Satyajit Ray - Ghare-Baire aka The Home and the World (1984)

1905. Winter. Bengal, India. The period of British rule in India. Following the 'divide-and-rule' policy, Lord Curzon has decided to partition Bengal; one for Hindus and another for Muslims. The people launch a nationalist movement - Swadeshi, appealing for a boycott of foreign-made goods. The movement is symbolised by public burning of foreign-made goods, mainly the British textiles. Bimala (Swatilekha Chatterjee) is the wife of a landlord-king Nikhil (Victor Banerjee) who has had a Western education in England and has liberal views. She is content to live in seclusion of her inner apartments and has no desire to break the custom to explore the outside world. Nikhil is the only man she has ever interacted with. She met him first on their wedding day. Nikhil wants her to come out of Purdah into the outside world. They share a loving relationship, but he convinces her that he will never know if she really loves him unless she has opportunity to meet others and prefers him over other men. At his coaxing, she begins to take lessons from an English governess, and takes the symbolic walk down the corridor to the outside world for the first time...







Ghare-Baire is adapted from a Rabindranath Tagore novel by the same title. The novel is based on Tagore's own experiences as a Swadeshi leader. During this period, Tagore composed many songs for the cause. Sandip sings one such song in the film.Central to the film is the changing character of Bimala. She moves from total seclusion to acting recklessly with courage. Like in Charulata (The Lonely Wife, 1964), Ray explores the emergence of the modern woman by moving away from the traditional expectations.









El Mundo de Bimala
Basada en una novela de Rabindranath Tagore, la acción transcurre en 1907, dos años después de que el virrey de la India, Lord Curzon, decretase la fatídica división de Bengala en Occidental (actual estado de la India) y Oriental (actual Bangla-Desh), este último pasaba a ser adminstrado por una mayoría musulmana. Bimala es una esposa tradicional que saldrá del espacio físico asignado a la mujer dentro de su casa, animada por su marido Nikhil, un intelectual a contracorriente. Nikhil presentará su mujer a Sandip, un carismático lider nacionalista, que permanece invitado en casa de los Choudhury. Pero muy pronto Bimala se enamorará de Sandip.








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