Bandini

Love puts the heart into a lifelong captivity, and sometimes, one must suffer a great deal in love's imprisonment. 'Bandini' is the story of such a captive woman, who fell in love and suffered tremendously, spending nearly a decade in prison.

Kalyani (Nutan) is the daughter of the village postmaster, a simple, sweet-natured girl, whose life is limited to the household. But there is something special about her which strikes you from the very beginning, something that sets her apart from the rest. She is someone who doesn't believe that a woman's role is confined to the household. There seems in her a latent desire to be something more.

When she comes across the revolutionary Bikas (Ashok Kumar) for the first time, while others are afraid of him, she is fascinated. You can see her eyes shine to see someone out of the ordinary. And when she is asked to deliver a message to him, she doesn't shy away from the task but finds out a way to do so.

Bikas takes a liking for her and begins visiting her house on the pretext of chatting with her father. In a scene, Kalyani asks Bikas if he thinks women can be equal to men. Bikas' response is interesting. He narrates the story of how the wife of a certain powerful man helps revolutionaries from the confines of her home. So perhaps women need not look for such equality in terms of doing exactly what men are doing. They can do a lot while fulfilling their roles within the household.

This is a very interesting point of view, which is worth thinking over. What is Bimal Roy trying to say about women here? I think that he is trying to suggest a sort of middle path. He lived in a time when he couldn't perhaps imagine the kind of gender equality that we desire today, where there are no demarcated roles for men and women at all. He must have felt that the home does need a woman's attention primarily. But at the same time, he did not consider women as incapable of anything more. So he suggests a middle path.

He must have also felt that why should women want to be like men or do what men do? Is that really equality? Women are women and men are men and the two must carve their own niche. That would be equality in a greater sense. While I agree with such an idea to some extent, I feel it ignores the fact that certain rights have been completely denied to women and the fight for women's equality is also about claiming those rights.

So, I find Roy's view on women's equality not bad but not entirely good also. After all, the women in his films always fall on the feet of their husbands, as per the Brahmin dharma. Perhaps he did not support this tradition and showed it as a mirror to society. But to believe that gender equality is possible even when women are bowing down to men would be simply delusional.

But Kalyani is perhaps satisfied with Bikas' views. She is captivated by his charm and begins to love him dearly.

When she is found asleep with Bikas in her home, Bikas immediately proposes marriage. But he clarifies that it's not to save Kalyani from shame but because he really does love her. However, he is moved to another village and Kalyani and her father are left to face the unsparing society. They have to bear shame on a daily basis.

After a few months, Kalyani comes to know that Bikas was released and has married someone else. She is devastated. Her father also feels completely frustrated now. Kalyani decides to leave the village to save her father from further shame. As she is walking away from the village, we see in her face nothing but hopelessness. Suddenly, she realises that she has nowhere to go. Where could she go? Nutan's eyes express the state of Kalyani's heart perfectly.

She eventually finds a job in a city hospital, where she must clean and wash and tend to patients all day long. But she is relieved to at least have a place to live. However, this is not the end of her suffering but only the beginning. She is put in charge of a hysteria patient who treats her like an animal. She tries her best to gain her trust but fails. 

And then, her world falls apart completely on one fateful day. Her father dies in an accident while coming to meet her. She is stunned with grief. As she is grappling with her loss, she is cruelly mistreated by the hysteria patient. And then, she is shocked to see that the patient's husband is none other than Bikas.

She walks up to her room stunned. Something in her has broken and the cacophony is unbearable. And then, when that patient calls her to bring tea, Kalyani poisons her to death.

The doctors consider it a suicide but Bikas considers it murder. He is unaware of Kalyani being his wife's attendant. Kalyani is called for questioning and Bikas, on seeing her, takes back his theory and calls it suicide. But Kalyani cannot take it anymore. She does not want to see Bikas pretend to be a good man, the pretense is unbearable for her. She cries out loud in grievous acceptance of her crime.

