The English and Foreign Languages University

Title - A Critical Commentary on Satyajit Ray’s Two: A Film Fable

Paper – Text and Performance

Submitted to : Silpi Maitra

Submitted by -

Ashmita Bora

Roll no.- 1

Semester IV

M.A. English Literature

Abstract

Considered by critics and experts from all over the world as one of the best films

Satyajit Ray ever made, Two: A Film Fable is a sharply observed account of the encounter

between the child of a rich family and a poor child through the rich kid's window. The rich

boy’s competitive instincts are aroused when he watches the poor kid playing his flute, and

he decides to match his rival, one toy at a time. But this game has only one winner and who

really wins what? For what actually is the battle for, the fundamental question arises. The

answer is found only at the end as there emerges a very thin line between losing and

winning.

Key words :

Rich, Poor, Competitive, Battle, Winning, Losing

Introduction

A text is a critical body of work. It is contained in language and woven out of

signifiers. A text is something that is scriptable and it is typically acknowledged as the

blueprint for performative action. Performance occurs when a text or scene of a text is

dramatized.

The word performance comes from the Old French term ‘parfournir’ meaning ‘to do’

or ‘carry out’. Performance therefore refers to any form of action or a course of events. The

verb ‘perform’ goes back to the late Middle Ages, but by the time of Shakespeare, it had

developed a particular association with the presentation of theatrical and musical works.

Since then performance has come to mean any cultural or folk performance that is aimed at

bringing pleasure to the spectators. Dance, drama, song, sports, rituals, mimicry, acrobatics,

etc. all come under the umbrella term, performance.

This paper attempts to make a comparative study of one of the pioneers of Indian

cinema, Satyajit Ray’s short film Two: A Film Fable and its textual versions that emerged in

response to the visual presentation in the form of articles, critical commentaries and film

reviews. The attempt will mainly be directed towards making a comparative study of the

visual form and the textual form with the development of the writer’s own critical stance

through the analysis.

A powerful allegory and one of the most of the most appreciated works of Ray, the

simple tale of playful duel between two young boys, is filled with intricacies of underlying

inferences about loneliness, evils of capitalism and consumerism, violence, hatred, futility of

war, philosophy of happiness, class conflict and raises questions about the true meaning of

freedom.
Analysis of Satyajit Ray’s Two: A Film Fable

Made in the year 1964, Two: A Film Fable is a black-and-white short film by

renowned Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray. It was produced under the banner of Esso World

Theatre and sponsored by the American oil company Esso. With no dialogues, the film is

basically a battle between two boys, both about 6-7 years old but this is where their

similarities end. They are separated from the other by their class differences, one hails from

an affluent family while the other lives in a shanty dwelling in the grassland behind his home.

It is a hot summer afternoon and the film opens with a shot of the rich boy’s parents leaving

in a car and he waves at them. Alone and bored, he tries to pass the time bursting balloons

from his birthday party the day before. He plays with his toys, probably his new gifts,

especially a robot and a toy tower that he seems to have been building since morning but he

gets bored and restless again. Suddenly he overhears a sound, and curiously goes to the

window and sees a boy of his age playing a flute. In a bid to draw the boy’s attention, the rich

boy bellows his electronic trumpet at the window. Soon a competition starts between them,

where each show off their toys and masks before the other, the rich boy’s expensive ones and

the poor boy’s cheap, handmade ones. Soon realizing that his prized possessions are no

match to those of the rich boy, the poor boys gives up and engages himself in flying his kite

instead. Now the rich boy feels restless confined within the four walls of his home watching

his competitor enjoying in the open.

In a fit of childish envy, he tries to bring down the poor boy’s kite with his catapult,

failing which he shoots it down with his air gun. The poor boy is hurt, but he acknowledges

the fact that the rich boy is too powerful for him. He accepts his lot and retires behind his hut

and resumes his flute playing. The film ends when the rich boy keeps listening to the flute

sound in spite of the loud noise of his toys and ponders over his deeds, probably regretting
what he has done as he lost a possible friend and was left alone once again. The last shot is of

the robot that he left playing, crashing into the toy tower he has built, shattering it into pieces

as he has shattered the boy’s kite just some time earlier.

