A Passion Play Director: Rituparno Ghosh Country: India Year: 2003

CAST:
Aishwarya Rai, Raima Sen, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Tota Raychaudhuri

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Based on a short story by Bengali writer Rabindranath Tagore (winner of the 1913 Nobel Prize for literature and the source of many of Satyajit Ray’s works), Rituparno Ghosh’s exquisite Chokher Bali, A Passion Play takes its title from the nicknames two women – one a widow, the other a pampered bride – use to describe one another, an ironic phrase meaning “grit” or “dust in the eye.” The film is set in early twentieth-century Calcutta, where nothing is more upsetting than the presence of a widow. And the key widow in question, the educated and sharp-tongued Binodini, is nothing if not a disquieting presence.

The film focuses on an extended household that includes the widowed Bakul, her roguish birth son Mahendra and her adopted son Behari, who is bookish and fragile. Bakul does her best to marry Binodini to Mahendra, but he rejects her and decides to steal his bride from Behari, preferring the childish and inexperienced Ashalata. Mahendra’s sexual infatuation with the kittenish Ashalata drives Bakul out of the house – she returns with the recently-widowed Binodini (she accepted a proposal from a much older man) in tow. Binodini immediately wins over Ashalata, who has never met anyone quite like her. Soon enough, Binodini has also charmed both men.

Chokher Bali focuses on the perverse dynamics of this particular household, while clearly playing off the period, contrasting the first Indian nationalist stirrings against British rule with the battle for individual freedom.

Beautifully directed and acted (most notably by Devdas heroine Aishwarya Rai, who gives a truly layered and touching performance as Binodini), Chokher Bali features a recurring signature shot that should go down in the annals of Indian cinema: most of the crucial action is filmed from a stairwell, presumably from the perspective of the women who aren’t allowed to venture downstairs. Though more measured and classical than A Nation Without Women (also screening in this year’s Festival), Chokher Bali is every bit as incensed at the sexist dynamics of contemporary society. It’s a beautifully wrought piece from one of the most adept makers of Indian cinema.

– Steve Gravestock

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