Charulata

Charulata (1964)

চারুলতা

In 1870s India, Charulata is an isolated, artistically inclined woman who sees little of her busy journalist husband, Bhupati. Realizing that his wife is alienated and unhappy, he convinces his cousin, Amal, to spend time with Charulata and nourish her creative impulses. Amal is a fledgling poet himself, and he and Charulata bond over their shared love of art.

Date of release
1964-04-17
TMDB
7.5 / 10 (159)
Runtime
1h 57m
Genres
Drama, Romance
Director
Satyajit Ray

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Based on: Nastanirh
  • Awards: 2 · Nominations: 0. Including: National Film Award for Best Feature Film; Silver Bear for Best Director

Charulata is a 1964 Indian drama film written and directed by Satyajit Ray. Based on Rabindranath Tagore's novella Nastanirh, it stars Soumitra Chatterjee, Madhabi Mukherjee, and Shailen Mukherjee. The film is widely regarded as one of Ray's finest works.

Production

Charulata is based on the 1901 novella Nastanirh (The Broken Nest) by Bengali author Rabindranath Tagore. Ray later said that he liked the novella because "it has a western quality to it and the film obviously shares that quality. That's why I can speak of Mozart in connection with Charulata quite validly."

On the occasion of the birth centenary of Ray, senior journalist B.M. Hanif of Prajavani newspaper reported that speculations were rife at the time of the film's release that the story was based on the lives of Rabindranath Tagore, his brother Jyotirindranath Tagore (who was 12 years older than Rabindranath), and his sister-in-law Kadambari Devi (who was two years older than Rabindranath), considering the fact that the story takes place in 1879–1…

Ray spent many months researching the film's historical setting, working for the first time in his career without a deadline for either pre-production or the shoot. None of the film's interior scenes were shot on location, and Ray worked closely with art director Bansi Chandragupta to build or remodel all of the sets to accurately portray India in the 1880s. Ray once called Charulata his favourite of his films.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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