Suchitra Film Society, in association with Kelo Rasika, this weekend, presents a mixed melange of movies. Each of these three highly accoladed films spotlight on the women and their status in the social setting they find themselves in.
The three-day cinematic sojourn beginning Friday (June 22, 6.45 pm) kicks off with renowned Bengal cinema maestro Satyajit Ray’s Charulata (The Lonely Wife). Based on short novella ‘Nastanirh’ (The Broken Nest) by Poet Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, and set during social reform movement Calcutta of late 19th century, at the height of British rule, it revolves around Charu, childless and beautiful wife of Bhupati. Interested in arts, literature and poetry, Charu is a neglected and bored upperclass wife, for, though Bhupati loves her, he has no time for her, as he is immersed in his political ambitions and editing journal, The Sentinal.
Into her ennui driven life comes brother-in-law Amal, young, handsome, who shares her interests in poetry, providing her with much needed intellectual companionship and attention, which eventually leads to an intimate relationship. Ray’s favourite, Charulata, is a haunting portrait which explores the emergence of modern woman showing with striking sensitivity pressures this new ideal placed on individual educated women whose self-identities were also moulded by traditional expectations and restrictions placed on them. Saturday (6.45 pm) sees renowned Russian film-maker Andrei Tarkovsky’s semi-autobiographical work, Mirror, an introspective and meditative journey of a man in his 40s who goes on a nostalgic trip and muses upon his troubled relationships with his wife in the past and mother in the present. Tarkovsky tells the tale of a Russian nation as the man cruises through his childhood, his mother, the war, personal moments and reflects upon human existence, hope and despair, success and frailty, which is a reflection of an haunted soul in his search for spirituality and lost human connection.
The weekend outing closes Sunday (5 pm) with Kannada cinema’s iconic director Girish Kasarvalli’s 1977 award-winning directorial essay Ghatashraddha based on eminent Kannada writer U R Ananthamurthy’s novella. Set in the 20s rural orthodox Brahmin village in Karnataka, the film, is a huanting and heart wrenching tale of a child widow seen through eyes of an young boy. How the young, attractive widow’s indiscretion with a teacher resulting in her pregnancy and leads to her social boycott and proclamation as dead for all practical purposes as far as society is concerned can be seen at Suchitra Film Society, Banashankari II Stage. For details call 26711785 / 9900399579 (Venkatesh) / 94484543457 (Shashidhara).
