I know this is not the right place to put this but sorry there isn’t a Bengali Film section under the Indian Regional Section of films, I had requested for the section through MouthPad but… I can’t wait to share my views on the film Chokher Bali, with all of you here in MS, so I write here… I am sorry for making it difficult for the MS content management team, being into web development and site maintenance I can understand how irritating it is to find wrong content in wrong place, I am sorry!!!, Please create the Bengali Film section
The culturally active, film crazy Bengal, today eagerly yearns for its contemporary award winning directors to come up with their latest flicks. Once the making of Chokher Bali was announced it became the talk of the town and specially with glamour lady Aishwarya Rai playing the lead role it roused many brows and became a more awaited spectacle for the Bengali household. A combination of Bengal’s passion and prime possession Rabindranath Tagore’s classics and modern day celluloid was finally dished out to the people on an auspicious day, the Saptami, the first day of the 2003 Durga Festival.
The Film - The Action
The classic has been well adapted in the film. The cast melted well within the characters, Aishwarya didn’t look like Ash but seemed more like Binodini, so did Ashalata, Mahendra nad Behari.
Other than Ash and Raima the rest of the cast were from the Bengali film and TV arena. I feel this brought out the best from all the cast members and each one of them would cherish their performances in this film for the years to come. Ash didn’t look artificial like she did in Devdas, draped in yards of silk, here she was more realistic in white throughout. Raima also gave her so far best performance as the naïve childish wife of Mahendra. The cinematography, music, art and other technical aspects has been as per expectations from a Rituparno film just like his previous award winners.
The Film - A Passion Play
The story is mainly about inter-human relationships and psychological warfare among the characters during the early 20th century colonial Bengal. A story about relationship struggle, the struggle of a woman to rise above the ages old bonding of so called tradition and to acquire freedom for self identity and sexuality on one hand and India’s struggle for freedom from British rule on the other. The four main characters Binodini, Mahendra, Ashalata and Behari are caught amongst such intermingling emotional situations. Binodini, highly educated young woman rejected by Mahendra and his friend Behari, is married off to an ailing man who succumbs to his illness soon after the marriage to leave Binodini to lead the hardships of widowhood. Mahendra marries a naive young girl while Behari indulges himself to the freedom struggle. Their smooth running lives turn turbulent with the entry of Binodini into their household. Binodini very quickly befriends with Mahendra’s kiddish wife Asha and with her enormous charm, intelligence, attraction and sensuality woes the two men and draws them towards herself resulting in the breakage of Asha’s marriage and household. In the end she dejects both the men and moves forward to lead her own life.
Thought Provoking
I have always felt how could Tagore visualize and pen down the feelings of a woman at that time, which even today’s woman would actually keep to herself. His thoughts and views ran so modern that even today we may find ourselves way behind his visualized period. No wonder even today he rules our heart with his literature, songs, poems or essays.
Behind the Camera - Rituparno Ghosh
After the demise of legendary Ray and the old pillars like Mrinal Sen cutting down on their number of films it had created a vacuum in the field of contemporary good quality Bengali films. The audiences resented from visiting the theatres to glimpse the latest Bengali films but with the emergence of directors like Rituparno Ghosh, Aparna Sen, Gautam Ghosh to name a few and their quality work actually pulled out the audiences back to the theatres. Rituparno Ghosh, a man not very popular for his appearances or personality but known for his eloquent Kurtas and Uttariyos always came out with the best of the celluloid creativity and brought out the best performances from his unconventional cast.
Some of his good films –
Unishey April (19th April) - starring Aparna Sen and Debashree Roy
Dahan - starring Indrani Halder and Rituparna Sengupta
Bariwali – starring Kiron Kher, Sudipta Chakraborty
Titli – starring Aparna Sen, Mithun Chakraborty and Kankona Sensharma
Utsab and of course Chokher Bali to list a few…