Summary | Bhuto | Satyajit Ray

Summary

     Naveen Munshi, a college dropout was hugely interested in Magic. He once chanced upon a show on Ventriloquism by Akrur Choudhary. Fascinated by this new art form wherein the performer spoke in different voices and that too without the movement of lips, he was determined to learn it from the great maestro himself. But Akrur Babu humiliated and refused him. Angered Naveen learnt and mastered the art on his own. Encouraged by the response he got from his uncle and close friend he decided to do it the professional way. He needed a puppet. Naveen based his puppet's looks on Akrur Babu. The puppet was named Bhutnath or Bhuto for short. He became an instant hit and went on to give several memorable performances.

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        Akrur Babu paid him a visit and told him that he had begun to receive cat calls when he had been on stage because of Naveen's puppet and that it was now difficult for him to earn a decent living. Naveen felt a sense of unease in the presence of Akrur Babu and the way he looked at Bhuto. Akrur Babu went on to tell him that he knew other forms of magic which he had not used on stage to earn a living as promised to his Guru who lived in the Himalayas. Although he was impressed to his Guru who lived in the Himalayas. Although he was impressed by Naveen's dedication he was upset with the designing of his puppet. He brought to his notice the grey hair on the puppet and left. Stunned Naveen observed Bhuto and did not remember seeing the grey strands earlier.

 Soon strange things began to occur; Bhuto seemed to have acquired a life of his own and had gone onto to mouth dialogues which Naveen never said on stage. It seemed like his puppet's appearance had begun to change, dark circles grew under his eyes, he greyed a little more, a mole had appeared on the forehead. Naveen felt a dilemma, he was convinced that Bhuto was only an inert, lifeless puppet in his hands, but there seemed to be some kind of supernatural magical force which had taken control of Bhuto. Naveen believed that the same changes had begun to affect Akrur Babu.

      Naveen would converse with Bhuto often and during one such talk Naveen was startled to hear the puppet say that all this was happening because of his 'Karma!' That night he heard someone cough in his room and found Bhuto slouching with his arm on the chest. Naveen convinced himself that nothing was wrong and that unnatural things like this did not occur in the twentieth century.

      Now he began to taste failure, at a show he was unable to mimic Bhuto's voice and throw it across the hall, strangely he could talk. He returned home feeling sick. Again, that night he observed that Bhuto looked ill, he had lost the freshness on his face. He was sweating, his eyes were red and Bhuto's chest seemed to rise and fall! It rose and fell; his breathing could be heard! Naveen called out the puppet's name and was stunned to hear the puppet reply that it was not Bhuto but Akrur Chowdhury! By the time he got a hold over his senses, Naveen noticed that the puppet's breathing was getting fainter and finally stopped breathing. When he tried to move the puppet, the mechanical parts were jammed and when he tried harder, the head fell off the body.

        The next morning, he ran into his landlord who asked him to show some of his magic. Naveen replied that he had given it all up now. To this the landlord replied that one of his fellow performers had died of a heart attack the previous night, his name was Akrur Chowdhury. Naveen thought to himself that if anyone had asked for the time of death, they would discover that it was ten minutes past midnight.