Perhaps, Ray might argue (or through Utpal Dutt's Uncle Mitra would say, a great performance by the way), you have a danger sometimes to be a "Kupamanduka" or "a Frog in the Well" meaning you reguse to leave home, and all that entails (stuck in one's ways, injurious about the outside world) - but if you are a "Chhot" (someone on the run all the time), suspicions may be raised as to what you're all on about. In brief, Satyajit Ray in the Stranger, to the last of his time on earth making films and this one about a potentially mysterious uncle returning to his niece and her family after decades away, was concerned with and had a great skill and ability to depict human beings caught up in societal traps, which includes traditions, history, and one's place in the world. If that all sounds deep, well, Ray was a deep thinker.
In this case, The Stranger is on one level about suspicion, which the niece's husband has (is this "Uncle" only here for the inheritance or something else, *What's his deal* in short), but is on another about what values and morals people carry with them - the Uncle especially talks about what he sees as the joys and ills of the world (the latter as religion and drugs, the former about family) or things he is indifferent about (sports/football, which seems unconscionable to one Bengali gentleman talking to him in one of the meaty dialog scenes).
One could call it a, forgive if this sounds pretentious but it is, an existential mystery: it's less about the suspense of whether this man's ulterior motives will bring for the family than what responsibility the family (or the Uncle) has in this situation. What is one's identity? Is it solely defined by how much one makes in work/money, or about experience and knowledge or wisdom? And it's not a film that ventures much outside the home of this family- part of this may have been practical as Ray was sick at the time, directing much of the film on an oxygen tank- but this also means Ray has his characters talk and talk and it is all so fascinating and engrossing talk. And where will the talk lead - to some epiphany? Or just... he is who he says he is?
It is all in the context of... who *is* this man? Well, who is anyone?
In this case, The Stranger is on one level about suspicion, which the niece's husband has (is this "Uncle" only here for the inheritance or something else, *What's his deal* in short), but is on another about what values and morals people carry with them - the Uncle especially talks about what he sees as the joys and ills of the world (the latter as religion and drugs, the former about family) or things he is indifferent about (sports/football, which seems unconscionable to one Bengali gentleman talking to him in one of the meaty dialog scenes).
One could call it a, forgive if this sounds pretentious but it is, an existential mystery: it's less about the suspense of whether this man's ulterior motives will bring for the family than what responsibility the family (or the Uncle) has in this situation. What is one's identity? Is it solely defined by how much one makes in work/money, or about experience and knowledge or wisdom? And it's not a film that ventures much outside the home of this family- part of this may have been practical as Ray was sick at the time, directing much of the film on an oxygen tank- but this also means Ray has his characters talk and talk and it is all so fascinating and engrossing talk. And where will the talk lead - to some epiphany? Or just... he is who he says he is?
It is all in the context of... who *is* this man? Well, who is anyone?