The Home and The World (Ray, 1984): BFI Southbank, NFT3, 8.20pm
This 35mm presentation (also being screened on August 21st) is part of the Satyajit Ray season at BFI Southbank (details here).
BFI review:
Ray turned to
the work of Rabindranath Tagore one last time for this stately romantic
drama, which could be read as a late-period companion piece to
Charulata. The tension inherent in the film’s title finds expression in
the relationship between the thoughtfully reserved Nikhil (Victor
Banerjee) and his wife Bimala (Swatilekha Sengupta), whom he encourages
to broaden her cultural and political horizons. His friend Sandip
(Soumitra Chatterjee) is a charismatic nationalist into whose seductive
orbit Bimala is steadily drawn. The
central love triangle is the vehicle for Ray to explore the
complexities of early-20th century history, forging a microcosm of
India’s relationship with the west in the years following the Partition
of Bengal. If the film’s political specificity can sometimes feel
elusive, there are no such obstacles to embracing its high tragedy, or
the ravishing textures of Soumendu Roy’s colour photography. Despite the
similarities, shorn of the earlier film’s lyricism, The Home and the
World is a much darker, psychologically impermeable work than Charulata,
and perhaps the greatest of Ray’s later years.
Matthew Thrift
Here (and above) is the trailer.
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