Two: A Film Fable according to critical reviews is much more than a battle of the

minds between a child from a privileged background who has no clue about how harsh life

can be, and a child from the slums who defies the brutality inflicted by poverty through his

own carefree and playful attitude. It raises a fundamental question, what really is happiness

and is there a recipe for it? For the rich kid is lonely despite all his toys and games, and feels

entrapped in his big home while the poor boy with basically nothing appears far happier

roaming about in the open like a free bird singing a happy song of freedom.

Concerns about class conflict is also shown by the invisible line that divides the two boys.

They cannot cross over, their birth to their respective families have bound them to a

particular kind of existence from which there is no escape. The rich boy longs for freedom

but he is well aware that he cannot go beyond the space already decided by his family and the

society.

Ray also brings forth his understanding of the human psyche and how it differs from

person to person. Easily impressionable and prone to mimicking, the human mind could be

both pretty as it can be perilous. In the film, for instance, while one boy turns a moment of

loneliness into one of beautiful music, the other sees it as an opportunity to cause destruction.

Satyajit Ray in this movie has presented a powerful allegory and much critical commentaries

have been written praising the subtlety of its depiction. He had been deeply affected by the

Vietnam war, and was moved by the extraordinary resilience shown by ordinary people,

especially the peasants of Vietnam in the face of death unleashed on them by America.

Through the poor boy, he shows the indomitable spirit of the human heart to pick up the

pieces after a great loss and move on resume life again. Through the rich boy, he shows the
hollow rewards of a victory earned through violence, for the battle might have been won but

the war is lost as it was futile in the first place.

Observation

For a film of 12-minutes without any dialogue, Satyajit Ray’s Two: A Film Fable,

delivers hard hitting messages that strikes at the core of our modern existence in a society

fractured by tensions of class conflict and questions whether materialism can be the only path

to happiness and whether grinding poverty necessarily makes life not worthy of living.

Through a Marxist interpretation of the film we could see in the rich boy’s character a

representation of the bourgeois class who reap joy at the pain of the working class proletariat.

They are rich and have the capacity to make the changes that ultimately prove destructive to

the cause of the working class as the rich boy shot down the poor boy’s kite with his air gun

causing him pain and the rich boy revels in his victory.

Satyajit Ray has also made clever use of symbolism in his depiction. He shows the

materialistic pursuits of the privileged higher class through presentation of certain objects in

the affluent boy’s house like the car, the balloons, the refrigerator and his inexpensive toys.

The mickey mouse cap and coca cola symbolize American capitalism, the fat rich boy’s

greed, he keeps consuming- first the coca cola, then an apple depicts consumerism. The robot

shows the mechanical existence of modern men, and the final scene of the robot shattering

the toy tower that the boy has made himself shows how violence can be self-consuming and

ultimately fruitless.
Conclusion

Named by Ray himself as a fable, the film Two: A Film Fable then could be said to

aimed at rendering forth certain morals throughout. He brings into focus issues like the

tendency of the rich to suppress the poor, battle of happiness versus consumerism, the

momentary nature of ego and the futility of war where there actually is no real winner as both

side loses something or the other in the process. Critics on the film say that it makes a strong

anti-war statement as it ends with the poor kid’s flute sound overpowering the sound of the

rich boy’s expensive toys. It is a celebration of the human spirit and its ability to rise once

more after its losses and play back the flute of life.

Works Cited

1. https://youtu.be/zACGLjd9JNY

2. https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/with-two-a-film-fable-satyajit-ray-shows-a-
childs-mind-can-be-as-petty-as-its-is-perilous-4273439.html/amp

3. https://www.ecologise.in/2018/08/13/two-a-classic-film-fable-by-satyajit-ray/

4. https://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2016/10/satyajit-ray-film-two/

5. https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0209444/

6. https://mymotionpicture.wordpress.com/2015/01/21/two-a-short-film-by-satyajit-ray-that-
you-might-have-
missed/amp/#referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s