The Holy Man

Satyajit Ray pokes fun at spiritual charlatanism in this farcical social satire. Following the death of his wife, Gurupada (Prasad Mukherjee) and his daughter (Gitali Roy) find themselves under the sway of Birinchi Baba (Charuprakash Ghosh), a self-proclaimed holy man who claims to be ageless and dazzles them with his fantastical stories of meeting Plato, teaching Einstein, witnessing the Crucifixion, and being on first-name terms with the Buddha. As Birinchi’s band of followers grows, it’s up to the skeptic Nibaran (Somen Bose) to expose his fraud.