Stardust memories

Satyajit Ray's 1966 film Nayak is about a superstar taking a train to collect a National Award. On his way, this star—played by matinee colossus Uttam Kumar—meets existential angst, admiring fans and a journalist who doesn't trust him on or off screen.

- Raja Sen

Satyajit Ray's 1966 film Nayak is about a superstar taking a train to collect a National Award. On his way, this star—played by matinee colossus Uttam Kumar—meets existential angst, admiring fans and a journalist who doesn't trust him on or off screen. Sharmila Tagore's Aditi—a journalist with a pen wedged in her blouse like a dagger in a scabbard—refuses to fawn. They talk on the train, her skepticism clashing against his confessions in a carriage thick with rings of cigarette smoke and ghosts, of past roles and past lives.

A remastered version of Nayak was re-released across Indian theatres on 21 February, and this version can be streamed on The Criterion Channel. The film feels both timeless and strikingly modern—the opening credits pull out from the back of the hero's head, for starters—and Nayak, along with Shyam Benegal's Bhumika, deconstructs movie stardom like few films can. I spoke with Tagore about making this film, and about her combative and intelligent character.

“Everyone on the train is affected by the stardom of the hero,” says Tagore, herself a rare star who was massive in Hindi cinema at the same time as she was thoughtful in Ray's films. “They're a little conscious that here's a superstar. Except a young girl who isn't too well and is lying down. Even the character I play, I'm also affected by his stardom because when it comes to people who are very famous, stars... I'm contemptuous as a journalist. As you are,” she laughs. “‘These people are not really good actors,’ you think. You're a little judgemental.”