Film Review
Charulata, Satyajit Ray's
twelfth film, is based on a story entitled
Nastanirh (a.k.a.
The Broken Nest) by the highly
regarded Bengali poet and writer Rabindranath Tagore. Of
the many films he made, Ray considered this his personal favourite, the
only film he felt could not be improved upon. It is certainly one
of his most beguiling works, a compelling chamber piece with a
distinctly Chekhovian flavour. The film won Ray his second Silver
Bear for Best Director at the Berlin Film Festival and is considered by many
to be one of his finest achievements.
The story is deceptively simple, a variant on the eternal triangle
theme, but Ray's treatment of it makes it a masterwork of subtle
complexity. The power of the film stems from the inability of the
three main characters (all intelligent, articulate individuals) to
express their feelings and reveal their most profound feelings for each
other. As a consequence of this emotional constipation, their
desires are frustrated, suspicions go unresolved, and their lives are
forever marred by the sour poison of unfulfilled passions. The
irony of all this is succinctly encapsulated in the closing seconds of
the film, with photographic stills completing the story, conveying the
broken, desolate future that lies ahead.
The feelings of the three protagonists are not directly expressed,
through dialogue, but revealed through lingering close-ups of the
actors' faces. How much mystery and emotion can be glimpsed in
the most expressive of nature's landscapes, the human visage...
Ray virtually tells the whole story in close-up, locking the camera
on to the faces of his three leading players and allowing their
character's potent but repressed feelings to slowly come through,
disrupting the placid surface like ripples on a stagnant lake.
The fluctuating moods of the characters are heightened by Subrata
Mitra's eloquent chiaroscuro cinematography. Note how, at the
start of the film, Charulata appears like a bird in a cage, mournful at
her imprisonment in what appears to be a loveless marriage. Then
notice how she appears when Amal enters her life and shares his love of
poetry with her. She is suddenly suffused with life, the world
around her possesses a radiance that makes her appear like a rare
flower in bloom. Charu's miraculous return from the dead is
vividly expressed in the sequence in which she flies back and forth on
a garden swing - a sequence which owes something to Jean Renoir's
Partie de campagne
(1936). The camera moves with Charu so that she appears static
and, as a result, we shares her exhilaration as the world surges past
her in a kaleidoscopic flurry of unbridled joy.
It is the powerful visual rendering of human feelings that makes
Charulata so moving and so
real. It transcends the conventional romantic melodrama and is an
altogether different kind of visual love poem. Its characters do
not betray their innermost desires through words or acts, but through
subtle, bearly perceptible facial expressions which expose their inner
turmoil. Superbly acted, stunningly photographed and
assembled with blistering lyrical power, this could well
be cinema's most perfectly realised tragic love story.
© James Travers 2010
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Next Satyajit Ray film:
Kapurush (1965)
Film Synopsis
Calcutta, 1879. Bhupati Dutta is the proprietor of a political
newspaper which is struggling to attract a readership. Whilst he
buries himself in his work, his wife Charulata languishes alone in
their large house, with nothing to do except give orders to servants
and read books. Noticing his wife's boredom, Bhupati
invites her elder brother Umapada and his wife Manda to live with
them. Whilst Umapada makes himself useful by managing Bhupati's
printing press, Manda tries to divert Charulata, without much
success. When Bhupati's younger cousin Amal pays a visit,
Bhupati asks him to encourage his wife to take up writing. A
recent graduate with literary ambitions of his own, Amal finds a
kindred spirit in Charulata, who shares his love of poetry and
music. What begins as a harmless friendship quickly develops into
something more serious and Charulata dreads the day when Amal will
leave her. Then disaster strikes. Bhupati discovers that
Umapada has been stealing his money, effectively bankrupting his
newspaper. Unable to betray his cousin at this moment of crisis,
Amal leaves without saying goodbye. Charulata is heartbroken when
she hears of this. Realising the feelings that his wife has for
Amal, Bhupati makes an attempt at reconciliation. But it is a
mere gesture...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.