Revisiting Ray’s Movie: Charulata and Ghore-Baire

Love of a woman for a man other than her husband has been a favorite subject for the bards of India. The love of Radha for Krishna has been sung and re-sung in varieties of form by the artists of India. Radha is wife of Ayan Ghose. But she finds her heart’s pleasure in Krishna. Krishna stands as the representative of the youth. Their relation, however, has never been formally accepted by the society. Rabindranath’s pursuit for love as a perfect spirit may be traced in many of his literary works. Incidentally, Satyajit’s preference on a couple of his films was no different.

Charulata is Satyajit’s most perfect film and this film has been based on a short story of Rabindranath (Nostoneed, ‘Ruined Home’ in English). Charulata is a very pretty woman and she is wife of a Bengali gentleman. This gentleman has been enlightened with the ideas of the West. He is so busy that he finds little time to spare for his worthy wife. He possesses contemporary political understanding and he has anxiety for his motherland. Charulata feels neglected and her husband does not comprehend this. That she suffers from misery caused by loneliness remains beyond her husband’s realization. Amal is her husband’s brother and Amal’s company makes her happy. Amal is a young and promising author and he is simple and friendly. Charulata cannot ignore him. She cannot ignore his pull.

Ghore-Baire is a novel of Rabindranath. When Satyajit converts it into a film he names it ‘The Home and the World’. Bimala is the woman here. She is wife of Nikhilesh who is a benevolent and enlightened landlord of Bengal. Nikhilesh recruits one governess to educate his wife and he wants her to be modern. He wants to see her as a person. Sandip is his friend and a firebrand nationalist leader of the first decade of the last century. (Bengal was partitioned by the British rulers in 1905 and it was done on the basis of religion. The British rulers had planned to bring about sharp division between the Hindus and the Muslims.) In Ghore-Baire Sandip is a hypocrite and this is clear to Nikhilesh. Still he accepts him as a guest. Bimala falls in love with Sandip and Sandip finds occasion to kiss her lip-to-lip. Nikhilesh knows her wife’s relation with this scoundrel but does not react in the open.

Charulata is a very good film and Ghore-Baire is not one such. Ghore-Baire lacks brilliance of Charulata. This film is poor in cinematography. People in this film talk and talk and go on placing points after points in order to argue or to establish their position.

Unlike Charulata, Bimala feels the warm touch of her loving husband. Still she is trapped and seduced by a person who, despite his swearing on in the name of motherland, is crooked and evil. Bimala fails to read him.  On the other hand, Amal in Charulata is a descent young lad and he is pure at heart.  However, in both the films, these women do not reach to any developed height as a human being.  Charulata knows the border line and Bimala appears to learn from a mistake. Still what do they learn or where do they reach and finally where we are taken to are a few questions that haunt me. We share the love between Charulata and Amal, but we do not think it right and nice to be sympathetic for Bimala and Sandip. Is it the destiny of a woman to secure a new love if in a given state she is awarded with comparative freedom?  Should she be followed by a social or moral police in case she is awarded thus?  It is again not clear why these women have not been blessed with a child. They are beautiful and they are married to persons who are affluent. These women are taken to the contact of the contemporary time and ideas, and, alas, they are left fruitless. Pursuit for love as a perfect spirit is missing really. Radha is missing. A mother of a few kids may fall in love as has happened with Anna of Tolstoy. Love of Charulata has been chiseled to suit the Victorian values occupied by the enlightened Indians of the time and Bimala hopelessly fails to redefine love.

Film is a wonderful media. It is shaped with the elements of different forms of art and it is constructed to a great extent with the bliss of modern Physics. Great artists can take us to the environment of a magical world..