Kanchan, a young villager, flees to the city, where he meets a number of people: Haridas, a former teacher turned peddler; an ageing maid; a gangster who poses as a magician; and Mini, a rich girl. Kanchan is brought back to his parents. He tells his father that the city is worthless and that nowhere is as good as home.
“In the film Bari teke palyye, the child goes in search of the El Dorado of his dreams. Together we read the story of this dreamland called El Dorado. We were fascinated by this land. In our country house, on full moon nights, the enclosed fields and bamboo forests between New Varenga and the nearby village of Bachkar looked like a Japanese painting, painted in the light of the moon. We used to say that El Dorado must be behind this. In the villages of Bengal, the image of a bamboo forest against a backdrop of the moon lighting up an autumn sky, can create its own magic in a child’s mind.”
