The rare Satyajit Ray film to focus on the film industry, and only his second original screenplay to this point, Nayak follows matinee idol Arindam Mukherjee (Indian cinema icon Uttam Kumar) as he’s forced to take a lengthy train trip to accept an award in Delhi. Encountering a journalist (Ray regular Sharmila Tagore) interested in profiling him, he unravels his life’s stories, told as vivid flashbacks and eerie dreams.

Director: Satyajit Ray. Cast: Uttam Kumar, Sharmila Tagore, Bireswar Sen, Somen Bose. 1966. 117 minutes. India. B&W. Bengali. 35mm. 

Restored by the Satyajit Ray Preservation Project at the Academy Film Archive with funding from the Film Foundation. Print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive.

All film screenings of Satyajit Ray: 1955-1968 are available here.