Ray, Satyajit (Director), Ka Purush Maha Purush, 1965 | Photographic Still

Scene Description Mahapurush is Ray's full-blown comedy. A recently widowed lawyer, Gurupada Mitra, who wants to get his daughter Buchki married, meets the holy man Birinchi Baba on the first class compartment of the train from Varanasi to Calcutta. Since the death of his wife, Gurupada has been feeling helpless. The Baba immediately gains the lawyer's undying faith by ordering the sun to rise in front of his eyes. The holy man claims that he has been alive from the time of Manu, has traversed the Earth with Jesus Christ, Shankar and Gautama Buddha, he was there when the foundation of Kashi was being laid, and even been in ancient Greek and Rome, having had philosophical arguments with Plato. He was a counsel to Tulsi Das and a teacher to Einstein. He is a fraud, obviously, but an erudite fraud and excellent actor, with incredible memory and manipulative skills. The high-sounding vacuous of his discourse is the basis of this comedy.(12/17)