I didn’t like Pratidwandi, and not because it’s political or difficult, but because it never really moves.
For a film called The Adversary, I kept asking myself: adversary to what? There’s frustration everywhere, anger in the air, but no clear conflict pushing the story forward. Scenes pile up, moods pile up, but Siddhartha doesn’t arrive anywhere emotionally or morally. He begins restless and ends restless.
This is where the film departs sharply from the Satyajit Ray I admire. Even when Ray is quiet, his stories usually move with intent. In Apur Sansar, every scene edges Apu closer to loss and responsibility. In The Postmaster from Teen Kanya, the emotional shift is minimal on the surface but absolutely decisive underneath. Devi steadily tightens its grip until belief itself becomes the conflict. Even a fantasy like Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne is propelled by clear wants, obstacles, and consequences.
In Pratidwandi, that sense of pressure or a want is missing.
The style also kept me at a distance. The jump cuts, symbolism, and almost documentary feel make the film seem more like a commentary on a time and a mood than a story unfolding. Ray is observing rather than shaping. The symbols hover, but they don’t force Siddhartha into a choice or a point of no return.
What I missed most was intent. In Ray’s strongest films, even the most understated ones, something is always at stake. A line is crossed. A belief is tested. A loss is incurred. Here, that accumulation never quite happens.
Even the final release of Siddhartha’s pent-up anger feels oddly underwhelming. After all that simmering frustration, it’s triggered by something as banal as a lunch break. That’s the breaking point? It feels dramatically thin, almost accidental, when it should have felt inevitable.
I can accept Pratidwandi as an experiment and as a snapshot of a restless, troubled time. But as drama, it feels emotionally unfinished. Compared to the quiet certainty of Ray’s storytelling elsewhere, this is one film where atmosphere replaces intent — and for me, that just wasn’t enough.
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