was a Bengali film and theatre actor. He was an actor in the Gananatya Sangha and Bohurupee theatre groups. Films * ''Tothapi (1950) * '' Chinnamul'' (1950) * ''Nagari ...

* Satindra Bhattacharya *

Tulsi Chakraborty Tulsi Chakraborty (also Tulsi Chakrabarti, bn, তুলসী চক্রবর্তী; 3 March 1899 – 11 December 1961) was an Indian actor and comedian who worked in Bengali cinema in the 1940s and 50s. His most notable role could be t ...

* Anil Chatterjee * Shriman Deepak * Kajal Gupta as Young woman *

Gyanesh Mukherjee Gyanesh Mukherjee (5 July 1926 – 8 May 2008) was a Bengali actor, director and theater personality. Career He was involved with Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA). In his film career, Mukherjee worked with number of famous directors l ...

as Mechanic * Keshto Mukherjee * Sita Mukherjee as Bulaki

References

External links

* {{Ritwik Ghatak Bengali-language Indian films 1958 films Films directed by Ritwik Ghatak Films based on short fiction 1950s Bengali-language films

Plot

Cast

See also

References

External links