Synopsis
Calcutta 1879. Bhupati Dutta (Sailen Mukherjee),
a wealthy intellectual edits and publishes
a political weekly in English called 'The
Sentinel.' His sensitive and beautiful,
young wife Charu (Madhabi Mukherjee) spends
her time doing needlework and reading Bengali
novels. Sensing her loneliness, Bhupati
invites her older brother Umapada and his
wife Mandakini to live with them. Umapada
becomes the manager of the magazine but
Mandakini, a rustic and unlettered woman
is no companion for Charu. Bhupati's cousin
Amal (Soumitra Chaterjee) arrives to spend
his vacation with Bhupati. At Bhupati's
suggestion, the literary minded Amal helps
and encourages Charu with her writing. The
two get more and more drawn to each other.
Bhupati, busy with the magazine as usual,
is unaware of this development. Umapada
escapes with the funds at his disposal.
Bhupati narrates this to Amal, the only
one he feels he can trust. Amal feeling
guilty and not wanting to hurt Bhupati sneaks
out the same night, leaving him a note.
Charu and Bhupati go on a holiday and it
appears her feelings are under control.
But on their return to Calcutta, a letter
from Amal brings back memories of their
times together and she breaks down unaware
her husband is standing behind her. Bhupati
shocked at what ahs happened behind his
back, leaves the house. When he returns,
they both make a hesitant effort to reach
out to each other. But their extended hands
remain frozen in a tentative gesture of
compromise that can only confirm their inner
separation.
The film
Charulata is without doubt
one of the greatest films of Indian Cinema
and Satyajit
Ray's most flawless film. The film is
crafted beautifully with meticulous detail
to period and exquisitely creates the Bengal
of the 1870s. Charulata or Charu for short,
when she is first shown, appears to belong
to that long line of submissive women portrayed
by Ray in a number of films, from the Apu
trilogy onward. She is trapped by tradition,
enclosed within the shuttered rooms of her
husband's house, apparently acquiescent
in her role of the compliant wife who wants
nothing from life but her husband's happiness.
Ray's camera lingers on this prison of a
house, with its heavy Victorian furniture,
its embroidery, its cameos of Queen Victoria...
The tranquility of these early scenes is
soon revealed to be superficial, as Ray
gently hints at Charu's restlessness...
This opening sequence establishing Charu's
boredom and loneliness as she wanders aimlessly
in the house has just one line of dialogue
in seven minutes but is so beautifully handled
that dialogue is never missed.
 The
subject matter of the film is highly psychological
and very personal to the characters. Ray,
with his mastery over the form, manages
to successfully convey to his audience,
all the innermost feelings and even whole
thought processes of his characters, with
the simplest of styles. He uses no dazzling
show of technique, no slick editing, no
dramatic hype and surprisingly minimal dialogue.
The centerpiece of the film is the justifiably
famous garden-swing sequence. It is in this
scene that Charu 'allows' herself to fall
in love with Amal. It is an eight minute
long sequence and for most of its duration,
there isn't a single spoken word. With innovative
camera angles and a lucid narrative style,
Ray precisely enlightens his audience with
Charu's state of mind. It is one of the
best examples of his genius. To quote him,"The
beauty of a woman like Charulata is largely
the beauty of her mind. What I have tried
to bring out is the richness of that mind."
Since Ray has tried to delve inside his
characters it is interesting to note that
except for the garden sequence and the holiday
the couple go for, the film refers to the
outside world only via dialogue with references
to the novelist Bankimchandra, to Gladstone,
Disraeli and the other dominant political
issues of the time.
Though the relationship between Amal and
Charu is an illicit one according to society
norms, what makes it work and strike a chord
in the heart of the viewer is their lack
of conscious knowledge of what is happening
to them and thus this gives them a certain
nobility of innocence. Also, what is of
important note in the film is that Charu
is the only one of the three who has no
crisis of conscious. Bhupati feels guilty
for not having devoted enough time to her;
Amal realizes he was about to betray the
trust of his cousin and beats a hasty retreat.
Charu alone never turns her back on her
passion. In her reconciliation with her
husband there is no sense of guilt, only
a recognition of reality.
The film boasts of some of Ray's most cinematic
sequences and the music sets the tone of
the film with remarkable use of musical
motifs. Amal serenades Charu with the famous
Tagore song Ami Chini-Go-Chini sung
brilliantly by Kishore Kumar.
And the film is greatly helped by an absolutely
stunning performance by Madhabi
Mukherjee in the title role. She lives
the role; she is Charulata. Special mention
must also be made of Bansi
Chandragupta's Art Direction for its
brilliant mimetic recreation of the interiors
of late 19th century Bengali upper-class
mansions.
Charulata was a triumph for
Ray and was both an enormous box-office
as well as critical success. Quoting the
New York Times dated September 11, 1965,
"As usual, Mr. Ray has composed the
picture in the most literal sense of the
word and exquisitely. He has made the most
of beautiful young Madhabi Mukherjee, who
gives a lustrously affecting and almost
mind-readable performance as the yearning
heroine. In a sense, the very opening shot,
Miss Mukherjee's hands darting a needle
into an embroidery hoop, keys all that follows.
Arranging every single camera frame to convey
nuance, mood or tension, Mr. Ray has photographically
embroidered a steady flow of quiet images
with precise, striking acuity. One montage
when the day-dreaming wife, in a garden
swing, rocks to and fro like a pendulum
is unforgettable."
Charulata
- A great film by a great director. Need one say more? |
