Pikoo's Day

While he ran across the paleness of garden, murmuring his little heart to blossoms, he smoothly painted my infidelity with each stroke of his innocence. I timidly peeped through my own reflection, and felt a slight of guilt but was withdrawn away by my vigorous desires of being with another man!

Film: Pikoo's Day

Director: Satyajit Ray

Language: Bengali

Duration: 25 min

Pikoo's Day

‘Pikoo’s Day’ opens with an upper class Bengali family living in a vast bungalow, where a young boy Pikoo peddles his school holiday across the house in cold excitement. The previous night had revealed a lot of secrets to him, while the approaching morning demands a beautiful day ahead. While Pikoo clutches on the loud whimpers & anguish voices of his mom & dad fighting like maniacs beyond the closed doors, he spills out the tale to his ailing grandpa. A typical grandpa with popped-out mouth, cylindrical glassed & a torn vest lies in his deeply sunken bed & appalls. A calling bell hanging above his headstand, cries out loud the denial of the dying old man living with his son and his family. While the phone keeps galling with his mother’s boy friend scaling an afternoon together, the characters in the film kept stunning me with their unregretful attitude.  The boy bribed with pack full of colors and drawing sheets, runs across the garden to capture every flower available under the sun till he reaches a point & wonders if he could find a color to capture the transparency of a beautiful white lotus that grows in filth. As the drop falls on his black lotus & blurs its existence, a hue is formed in his pupils that look like a grey cloud reflecting in a dead lake!

The story kick-starts with an unfaithful wife, who is a negligent daughter-in-law & a cold-hearted mother going ruthlessly romantic with her brother-in-law, while the old man in the next room (father-in-law) breaks through the world silently. Innocence rumbles in pain in Piku’s eyes, when he finds a mother locked in a room with another man while he feels the damp-dead body of his grandpa lying next door.

Satyajit Ray

Satyajit Ray has tended to capture the hidden fright of a small boy, who plays a subtle mediator of human relationships. The idea depicted across the film is plain but very brutal, since it’s been revealed from a kid’s point of view. The story has been adapted from Satyajit Ray’s very own written ‘Pikur Diary’ and has been presented with swift & simple camera angles. The director has specifically concentrated on the script, taking care of the dialogues & expressions of the actors, with a familiar touch of locality in the feel of the film. Satyajit Ray has reacted to a very beautiful mood with this film & has made another grand Ray flick to fulfill the malnourishment of human relations.

A binding memory from our childhood.