Ajantrik (1958)

This masterfully crafted, multilayered tale revolves around Bimal (K. Bannerjee) and his battered taxi, an old Chevrolet he calls Jagaddal. Because he takes his car to be a living being, many believe Bimal to be mad.

In a long sequence, Bimal plies his trade, his world intersecting at various points with that of the Oraon tribals. Industrialisation proceeds relentlessly, sowing discord among the tribals, and Jagaddal breaks down irretrievably. It has to be dismantled and sold for scrap.

In the end, a child finds the car horn on the street and plays with it, making it emit the call of the ‘Oraon’ horn. Many parallel storylines are interwoven into the basic plot, along with extensive sequences and repeated images of both tribal cultures and landscapes. These strands come together in a scene where Bimal first shares in an Oraon feast and then literally burdens his car with objects of nature after which the car breaks down.

The other side of the complex trope is represented by imagery evoking the speed of technologically driven change: electric telegraph wires, a train, the village madman’s (K. Mukherjee) metal basin which is replaced by a gleaming new one at the end.