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Mahapurush
aka The Holy Man 1964 65’ b&w Bengali d/sc/m Satyajit Ray p R.D. Bansal pc R.D.B. st Rajasekhar Bose’s [aka Parashuram] Birinchi Baba c Soumendu Roy lp Charuprakash Ghosh, Robi Ghosh, Prasad Mukherjee, Gitali Roy, Satindra Bhattacharya, Soumyen Bose, Santosh Dutta, Renuka Roy
First of two short films often shown as Kapurush-o-Mahapurush. Returning to the farces of Parashuram (cf. Parash Pathar, 1957) and to the comedy team of Abhijaan (1962), Charuprakash and Robi Ghosh. The widower Gurupada Mitter (Mukherjee) becomes the disciple of the yogic godman Birinchi Baba (C. Ghosh), followed by his daughter Buchki (G. Roy). Satya (Bhattacharya) and members of an informal club unmask the godman as a fraud. This broadly played, verbose comedy is full of puns, often in English, as the godman claims to have been present in ancient Babylon, argued with Plato and taught Einstein the relativity theory, claiming that the crucifixion of Christ was crucifact because he saw it with his own eyes. The film evokes the popular 50s/60s Calcutta fashion of groups meeting in coffee-houses to swap stories and argue about politics.