One hadn't heard of this film, and came across it while going through Ravindra Sangeet, since this has one of the most mysterious, unmatched poems thereof.
The film itself surprises from the beginning, not unlike the maverick Moushumi Chatterji, the talented beauty who could do such complex roles with such ease, and had no ambition whatsoever.
This aspect of hers coupled with the ambitious competition deprived the audience of some far better possible performances, since the roles went to those that had gone after a career with a single minded competitive stride. Madam Souzatska comes to mind.
Still, there were a few, such as Mahananda in Hindi, based on a Marathi story about temple serving in Konkan, and this one. The shades of human nature and follies, the silent strength if the central character who is deprived of everything except in name, the assumptions of everyone else regarding thrir rights and powers, and her ability to flow through it all like a bubbling brook that yet can cut through stone, is all very impressive.
In one aspect, one might say the chief root of the theme in that if that factor had been different the story would be completely different, this film is very evocative of the very famous Chokher Bali - both stories begin, so to say, with a beautiful young woman of impressive intelligence and some learning (but not enough to make a living), in circumstances of dependence or almost dire poverty, suffer as a consequence of the refusal from the young man of wealth and more whom the proposal brought by his elders to marry her, only because he'stoo full of himself - he and she are, in fact, well matched, and subsequently when they do meet he falls head over heels in love with her, apart from the guilt that plagues him about being cause of ruining her life, since her misfortunes are chiefly due to his refusal to marry her and no real equally secure alternatives.
In this one, unlike in Chokher Bali, she has a living husband who is too sick to ever have been a husband yet, and so unlike in the other story she really isn't free to marry. Chokher Bali was written when a Hindu widow was just about being legally prevented from being burnt on her husband's funeral pyre, although the law wasnt as universally implemented successfully yet, and widow remarriage was a discussion that was throwing society in turmoil, with few women having yet been remarried. This film was several decades later, at a point of time when divorces were neither unheard of nor common, and the storyis set in a rural village surrounded by forests with urban life almost another planet. People do travel from cities to village, but they have to confirm, not disturb, not without consequences.
One of course wishes she had found her rights in the wealthy home she was denied due to the young man's caprice in refusing to marry her when the proposal was made, and his subsequent going after her to make it up to her with his determination to marry her if only she woukd agree, but perhaps it would be too easy a forgiveness for him, and an encouragement to the presumptions re the male's role of rescuing the poor, unfortunate, damsel in distress.
Still, it does seem like an end catering to the prejudices where a woman married only in name cannot decide to leave and marry someone else, because she's branded for life if not more, and making it her choice does not change that any more than calling a face cover a woman's choice.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MIGaa7GSDfw
The film itself surprises from the beginning, not unlike the maverick Moushumi Chatterji, the talented beauty who could do such complex roles with such ease, and had no ambition whatsoever.
This aspect of hers coupled with the ambitious competition deprived the audience of some far better possible performances, since the roles went to those that had gone after a career with a single minded competitive stride. Madam Souzatska comes to mind.
Still, there were a few, such as Mahananda in Hindi, based on a Marathi story about temple serving in Konkan, and this one. The shades of human nature and follies, the silent strength if the central character who is deprived of everything except in name, the assumptions of everyone else regarding thrir rights and powers, and her ability to flow through it all like a bubbling brook that yet can cut through stone, is all very impressive.
In one aspect, one might say the chief root of the theme in that if that factor had been different the story would be completely different, this film is very evocative of the very famous Chokher Bali - both stories begin, so to say, with a beautiful young woman of impressive intelligence and some learning (but not enough to make a living), in circumstances of dependence or almost dire poverty, suffer as a consequence of the refusal from the young man of wealth and more whom the proposal brought by his elders to marry her, only because he'stoo full of himself - he and she are, in fact, well matched, and subsequently when they do meet he falls head over heels in love with her, apart from the guilt that plagues him about being cause of ruining her life, since her misfortunes are chiefly due to his refusal to marry her and no real equally secure alternatives.
In this one, unlike in Chokher Bali, she has a living husband who is too sick to ever have been a husband yet, and so unlike in the other story she really isn't free to marry. Chokher Bali was written when a Hindu widow was just about being legally prevented from being burnt on her husband's funeral pyre, although the law wasnt as universally implemented successfully yet, and widow remarriage was a discussion that was throwing society in turmoil, with few women having yet been remarried. This film was several decades later, at a point of time when divorces were neither unheard of nor common, and the storyis set in a rural village surrounded by forests with urban life almost another planet. People do travel from cities to village, but they have to confirm, not disturb, not without consequences.
One of course wishes she had found her rights in the wealthy home she was denied due to the young man's caprice in refusing to marry her when the proposal was made, and his subsequent going after her to make it up to her with his determination to marry her if only she woukd agree, but perhaps it would be too easy a forgiveness for him, and an encouragement to the presumptions re the male's role of rescuing the poor, unfortunate, damsel in distress.
Still, it does seem like an end catering to the prejudices where a woman married only in name cannot decide to leave and marry someone else, because she's branded for life if not more, and making it her choice does not change that any more than calling a face cover a woman's choice.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MIGaa7GSDfw
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