The Chess Players

Satyajit Ray burst spectacularly onto the International scene with festival favorite Pather Panchali, his first feature. Chess Players is set during British colonial rule of India in the 19th century, but was made during a repressive  “State of Emergency” imposed by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

The late ‘70s Technicolor saturated grainy film stock is perhaps the ideal canvas for Ray’s oeuvre. The kingdom of Awadh is the setting and in Ray’s hands it shimmers with lush ruby reds adorning soon-to-be abdicated crowns and the sandy brown earth under the feet of indolent gentry. As Mr. Meer and Mr. Mirza play chess and suck on their hookah pipes, their verse-making king endures humiliation before the British Governor General— played  with arrogance and bemusement by Richard Attenborough. What might have been nationalist propaganda or an empty period piece is rendered sublime.

As good a place as any to introduce yourself to the director whose nickname is “God.”

The L Magazine