What could have compelled Satyajit Ray to grab Jana Aranya the very day it was published,for a cinematic adaptation? By the filmmakers admission,the Bengali novel by Sankar gave him an opportunity to show the rampant corruption. It is that and a lot more it is also a vivid portrayal of the middle class in the Seventies Calcutta,the helplessness of the youth in the face of acute unemployment and a struggle between morals and survival strategies. When the novel was published it was a rage; so was Rays version. Now in Arunava Sinhas English translation,The Middleman,it finds new audiences. In The Middleman,the only financial redemption for Calcuttas middle-class families is a job. But thats denied to them. Their plight is reflected in Somnath Banarjee,who becomes a middleman,an order-supplier,and his friend Sukumar,who loses his sanity but develops an enormous appetite for general knowledge. As the novel progresses to a shocking conclusion,it marks Somnaths transition from an idealistic youth to a corrupt businessman. All that matters in Somnaths world are contracts and money,where the means justify the end. And the means include deceit,bribes and peddling women. The novel ends on a poignant note. Somnath,having stifled his conscience,finds it unbearable to face the world. He buries his head in the pillow,weeping in shame and probably self-loathing.Sankar,hounded by the question if this is a true story,painstakingly gives in The Afterword the source of many of his characters. And he makes it impossible to ignore the grim reality in The Middleman as mere fiction.
