evening1
I love character-driven film, but this glacially paced work is far too subtle for my tastes. I am a huge fan of director Satyajit Ray, and his Apu trilogy, "The Music Room," and "The Home and the World" are among some of the best films I've ever seen. However, "Charulata" seemed to me a soap opera crafted by an Ingmar Bergman wannabe. I was surprised, given Ray's obvious talents. We have the story here of a very unhappy housewife, a privileged woman married as a child bride to a significantly older man with whom she has nothing in common. One day along comes her "cousin-in-law," an age peer who shares her love of reading, singing, and not being particularly industrious. Over time, it seems that Charulata takes quite a liking to this man, who provides some respite from her brain-numbing lassitude. She takes to hoping that, even though he is single and talented, he will never leave her gilded cage. One day, she loses herself to this sentiment and clings to the man, who shuns her with an icy "Let go of me!" Suddenly, Charulata's husband realizes that there are problems in the marriage and he attempts a radical personality change. I didn't buy a bit of it and it's irking that Ray seems to think I would.I am amazed that the often astute reviewers of imdb consider this a masterpiece.
treywillwest
I've never before been so impressed with Ray's use of camera movement. He and DP Subrata Mitra create master shots that become close-ups with a subtle virtuosity that both impresses without aesthetically forcing itself on the fragile drama of the narrative. Close-ups are, indeed, imperative to this film. It's all about the repressed desires of the subjects of 19th century, colonialized India, and the most profound and intimate impulses of its characters are never stated but communicated through facial expressions. The acting, in this respect, is extraordinary, especially from Madhabi Mukherjee, who plays the title character, a house wife of a workaholic husband who possesses an unexplored literary gift which is ignited by her attraction to her husband's poet cousin. The lighting is also exceptional. Ray and Mitra create motion pictures that look like the still photographs of the film's temporal setting. Shots that depict two characters highlight the longing, and distance, between the figures. Ray's use of still frames to semi-tell of moments of extreme intimacy feel all the more natural as a result of the lighting scheme.
berfedd
Plot: In 1890s India, a wife's relationship with her cousin-in-law disrupts the stability of the whole household.Review: The first ten minutes of this movie are simply of bored housewife, Charulata (Madhabi Mucherjee), wandering about her apartment. It is mesmerising. Other characters appear one by one, all members of her extended family. A male cousin-in-law is something of a soul mate, and they mutually encourage each other to start writing as a pastime, but when he decided to publish his work relationships subtly change.Actually, I wasn't always exactly sure what was going on. I think there were some cultural subtexts at play that I am not at privy to. I was afraid that I might have picked up something tedious, but it was nothing of the sort. It is a beautiful movie. There is a humour and lightness of touch that is very refreshing. I particularly liked the contrast between the newspaper editor husband who clearly takes his work very seriously, and the lack of fulfilment or focus in other people's lives around him. Acting, cinematography, lighting, sound, locations, shot composition, all are done so well, and the story is accessible enough to make it enjoyable to any audience. It's the kind of movie that leaves a pleasurable feeling afterwards, knowing that one has watched something of quality, even if one is not exactly sure why.
Camoo
Satyajit Ray is so good at staging his scenes from inside the minds of his characters, and I think it is why he was so successful at crossing over to foreign audiences - his empathy for the people behind his characters. He always reached to get beyond the simple exchange of dialog - watching a Ray film is watching him carefully invade the mind of his creations. Their flaws, their desires, their loves all seem so universal coming from his camera. The photography is one of the greatest joys of Charulata, as in most of his films - the camera feels so free, so unbound to any set formula or rule of how to operate it, the joy of the operator (Ray himself) so apparent. It glides throughout all of his films, playing the eyes of some omniscient presence the characters are sometimes semi aware of. We are jolted when they look into the camera and sing, but because we have been already lulled into his world it feels completely natural that they would sing to us. Charulata is slower, more obtuse than some of Ray's earlier films, and it feels longer. I was underwhelmed by the story, which I felt took too many left turns. But Charulata is a persistently fascinating film, particularly the almost out-of-body performance by Soumitra Chatterjee.
AD
