To explain why Days and Nights in the Forest (1970), playing this Wednesday in Doc Films’s valuable Satyajit Ray retrospective, is a masterpiece is a bit like explaining why flowers are beautiful: the film’s glories are so natural and self-evident that describing them feels redundant. One of the airiest of great movies, Days and Nights seems lightweight and plotless—yet it reveals countless insights into its characters, setting, and theme. Along with Aparajito (1956), Charulata (1964), and The Home and the World (1984), it represents the epitome of Ray’s talents—his ability to divine universal meaning from observations of local behavior, his nuanced approach to character, the way he makes time’s passing seem mellifluous—yet it displays these talents so modestly that you may not recognize them at first. The closest Western equivalent may be Jean Renoir’s The Rules of the Game in that it’s an ensemble comedy-drama about romance and class relations that requires multiple viewings to reveal its true mastery. Ray’s screenplay (a free adaptation of a novel by Sunil Gangopadhyay) is, up until its climax, a carefully plotted collection of nonevents, and his direction focuses on character and setting. The insights seem offhanded and casual despite being profound.

This scene reflects the pervasiveness of corruption among the Kolkata business class, though less in the fact of the bribe than in Ashim’s nonchalant view of it. Ray subtly condemns the corruption of his group of heroes in subsequent scenes that show the men getting drunk at the village bar and making fools of themselves in front of the locals. (Their lofty behavior in front of the people who serve them at the bungalow is revealing as well.) Yet these men never come across as caricatures or even bad people. Ray seldom put villains in his films because, as a great humanist, he saw the best in almost everyone. Such is the case with the men of Days and Nights—their sensitivity and good humor shine through even when they act boorishly. When the two beautiful women staying at the summer home next door arrive, the heroes prove themselves gracious and chivalrous as well.

Directed by Satyajit Ray. In Bengali with subtitles. 112 min. Wed 5/15, 7 & 9:30 PM. Doc Films, 1212 E 59th, 773-702-8574, docfilms.org, $7.