Chokher Bali

It's based on a 1902 novel by Rabindranath Tagore, called 'Binodini'. Can be called a story of drama and deceit, or sensuality and its denial. Rituparno Ghosh's tagline says 'passion play' which it is, whichever way you look at it.

It's set in Bengal of pre-partition times, and the period element of the movie makes a beautiful backdrop to what plays out in the old Bengali household.

Binodini (Aishwarya Rai) a widow comes to live as companion to a matriarch of a wealthy household.  An added twist is that her son Mahendra (Prasanjeet Chatterji) and his close friend Behari had both rejected a proposal of Binodini in the arrogance of youth, by not even having bothered to look at her picture. And now, while Mahendra is just married and yet besotted by his new wife, he can't resist the sensuous and seductive Binodini.

There's parallely a nice friendship that develops between Ashalatha, (Raima Sen) the wife and Binodini, they call each other chokher bali (sand in the eye). But the friendship falls victim to the passion between Mahendra and Binodini. Raima Sen did a wonderful job of the naive but mature Ashalatha who defends her friend against her husband, holds him responsible for the affair, and not Binodini. She yet can't take the betrayal, and leaves for Kasi.

 

It's hard to figure out Binodini's character, she's this complex character; articulate, intelligent, non conformist, and parts which seemed genuine want or was it shaded with a tinge of revenge, or maybe both. Intriguing for sure.

There is also his close friend Behari, a confirmed bachelor who makes up the menage e quatre, and while actually being in love with Ashalatha, at some point also gets attracted to Binodini. 

Mahendra and Behari are yet thinking of how they will resolve their emotions, their situations, plus deal with the social taboo of marrying a widow, when the story takes a turn as Binodini takes decisions into her own hands and puts to end any possibilities. 

Guess she says it all, when she says she is defined by three identities, a woman, english educated and a widow, so her own deeper self, and her sensuality is denied her. 

The passionate story apart, the movie is lush and languorous, moves slowly over three hours with elaborate settings and luxuriant detail of period living. It's one of those movies you want to have in your list of seens.

Also, I'd read a long time back that Tagore had in later life said he really wished he had ended the story differently. Makes one curious.