Golden age of Indian Cinema: Charulatha (One film from the golden age) by Satyajit Ray

The Golden age of Indian cinema in the world market is still considered to be 1940's to 1960's by the historians of cinema which spread a ray of sunlight from east to the west through "Pather Panchali" and Appu Trilogy.

Satyajit Ray

Director, Producer, Screenwriter, Composer, Writer, Graphic DesignerBorn: May 2, 1921, Kolkata (Calcutta), IndiaDied: April 23, 1992, Calcutta, India
Satyajit Ray, standing 6'-4" tall, was a towering figure in the world of cinema. He studied at the university in Calcutta and later joined Shantiniketan, Rabindranath Tagore's university to study art. He began his career as a commercial artist (1943-56). He founded Calcutta's first film society in 1947 and made his first film, Pather Panchali (1955) while working at an advertising agency. Pather Panchali was an immediate success and won Grand Prix at the Cannes Festival. Pather Panchali with his Aparajito (1956, The Unvanquished) and Apur Sansar (1959, The World of Apu) are known as 'Apu Trilogy'. His later films include Jalsaghar (1958, The Music Room), Kanchenjunga (1962), Charulata (1964, The Lonely Wife), Ashanti Sanket (1973, Distant Thunder), The Chess Players (1977), The Home and The World (1984), Ganashatru (1989, Public Enemy), and Agantuk (1990, The Stranger).
Ray also edited Sandesh, a children's magazine and wrote numerous fiction and nonfiction works. In 1992 he received an honorary Academy Award. 

Every information about Satyajit Ray and his films is available in (www.satyajithray.org )

Eminent filmmaker of Hollywood like Martin Scorcese considers Satyajith Ray to be a master in films. Prevailing director Shoojith Sircar always tries to replicate one or the other aspect of Satyajith Ray cinema be it Piku or the conversation scene inside the house in Vicky donor. There are a lot of influences of Satyajith Ray in Indian cinema.

My viewpoints about the types of stories and how people could relate to that:

There are two types of stories which are told universally keeping the psychology of the audience in mind. As one is Relatability and the other is fantasy. Both work equally good with the audience. 

Satyajit Ray was more of a man of relatability than fantasy in films. As both the aspects of story telling are mixed in all stories which make it one step ahead in the minds of the audience. In some movies relatability will be more, in some fantasy would be more depending on person to person in an audience. This is the reason I think why love is the popular subject in films always. As for those who had been through the kind of love its relatability and for those who have not it's a great fantasy to enjoy. 

As fantasy doesn't always mean a story which is told in an unrealistic or mythological environment such as those of kings, demons, future, treasure etc. It can also be those experiences in life which an audience wants to get in life but is not getting and enjoys in the screen when the protagonist gets it empathizing with him through the story process.

Satyajit Ray was a man more of a relatability than fantasy in films which made his films always happen in the socio political environment. This created a vast movement in India influencing and inspiring lots of aspiring filmmakers to come with such subjects which are more of a relatability and the conditions during the period of 1940's to 1960's were such that there were a lot of stories evident everywhere in India main events were partition and after effects of partition in the film.

It's not that Satyajith Ray has not done unrealistic films of films with fantasy in it. As there are movies like "Shatranj KE Khiladi" or chess players and "Sonar Khela" which were not based on socio political events of the current period at that time. He still preferred to make a lot of relatable films.

As an audience, we can always grade on these aspects of relatability and fantasy to every story which is being told always and find why we liked the film and why the story is so outstanding to us.

Charulatha ( Indian film from the golden age)

Discussion on the film Charulatha taking story structure as reference:
A film adapted from a novel "Nastanirh" by Rabindranath Tagore is a beautiful tale of a lonely housewife in a middle-class Bengali family. 
I could really study a lot about the poetry in films through this movie experience. As it is said that poetry is the one which is untold but understood.
Relevance during this contemporary time: This is no doubt that this film is an extremely high of standards in its work and needs a total involvement from the side of the audience to get the flavor of the movie. For one moment I just asked this question to myself " Yes as a film student because there was nothing running in my mind at that time I could give my total involvement in the film, But would it be enjoyable to a person who is totally in a stress mode and wants a relief or to a person with mobile phone inside a theatre whose chat apps are making sound or vibrating"? 
Poetry is a thing which could be enjoyed when a person is totally involved in it. Otherwise, it's just not understandable. Hence As my personal conclusion to this question raised in my mind was that to make it more reachable to every audience we may have to reduce the poetry which directly resembles the internal and interpersonal conflicts in this film expressed in a subtle way or sometimes unexpressed but understood by everyone who is involved in the film. As to reduce the poetry if we make it into a more expressive format, I personally feel the beauty of the film will be gone. But we may get another movie altogether which would be not as outstanding as this one.

Set up: The first 10 minutes of the film clearly establishes the central character ie Charu Latha beautifully played by Madhabi Mukherjee, Big house with a wife looking everyone outside through binoculars for her entertainment was conveying enough the boredom she faces throughout the entire lonely day. As the scene where she is looking her husband through binocular was a poem which was composed by Subrata Mitra and Satyajit ray combination showing the husband in distance even through binocular representing all the other outsiders she saw through the binocular.

(example of a visual poetry)


It's after Ten minutes of no conversation there is a conversation between Charu and her husband Bhupati which is mainly about the indication that Charulatha's brother is going to join Bhupathi's newspaper as a manager. There is an indication of his character by Charulatha in the conversation. As that is going to cause an important event in the story after this. (termed as foreshadowing in cinematic terms)

Incident just before the Plot point 1. is when Amal (Bhupati's younger cousin) arrives at the house on a rainy day and following the incident, there is the first plot point where Bhupati asks Amal to support Charu's literary interests. As both have the same interests.

The first scene itself Amal's character is portrayed well. As we know he is a vibrant character and also fun loving and interactive ie totally contradictory to Bhupathy's character.

This gives the reason for Amal and Charu's further interaction and helps in the flow of the story.  Then there is motivation from both the side to write. Charulatha prepares a notebook for Amal to write something which should not be published. As she wanted herself only to be the audience of that work and after writing later during conversation Amal mentions about the work assigned by his brother to bring out Charu's literature which makes Charu upset. As she thought that Amal was showing a genuine interest in her and there are a lot of scenes which nicely Portray the developing relationship between Amal and Charu in the park without even coming close to each other.
Like the scene where Charu this time uses binocular but Amal appears lot more closer also the scene which reminds her of the motherhood which she was deprived of......

then the story progresses with him sending the essay he wrote on the book to a magazine which is published later and also a marriage proposal arriving for Amal during these days from abroad.
After the essay being published in the famous magazine raising the intellect of Charu motivates her to write a short story which is then published in a leading magazine.

this conversation where Charu bursts into tears holding Amal reveals the unsaid feelings which Charu had towards Amal to Amal. This fills him with guilt, then the other incident such as Bhupathi being betrayed by Charu's brother and the closing of printing press leads Amal to leave the place and slowly this develops an interaction of Bhupathi to his wife. As the newspaper printing is closed, he was able to spend more time with Charu. But accidentally Bhupathi comes to know about the feelings which Charu was having towards his younger cousin brother which makes him leave the place. But a kerchief embroidered by Charu makes him realize his part of mistake and he returns home. Films end with a scene where Bhupathi make a hesitant gesture to reach out, but their extended hands remain frozen in a tentative gesture.