Ajit Banerjee

A well-off family is paid an unexpected, and rather unwanted, visit by a man claiming to be the woman's long-lost uncle. The initial suspicion with which they greet the man slowly dissolves as he regales them with stories of his travels. A well-off family is paid an unexpected, and rather unwanted, visit by a man claiming to be the woman's long-lost uncle. The initial suspicion with which they greet the man slowly dissolves as he regales them with stories of his travels, tales that are at odds with their conventional middle-class perspective on the world. —Anonymous The film sees Anila receiving a letter from a man claiming to be her uncle, a man who disappeared thirty-five years prior. He turns up at her family home professing to be an anthropologist, a globally seasoned traveler en route from the United States to Australia. The family is suspicious of the stranger, believing him to be an impostor pushing a financial scam. After a grilling from the family's lawyer, he leaves as unexpectedly as he arrives, leaving behind a stunned family, and some very insightful observations. —Mr Bongo This tells the story of a woman and her husband who are visited by a man who claims to be the woman's long-lost uncle. The couple is initially skeptical of the man's identity but gradually come to accept him. The film explores themes of civilization, humanity, and the nature of truth, and is known for its philosophical depth and simplicity. "Agantuk" is notable for its introspective and thought-provoking narrative, a hallmark of Ray's filmmaking style. It reflects on the ideas of cultural identity and the clash between traditional Indian values and modernity, themes Ray frequently explored in his works.

Ramu, the eldest son of a migrant family to Calcutta, is a recent graduate searching for a job like many others in post-Partition Calcutta, and the survival of all those he cares for could depend on it. Ramu,a fresh graduate is searching for a job like many others in post-Partition Kolkata.He lives in a lower-middle-class neighborhood with his mother, father,and sister. Ramu's sister,Seeta,is dressed up and paraded in front of prospective in-laws who humiliatingly examine her. The mother is painful of older times when the family used to live in a better house, but she bears her suffering quietly, for the most part. The father is myopic and full of cynicism for he does not share the idealistic aspirations of his two children that better times will come. The light of Ramu's life is his girlfriend Uma, who lives in an equally precarious situation with her sister Shephali and her mother. Jatin is an even poorer minor character living near Uma's dwelling who Ramu avoids because he cannot help the former out financially. To make ends meet, Ramu's mother takes in Sagar, a poor chemist, as a paying guest. Ramu does not get a job and cannot pay rent even with the money that he gets from Sagar and is insulted by the landlord. Ultimately the family is evicted. Just before the family has to leave to go stay in slums, Ramu visits Uma and tells him they are moving. Uma offers to help them set up in the new dwelling, an obvious sign of humanism on Ghatak's part. Shephali, her sister, cannot bear to live in poverty any longer, so she leaves home with a shady man.Seeta confesses that she loves Sagar, a love that Sagar reciprocates.However,Sagar, is now rendered homeless and destitute and mentions that he does not have the audacity to expect them to even be united. Ramu overhears parts of Sagar and Uma's conversation and is touched by the moment. He appeals to Sagar for him to come and live with the family. The film ends with the characters walking out in the rain, a symbolic sign of hope and renewal. —Swarup Basak

Soumitra Chatterjee plays Narsingh, a taxi driver. Narsingh is a proud and hot-tempered Rajput with a passion for his car, a vintage 1930 Chrysler and his Rajput heritage. Being a descendent of a royal Rajput family, his self-esteem is reflected through his inability to accept insult and defeat, as a result of which he even takes part in a small race with his car. He does not want to be the one who falls behind and develops a strong hatred for women and mankind in general. As a result of reckless driving, while overtaking the car which carried the district inspector, his licence is taken from him. He is utterly destroyed by it, since the cab was his life after his wife had left him for good. Deeply affected by the insult and a feeling of rootlessness, he decides to go back to the land of rajput where his true rajput lineage will be respected. While on an aimless journey, Narasingh is picked up by Sukharam who is a local Marwari businessman with a record of smuggling and human trafficking. Sukharam (Charuprakash Ghosh) offers him a handsome fee to transport some goods which actually is opium. The realisation of the immoral trade puts Narshing in a compromising position, but he decides to join hands with Sukharam anyways. After all no one he saw was truly following the path of law and morality, not even his ideal and beloved Neeli (Ruma Guha Thakurta). Neeli runs away with the crippled lover of hers and Narasingh's deep distrust of women deepens. As a result, even after knowing that Gulabi is a victim of Sukharams trafficking he forces her to sleep with him without any emotional involvement. At this point he is almost on the verge of becoming the one he used to hate, the lawless ones who also fail to face the world. Gulabi (Waheeda Rehman), on the other hand is a melancholy, demonstrative and beautiful village widow. Gulabi is instinctively drawn to Narsingh. In spite of losing her dignity, she still looks at the bright side of life and has trust that Narshing is not immoral. She is attracted to him from the beginning and ready for a physical relationship, though not as a prostitute which Sukharam intended her to be at that time, but as a village girl. After he decides to join the gang of smugglers consisting of a legal deal and selling his car, he finds that all his friends that had been with him for so long, including Rama, and Neeli's brother, have abandoned him. He gets the money and social status he wanted but reduces himself to Mama Bhagne, a symbol of someone carrying the baggage of his own sin on his head, until he topples and is reduced to mere pebbles with no dignity. He changes, and rescues Gulabi just in time, before she was to be sold to the same lawyer who was a member of the smuggling racket he had thought of joining. The tension of the good and evil collapses and the old car makes another journey into nothingness but with a halo of light ahead of it, the light of love.