No, this is not a movie review 😉. And, no this is not because 
This is a Bengali language movie, as most of Satyajit Ray's movies are. For those who doesn't know who Ray is I urge you to look him and watch some of his work. If you get a chance I highly recommend this one. English subtitles are available and quite okay. They are widely available on YouTube and many other popular places where you go for your movies.
Ray was much more than a film director, he was a prodigous man of many talents. He was a director, scriptwriter, documentary filmmaker, author, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligrapher, and music composer.... and above all a towering figure in Bengal's neo-renaissance.
The reason I was thinking about মহাপুরুষ : The Holy Man.... is not because of the main content of the movie, but there is a hostel life feel in the 60s Kolkata, which is very near and dear to my heart. That type of "hostel life", is besically gone now. But back in the day, it was called a 'mess'. It can be a rental property (most typically), it can be someone's house, where a large group of typically unmarried boys will come and hang out. Usually those places have a central character. Often a older gentleman, and the 'club' grows around him. The bonding used to be very powerful in this set up.
In this particular movie, one such guy in Nibaronda. One of his lads comes in and tells him about this fraud 'baba' the 'guru' the holy man. This is no ordinary guy. He is impressive knowledge about history, literature, basic science, and can play tricks with most human psyche. He says he had debates with Plato, chatted with Jesus Christ, and helps SUN to rise every morning! He says he taught Albert Eistein E= MC2! So Nibaronda asks, he said that and everyone believed him?! This is preposterous! But then came the answer:
"শুধু শুনলে না! "clap" দিলে ! "
not only they listened, they clapped!
This gets me thinking about the feverish movement over the last few years about conspiracy theories and alternative facts. Some of it is so far fetched and outlandish that is it hard to belive that how come any sane person believes it! But we certainly saw, that people does believes them. That is the strange world we live in. Nothing should surprise us anymore.
That is why I always tell a few folks that guys, please don't leave the stage empty, because if you do, someone will get up there and start barking, and then you won't be able to control the narrative. As the stage never remains empty!
