Movie Review: Ganashatru (1989)


Ganashatru movie poster

Ganashatru(Enemy of the people) is a 1990 Indian Bengali language film directed by Satyajit Ray and based on Norwegian author Henrik Ibsen's play 'An enemy of the people'.
The movie was produced by the National Film Development Corporation(NFDC) of India and won the national award for 'Best feature film' in Bengali.

Presentation: 

The masterful direction by the oscar-winning director is seen throughout the movie. Satyajit Ray touches a very sentimental and sensitive part of the Indian audience in this movie, which is 'Religious scandals'. He succeeded in that part and delivered an important message to the audience. 
This movie follows a very simple story told in the simplest way possible. Dr. Ashok Gupta(played by Soumitra Chatterjee), a renowned doctor and a dutiful resident of a small town named 'Chandipur' becomes cautious when a number of his patients fall sick to water-borne diseases. Out of suspicion he collects water samples from different parts of the town and sends those for laboratory tests. The tests reveal that a local temple, which is the centre of tourist attraction and one of the main sources of income of the town, is causing the diseases. The water used in the temple is infected with pathogenic microorganisms and people drink it blindly thinking it is holy water. He decides to write an article and publish it in the local newspaper but it is not that simple. He had to face many obstacles as the news-paper publishers were afraid to publish such articles which may anger their readers. Nishith Gupta(played by Dhritiman Chatterjee) is the chairman of the municipality and also happens to be the younger brother of Ashok Gupta, is portrayed as the main antagonist. He tries his best to prevent him from publishing the article as it would affect the reputation of that town. The rest of the story is about Dr. Gupta's struggle to voice his views to the citizens and how he became from a renowned doctor to a public enemy. 

What's good about this movie: 

  • The best thing I found about this movie is its way of storytelling. The movie is presented in a much less complicated way. From the beginning to its end the movie is very subtle. It doesn't feel rushed or dragged either.
  • The narrative of this movie is remarkable as it touches a very sensitive matter but it is very well executed. A comparison can be drawn with Rajkumar Hirani's 'PK' which has a similar context.
  • Unlike 'PK' this movie doesn't mock the traditional Hindu culture but it is presented with scientific facts and it only brings out the superstitions of  the culture. 
  • The movie also brings out the mindsets of different kinds of people in a society. The duties of a responsible citizen, a selfish mayor who would do anything for personal benefits, the newspaper publishers who know what's right and what's wrong but too afraid to speak because of criticism and a bunch of people who instead of using own brains just follow the crowd.   

Rating: 

Although Ganashatru is not considered as Satyajit Ray's greatest piece of work but his own unique way of storytelling is seen in this movie. I give it a 9/10.