I used to wonder, why ppl cry when they watch movies.
baby this movie made me cry, I used to get upset or felt bad but this movie made me cry .
yes watery eyes
now I am writing a review about this but before that I must say one thing
I am always afraid of going to the theaters to watch bollywood mnovies simply cuz most of them are trash these days, and the ticket to the multiplex ranges form 100 to 250, excluding the gold coated popcorn and the straight from heaven beverages
but I have no regretions whatsoever when I went for this movie and I was happy to see that almost 70 percent seates were full
anyways heres the review
this movie begins with a horse cariage carrying a sick man, with his mother and a young girl, barely 8 yrs old, munching a sugarcane,
the next scene is the girl is at the bank of ganges and her head is being shaved off, the way it was shown was really bizzare, didnt seem painful but disappointing and cruelly slow
she is then forced inside a widow * ashram * by her in laws[probably]
she is seen screaming to want her mother.
her name is chuhiya, which at best can be taken as a nickname, she was so young to even have a proepr and official name
in the ashram she meets Madhumati [manorama], the fat wicked women, the slef proclaimed leader who imposed herself on everyone, while evrybody barely got rice and lentils, she gobbled fried food and occasionally sweets brought to her by the eunuch Gulabo[raghuveer yadav]
gulabo was also the pimp for kalyani[lisa ray]
who surprisingly had long hair while evrybody else, including madhumati had shaved head, it was to protect her sex apeal
also she met shakuntala, the tough and frustrated middle aged widow, who often saved chuhiya from the fury of madhumati.
chuhiya befreinds with kalyani, who lived on the 1st floor, and unlike the gloomy dames of the ashram, was playful and a bit juvenile
she kept a dog, which she said was not allowed
another notable character that I really liked was of Buaa, she was bended old women, almost 90 yrs old, who fantasized about her childhood memories, she too got widowed in an early age like chuhiya, [infact it seemed that most widows in the ashram, including madhumati were either childhood widows or just after 1 or2 yrs of marriage.]
Buaa’s all conversations used to end up in her poetic description of her wedding’s menu, and how she drooled over then and was scolded by her mother
their regular routine included going to the ganges in the morning, and collect alms given by ppl, they often went to an old and not so bright priest kulbhushan kharbanda, whom chuhiya once questioned abt where does a widowed man goes.
chuhiya and kalyani took their dog for a bathe in ganges cuz he had ticks, there they met narayan[john abraham]
who was an educated, khadi clad[gandhi’s follower], slightly revolutiuonist young man, who just returned hoke after his graduation
the whole atmosphere of this movie is in the 1930’s where new laws introduced about widow remarriage, and gandhi’s reforms about harijans
when shakuntala[seema biswas] came to know abt the remariage law, she thought of marrying again but upon realising she was too old for that, she thought at least kalyani should get married[she was already under doubt that kalyani was having an affair]
meanwhile chuhiya brought a laddu for Buaa, who gobbled up instantly and found her salvation,
her cremation became and issue cuz she barely had any belongings, there kalyani offered money from her "savings" which she earned by forced prostitution by madhumati.
narayan talks to hisparents about him marrying a widow, his father says he has no problem \but his mother is infuriated, but lator when he realises that his father was dejected upon the fact the widow was from a local ashram, [it was lator revealed he was on of kalyani’s cutsomers]
while his mother supports him in the end
the news of kalyani getting married reaches madhumati, who forcefully shaves her head and locks her up in her room. shakuntala opposes this and breaks the lock, madhumati has no choice but to follow what the majority had decided.
when narayan was taking kalyani to his house in a boat, kalyani realises that she has been to the house before to "serve"
she forces return, and lator in the night commits suicide
narayan and shakuntala are devastated, so is chuhiya,
narayn decides to leave home and join gandhi ji’s movement
shakuntala is thuderstruck further when a few days lator she found that madhumati sent chuhiya for "work" with gulabo
she rushes to the ganges bank at midnight and requests the boatmen to take her to the city
she spots gulabo with an unconscious chuhiya on their way back, gulabo flees leaving chuhiya there.
menawhile gandhiji was supposed to address the people at the railway station, shakuntala aty once took chuhiya there, but the place was too crowded and she could not reach gandhiji,
the train starts moving she runs after the train, and spots narayan in one of the bogies, she hands over chuhiya to him and the movie ends with a sad but contended shakuntala standing alone at the station
the movie was not altogether perfect, ]
one it was shot in sri lanka and not in banaras, but the oeverall treatment of the city is acceptable, though the rituals shown at the funeral of Bua, I never saw one of those in north india, they are probably south indian rituals
the only weakness I felt was in the dialogue delievery of Lisa Ray, she is poor in hindi, but its a good thing she chose to be more expressive, than talkitive,
sima biswas, manorama, and raguveer yadav being veteran actors were good as usual
but the surprise was john abraham who proved that he has skills beyond the topless hunk of DHOOM and JISM
also worth mentioning is Chuhiya, who with her natural talent was one of the best