Two : A Film Fable

'Two : A Film Fable', is a black and white silent short film written and directed by the Bengali director Satyajit Ray. This short was part of a trilogy that were made upon the request of a non-profit American public broadcasting television, PBS. This film was made as a tribute to the genre of silent films, Ray being an admirer of the mentioned. 'Two' might perhaps be the least watched among Ray's movies but it is one that probably got the highest praise from critics all over the world. Not to mention that Satyajit Ray has almost no bad movies anyways. 

The film features two boys, one rich and one poor. The rich boy is left all alone in his mansion looking for ways to pass his time. This is when he hears the sound of a flute being played by a poor boy living in a shanty shelter behind his house. This provokes interest in the rich boy and he immediately rushes to showcase his flute which obviously is much better than the poor kid's. This leads to the two being engaged in a show off of their belongings. Finally the poor kid realizes that he cannot out do the rich kid when it comes to possessions and therefore engages himself with his kite which, apparently, the rich kid does not have. He also gets jealous upon seeing the other being out in the open while he is kind of caged behind his window bars and that leads to him shooting down the kite. Victorious, he resumes playing with a robot and tower of his when he hears the flute again and realizes that when it comes to being contend, he cannot beat the poor kid. The film ends with a shot of his toy robot destroying his own tower.

The theme that came into my mind after the initial watch was the idea of duality and how it shapes us. The two types of happiness, one that money buys and the other that comes from within, of which the latter is missing from the rich boy. But the problem with not having happiness come from within is that it hurts your ego to see the one having it. When you can buy everything with money but not happiness, it leads to you wanting to make the happy unhappy. This is exactly what led to the rich boy destroying the kite. But when one is truly contend, there is not much that can let them down. No dialogues, no useless characters, just pure deliver of a message.

Despite being so subtle in every aspect, the movie touches wondrous aspects that doesn’t seem quite possible when the movie lasts lesser than fifteen minutes. Well, doesn't seem possible unless there is an ever so brilliant director like Satyajit Ray. This movie deals with not just the topic that I mentioned but also various areas like what loneliness can do to someone, consumerism, economic divide, as many such.

Another very interesting hidden theme that I got to know after a little research was that this movie dealt with the futility of war and how people find their own way to resist oppression. This marvellous work of art was a representation of the Vietnam - USA war of the time. It seems quite obvious as to which boy is which country to those who have heard of the war. The mickey mouse cap and the coke that the rich boy has clearly symbolizes USA and the poverty and helplessness is what shows Vietnam. The rich kid is in possession of several high quality toys which might be showing USA's fire power and the lack of resources on the side of Vietnam is pretty obvious.

Had there not been a mastermind behind this movie, it would not have been possible. To say the philosophy of happiness and contend along with the idea of war is a herculean task in itself, let alone doing it with two tiny boys and no dialogue. 'Two' is surely a reminder of what Indian cinema used to be before this era of Gully Boy being nominated for the Oscars came along. Movies used to mean much more than just a commercial gain and this 15 minute-long movie alone is proof enough for that.

- Fathima Naushad