Charulata (1964)
(The Lonely Wife)
Country: IND
Technical: bw 117m
Director: Satyajit Ray
Cast: Madhabi Mukherjee, Soumitra Chatterjee, Shailen Mukherjee, Gitali Roy
Synopsis:
The wife of a Calcutta newspaper editor has every comfort and a beautiful home but is neglected by her husband, who thinks only of politics. When his ne'er-do-well brother comes to help with the accounts, he brings his wife and cousin, with whom the lady of the house gradually forms an attachment.
Review:
Ray's favourite among his own films is a chamber piece involving three lost souls: the wife, Charu, who dreams of another life, other feelings, the cousin-in-law, who wants anything except to settle but rejoices in beauty and frivolity, and the husband, who is an idealist cozened by everyone. The final images are freeze-frames, as if the characters are frozen in their unhappiness. The film is truly a thing of beauty, the faces, especially Charu's, held in long close-up as we read into their thoughts, the camera tracking, zooming, at times even swinging and bobbing, in tune with their movement about the galleried house and garden. Ray's music is a repeated figure, circling around a fixed note until the mood is broken, like the progress of the story towards its traumatic conclusion.
(The Lonely Wife)
Country: IND
Technical: bw 117m
Director: Satyajit Ray
Cast: Madhabi Mukherjee, Soumitra Chatterjee, Shailen Mukherjee, Gitali Roy
Synopsis:
The wife of a Calcutta newspaper editor has every comfort and a beautiful home but is neglected by her husband, who thinks only of politics. When his ne'er-do-well brother comes to help with the accounts, he brings his wife and cousin, with whom the lady of the house gradually forms an attachment.
Review:
Ray's favourite among his own films is a chamber piece involving three lost souls: the wife, Charu, who dreams of another life, other feelings, the cousin-in-law, who wants anything except to settle but rejoices in beauty and frivolity, and the husband, who is an idealist cozened by everyone. The final images are freeze-frames, as if the characters are frozen in their unhappiness. The film is truly a thing of beauty, the faces, especially Charu's, held in long close-up as we read into their thoughts, the camera tracking, zooming, at times even swinging and bobbing, in tune with their movement about the galleried house and garden. Ray's music is a repeated figure, circling around a fixed note until the mood is broken, like the progress of the story towards its traumatic conclusion.
(The Lonely Wife)
Country: IND
Technical: bw 117m
Director: Satyajit Ray
Cast: Madhabi Mukherjee, Soumitra Chatterjee, Shailen Mukherjee, Gitali Roy
Synopsis:
The wife of a Calcutta newspaper editor has every comfort and a beautiful home but is neglected by her husband, who thinks only of politics. When his ne'er-do-well brother comes to help with the accounts, he brings his wife and cousin, with whom the lady of the house gradually forms an attachment.
Review:
Ray's favourite among his own films is a chamber piece involving three lost souls: the wife, Charu, who dreams of another life, other feelings, the cousin-in-law, who wants anything except to settle but rejoices in beauty and frivolity, and the husband, who is an idealist cozened by everyone. The final images are freeze-frames, as if the characters are frozen in their unhappiness. The film is truly a thing of beauty, the faces, especially Charu's, held in long close-up as we read into their thoughts, the camera tracking, zooming, at times even swinging and bobbing, in tune with their movement about the galleried house and garden. Ray's music is a repeated figure, circling around a fixed note until the mood is broken, like the progress of the story towards its traumatic conclusion.