Chokher Bali literally translates into ’Sand in the Eye.’ Nobody needs to be told how irritating it is when there’s a dust particle in the eye. Fear not, ’coz this movie is a pleasure for the eyes. Yes, the most striking thing about this film is its visual appeal. The credit probably is due to the Art Director (Bibi Roy) and the cinematographer (Aveek Mukhopadhyay), besides the director (Rituparno Ghosh) of course.
Rewind time by a century or half, take a piece of classic, put in an abundant amount of glitz, rope in a couple of doe-eyed nymphets, and bingo, you’ve got a ’hit’ to mesmerize the masses. That seems to be the order of the day. But this one is different.
There’s another genre of period films. The ones that take reality to extremes. To such extremes that gloominess descends upon the unsuspecting viewers like thick black smoke. In this genre, every silver lining has a cloud! But Chokher Bali doesn’t fall in this category either. Apparently, during the initial discussions with the director, Ash asked, ’’Will I have to shave my head?’’
Take heart, gentle reader, for Ash didn’t have to shave her head. In fact, she looks as beautiful as ever, if not more. (That’s not saying that Ash won’t look good sans hair). So what if she plays a widow? Ash’s beauty easily outshines the naive appeal of the young and pretty Ashalata (played by Raima Sen). That, however, is not downplaying the acting abilities of Raima. Her portrayal of the character is so real that she would give any established actress (or actor for that matter) a good sprint for her money.
Set in early twentieth century Bengal, Chokher Bali is based on Rabindranath Tagore’s novel of the same name. Written at a time when Bengal was witnessing political turbulence, this novel takes the metaphor of turbulence right into a upper middle class household. Relationships are not black & white here. Thanks to Binodini’s (Aishwarya Rai) sharp looks and even sharper wit & intelligence, relationships take on various shades of gray, sometimes wicked, sometimes enchanting, always intriguing. Mahendra (Played by Prosenjit Chatterjee) and Behari (played by Toto Roychowdhury) bring in the necessary amount of testosterone. No, I’m not going to give out the story here. Two men, two women, complex triangles- sounds like a Bollywood potboiler, but calling this film a ’potboiler’ is as grave a sin as calling a tiger vegetarian.
Now why was this film made in Bengali? ’’The subject of Chokher Bali is such, making it in any other language other than Bengali would’ve been improper, ’’ says the director. There is a lot of truth in that statement. I’m reminded of Devdas where the director (Sanjay Leela Bhansali) tried his best to portray the ethos of the times through Hindi which, I daresay, did not actually work wonders. Ghosh has done the intelligent thing by sticking to the language of the land where the drama takes place. Chokher Bali is one of those very rare films which do complete justice to the original story. Tagore, had he been alive today, would’ve hugged Rituparno Ghosh.
In a nutshell, go watch the movie, but if you don’t follow the language, know that some subtleties will go unnoticed. English subtitles are not always deft at depicting subtleties. Also be prepared for a little bit of stretch in the latter part of the movie. And what has ’sand in the eye’ got to do with the story? That, I’m afraid, you’ll have to find out by watching the film.