Mehul Khatri

Review on ‘Ray’ first 4 stories – A Netflix series based on short stories written by Satyajit Ray Firstly lets put these stories in the following context. Satyajit Ray was active from 1950s till 1992. Assuming these were written even mid-way, say in the early 80s (I failed to find the dates of the story releases), this makes it 35-40 years old stories which are still so relevant even today. I am rating the stories here basis my preference, however, each story by themselves is brilliant and reflects the depth of insight Ray had of human behaviour and shows he was a genius in amazingly beautiful story telling. 4. Spotlight - The story shows the karmic nature of ones actions or influences and also begs one to see through the farce of fan following - be it for film stars or spiritual leaders. For me, this is the weakest story told in terms of performances. Unfortunately one more star-kid some how gets overshadowed by the brilliance of theater veterans or the new genuine talent in other stories. The ray of sunshine however is Radhika Madan as Didi, who gave a brilliant and a memorable cameo of sorts. She came for a few minutes but she stole the show from star-kid through an amazingly acted accent. Thankfully this was the last story, had it been first, a few audiences would have dropped out due to the lackluster star-kid. 3. Forget me not - narrates the fate of a selfish and greedy man who cared too less about those he was surrounded by. As far as performance is concerned, Maggie’s was the dark horse (or mare should I say) and she shone like a black gem. Ali Faizal is sublime and its nice to see him break away from the gangster or lost youth he has become famous for portraying. Some other performances were a little less engaging but I guess the highlight was Ali's character. 2. Hungama Hai Kyon Barpa - The story highlights the quirks and odd habits of us humans and brings together two such characters who, as we know in the end, were intertwined by fate in a unique way. The portrayal of melodrama of the fame starved kalakar, through imaginary performances / audience was brilliance in screen play and sub-text . Manoj Bajpayee shines with his amazing subtlety and Giriraj Rao shows he can play beyond the timid fatherly figures. A welcome change for Manoj as he didn't abuse on screen this time ;-). 1. Bahrupiya - The story of the rise and fall of ego of an underachiever. The wrath of the supreme being on its subjects so to say was brilliantly encapsulated in this story. I am sure many actors will be jealous of Kay Kay Menon. For me Kay Kay has done it again and much more this time. His is by far has the best performance by anyone in this series, in fact this story as narrated here rests solely on the brilliance of Kay Kays performance. For me he has been a bit of an underdog in career but what he has done here shall make his mark felt and potentially spike his career graph upward. I think, this is by far his best performance of his career. So don't miss this for anything.