Page 15 - Seniors Today - April Issue

film, based on a story Mukherjee), who edits and publishes a
by Provatkumar
Mukhopadhyay, is
a powerful critique
of superstition and
regressive religious
beliefs. Soumitra
Chatteejee and Sharmila
Tagore played a young couple—Umaprasad
and Dayamoyee — living in a joint family.
The patriarch Kalikinkar Choudhury
(Chhabi Biswas) is a devotee of Goddess
Kali.
Dayamoyee stays back in the village to
look after the family, when her husband
goes to Kolkata to work in a college.
Kalikinkar has a dream, after which he is
convinced that his daughter-in-law is an
incarnation of Kali. He starts worshipping
her and the villagers are convinced of her
divinity too when she supposedly saves
the life of a child. Umaprasad is summoned
by a letter from his rational sister-in-law,
and is appalled to see what is going on.
He tries to persuade his wife to leave with
him for Kolkata, but by this time she is
also somewhat convinced of her powers.
Imbibing the superstitious beliefs of her
father-in-law and the other villagers, she
chooses the life of isolation and increasingly
loses her grip on reality. It is a prelude to a
terrible tragedy.
Charulata (1964):
Arguably Ray’s best
film, certainly the most
visually striking and
often imitated, Charulata,
based on a Rabindranath
Tagore story, revolves
around Charulata
(Madhabi Mukherjee),
wife of Bhupati (Sailen
SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #22 | APRIL 2021
political newspaper. The intellectual and
politically aware Bhupati has no time for
his lonely wife. He does try to alleviate
her boredom by inviting her brother and
his wife to live with them, but they fail
to provide the companionship Charulata
craves. Then, Amal (Soumitra Chatterjee),
Bhupati’s younger cousin, arrives in the
midst of a storm. He is not just closer
in age to Charulata, but also shares her
interest in literature and poetry. Bhupati
encourages the friendship because it makes
Charulata happy, but she falls in love with
Amal. In those times, there could be no
outlet for her emotions and the love has to
remain unrequited. Bhupati is conned by
Charulata’s brother and just when he is
recovering from this shock, he discovers
his wife weeping over Amal, who left
suddenly out of guilt, leaving a letter for
her. Bhupati is shattered, but the film ends
on an open note that could mean either a
possible fresh start to the marriage, or an
inability to reconnect. Ray captured the
turmoil outside the home in those pre-
Independence days, as well as the delicacy
of suppressed desire.
Goopy Gyne Baghe Byne (1968):
For a change, Ray made
a light comedy-musical
for children, based
on his grandfather
Upendrakishore Ray’s
story. The lead characters
in this madcap adventure
are Gopinath Gyne
aka Goopy (Tapen Chatterjee) and Bagha
Byne (Rabi Ghosh), both exiled from their
villages, one for singing out of tune and
the other for playing the drum badly. They
team up and win three boons from Bhooter
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