Indian Film Culture - 16.cdr - federation of film societies of india

It is in Mahanagar that for the first time, we
come across a woman who is awakened to the
possibility of determining the course of her own
life. Typically enough the awakening touch
comes from the husband, for men have been
traditional liberators of women. But
traditionally, too, they have retracted when they
have seen consequences of their action. Aarati is
unable to exert herself in her brief freedom, but
she has had a glimpse of a world where she is
somebody in her own right. When she resigns
from her job – her one act of protest-it is in
obedience not to her husband's wish, but to her
own impulsive fellow-feeling for the Anglo-
Indian girl who is unjustly dismissed. Ironically
enough, in this act she also gives up the freedom
she has won. Somebody, protesting against this
thesis, said that “as for her rights, Aarati is
perverted.” So she is; the adjustment to a sudden
inner feeling of economic independence is not
easy. It comes out in little awkward ways which
add to the truth of the situation.
But I find Ray's first essay on Indian woman
tentative and unsure of itself. The characters are
not seen sufficiently from the inside, and there is
an excessive dependence (itself uncharacteristic
of Ray) on outward incident. The meeting under
the doorway, when the husband says “Do not
worry, it is a vast city and one of us is bound to
find a job,” provides too pat a solution for a
problem which will continue to plague us for a
long time to come. And it is unlike Ray to seek
such four-square solutions; his films are much
11
Mahanagar
better when they are what people call openended.
The sureness of touch is much more evident in
Charulata, and because Ray understands of
character is perfect, everything falls into place.
Charulata is observed entirely from the inside.
–obsessively so, in fact, with the result that we
do not see into the minds of the men. Except
when he breaks down in the carriage, Bhupati is
more of a type than a character-the agreeable
'young Bengal' liberal of the 19th century,
affluent, idealistic, touching in his innocence
and lack of self-consciousness. Amal, too,
reveals himself only in the scene in the press
room after the robbery, where, standing in the
half-light behind the brother, he awakens to the
truth of his situation. His inner conflict
elsewhere is so muted as to be missed almost
completely by many people.
Charulata
But where Charulata herself is concerned, every
thought in her mind is clearly visible. In
Madhabi Mukherjee, Ray found the
embodiment of a certain type of Indian women,
just as he had found the man in Soumitra
Chatterjee, Deeply intelligent , sensitive,
outwardly graceful and serene, inwardly she is
the kind of traditional Indian woman of today
whose inner seismograph catches the vibration
waves reaching from outside into her seclusion.
The world outside is changing, and down in the
drawing-room English 19th century social
philosophy and Ram Mohun Roy ideas
inevitably working towards the liberation of
women.
June 2012
Indian Film Culture