A film review by Aryan Victor
Satyajit Ray’s Charulata is a bengali drama film that released in 1964 and acts as a representative of Ray’s entire body of work in current times . Charulata casts Madhabi Mukherjee as the main lead .
Charulata is adapted from a novel named Nashtanirh (The Broken Nest) which was written by Rabindranath Tagore. Charulata is based in the 19th century post first war for Independence era where India was under British colonial rule and it tells the story beautiful , elegant and sharp woman named Charulata. She is the wife of a respected upper class man named Bhupati. Bhupati is a liberal and often criticized the British and later makes an English newspaper which he names ‘The Sentinel’ which was done so that he can raise his voice against the malpractices of the british government in India. Due to his passion Bhupati is unable to give time to his wife but loves her dearly nonetheless and also seeks to flourish Charulata’s talents. Although being lonely Charulata still finds a way to pass her time by doing domestic chores and doing craft work as we see she customized a handkerchief for her husband .
The story takes a turn when Bhupati’s cousin Amal arrives who is fresh out of college but is very lazy and does not have any ambition other than his literary extraditions. Bhupati asks his brother with the responsibility of encouraging Charulata’s talents. Charulata and Amal become friends but as the days pass Charu begins to fall in love with Amal. Realizing this and scared to betray his brother , Amal runs away and leaves the city. Charu is shocked and feels rejected, and seeing her lBhupati slowly realizes the truth .Bhupati and Charulata are left to each other to rebuild their relationship back and bring back what once was .
The film has beautiful cinematography with long shots and tracking shots where Satyajit Ray is like a spectator in the lives of the people and we are seeing it from his own perspective . The camera tracks Charulata from one room to another room without any cuts . There are also very creative uses of camera moment as can be seen from the scene where Charulata is on a swing and the camera takes her point of view and moves in the motion of a swing and gives her a sense of freedom finally with light illuminating her soul . The visual storytelling is very prevalent in this film as from the start we see Charulata peeping outside her window watching people passing by moving from one room to another , singing a tune very silently . We never see her actually leave her house in the film and is like a bird caged in the house who although loved still longs for freedom . Charulata is lonely and bored , passing her times by doing chores , singing songs and also reading books . All of this is conveyed to us without the need of any dialogue or narration .The sound in the film is reminiscent of the culture of the place where the story is based in .
The Character in the film are played really well and the dialogue even being subtle, lays down extents of the internal thinking of the characters and what they are about . One example of this can be where Bhupati compares his work , his ambition to his wife , Charulata and even exclaims his work as competition for Charulata and even calls his ambition his second wife .
throughout the film , we are left completely hypnotized by Madhabi Mukherjee, who becomes Charulata and embodies her soul completely . Being lonely and having the company of her sister-in-law with whom she does not have a connection and cannot express herself infront of her , she prefers playing cards with her . From the start of the film Satyajit Ray makes us audience empathize with Charulata without a doubt in mind , we do not question her morals and character . Although her feelings are made evident and she herself finds freedom and is not ashamed of it, we are left cheering for her and this makes Charulata a film where we delve in the psyche of her character and left to study her completely
