Charulata (1964)

Satyajit Ray’s sublime portrait of a bored housewife living in 19th-century Bengal.

Satyajit Ray’s own favourite of his films, Charulata, is set in late 19-century Bengal and boasts a marvellously vital Victorian heroine: Charulata, spellbindingly portrayed by Madhabi Mukherjee, is beautiful, intellectual and dangerously bored.

Racing from window to window in her vast, ornate mansion, Charulata spies hungrily on the outside world through opera glasses. Her wealthy husband Bhupati (Sailen Mukherjee), the high-minded editor of a political journal, is too preoccupied with the latest tax legislation and the forthcoming English election (Disraeli v Gladstone) to pay much attention to his wife. Somewhat unwisely, he invites his charming younger cousin Amal (Soumitra Chatterjee, who previously starred in Ray’s The World of Apu) to come and keep her company. An aspiring writer who shares Charulata’s passion for poetry, Amal is keen to encourage her literary talent...

This is a household of seething, suppressed emotions, subtly revealed by Subrata Mitra’s eloquent camera. A richly atmospheric soundtrack – bird song, horses’ hooves, the cry of the kulfi vendor – evokes the wider world, while Ray’s wistful score and the romantic songs beloved of Charulata and Amal heighten the sense of longing.

Adapted from a 1901 novella, Nastanirh (The Broken Nest) by the great Bengali writer Rabindranath Tagore, Charulata was described by its director as “the one film I would make the same way if I had to do it again”.

Enthusiastically received at home and abroad, Charulata was awarded the Silver Bear for Best Direction at the Berlin Film Festival of 1965.

1964 India
Directed by
Satyajit Ray
Produced by
R.D. Bansal
Written by
Satyajit Ray
Featuring
Soumitra Chatterjee, Madhabi Mukherjee, Sailen Mukherjee
Running time
124 minutes

Ranked in The Greatest Films of All Time poll

Sight and Sound

Who voted for Charulata

Critics

V.K. Cherian
India
Jesse Cumming
Canada
Caroline Fournier
Switzerland
Devika Girish
USA/India
Adam Hyman
USA
Alexia Kannas
Australia
Philip Kemp
UK
Nellie Killian
USA
Eva Markovits
France
Dominique Nasta
Belgium
Naman Ramachandran
UK/India
Baradwaj Rangan
India
Cary Rajinder Sawhney
UK
Peter Scarlet
USA/Abu Dhabi
Meenakshi Shedde
India
Sanjeev Verma
India
Jake Wilson
Australia

Directors

Arby Ovanessian
France / Iran
Saim Sadiq
Pakistan

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