Later on, when Bikas tries to meet Kalyani in prison, she refuses. She feels ashamed of what she had done. She believes that her offense was greater than his offense. Perhaps that's how the mind of a truly good person works.

Towards the end of her prison time, she gains the liking of a young prison doctor (Dharmendra). He is a kind-hearted young man who does not see her as a criminal. She is truly moved by his kindness, and after her term is over, she accepts to be with him.

But as she waits for her train, she once again comes across Bikas, who is now seriously ill. When she learns about his story, that he wasn't at fault, she is finally able to forgive him. But she is now faced with a choice, perhaps the toughest choice of her life. Whom should she choose? The man because of whom she lost everything or the man who was willing to lose everything for her?

Perhaps her heart already knows what she wants. The song expresses it beautifully:

"O re majhi.....
Mere saajan hain us paar
Main man maar, hu is paar
Abki baar le chal paar
Le chal paar.....

Mai bandini piya ki, chir sangini hu saajan ki..."

Her heart always was Bikas' and now she had good reason to forgive him. So she runs to be with him, leaving all prospects of a new life behind. Perhaps, her freedom from suffering lies in remaining a captive to her lover.

Kalyani's choice is perhaps irrational and may even seem self-destructive, but it feels right. If she had not chosen Bikas at this point, she would have always regretted it. This was her only chance and she grabbed it. Long live Kalyani!

Sujata

'Sujata' is essentially a film about the issue of untouchability. The protagonist, Sujata, is a lower caste girl who lost her parents to a disease outbreak when she was born. She eventually grew up under the care of a civil engineer and his wife, whom she has come to consider her parents. However, they could never consider her equal to their own daughter. Thus, Sujata grows up always feeling like an outsider.

Every time someone asks the engineer and his wife who she is, they have to say she is "beti nahi, beti-jaisi" (not daughter but like a daughter). This always pierces her heart and she recedes into another room, walking heavily, feeling sad and puzzled. These silent scenes, where she walks away to her room, bring out her inner turmoil.

One day, when she cannot take it anymore, she asks her foster mother, Charu: "Mai kaun hu?" (Who am I?).

It is a moment of agony for both women. As Sujata realizes her truth, her world begins to collapse. She stands in the pouring rain, as if wondering if all the water of the heavens could cleanse her tainted life. She wants to end her life right then but is stopped by a divine intervention. She decides to live.

Under the burden of untouchability, Sujata is a girl full of life. Nutan has portrayed her with childlike enthusiasm and lady-like grace. She whole-heartedly takes care of the entire household, in the hope of being accepted as an equal some day.

But the only person who really considers her as an equal is Adheer (Sunil Dutt), a young relative of the family, a research scholar. In his presence, we find Sujata blooming and blushing like a rosebud. The moment when he first touches her means so much to her. Roy alludes to Tagore’s play 'Chandalika', where an untouchable girl is shown acceptance by a Buddhist monk. Perhaps, it served as an inspiration for this film.

But their love is not acceptable to Adheer's grandmother (Lalita Pawar), who is a staunch believer of Brahmin dharma. She represents all the women and men who profess to be very religious but forget that true religion only teaches oneness of all beings. They conveniently overlook the examples set by Rama and Krishna in accepting all as equal.

But when Adheer rebels and decides to leave the house, she gives up. She is overcome with emotion. She accepts that times are changing and perhaps old views must change. I found this a good way of sending across a message to the viewers who identify with her.

But when she agrees, Charu does not agree. Charu is a very complex character. From the very beginning, she is deeply conflicted between her natural motherly affection for Sujata and the idea that she is an untouchable. Time and again she tried to send Sujata away but she could not be so hard-hearted. 

 

There is a scene in the beginning of the film where she is singing a lullaby and putting her daughter to sleep. She sees Sujata cry in the servant quarters and she sings for her too. It’s a great moment. For a mother’s love, all crying children are equal.

But now, when her own daughter's prospective groom wants to marry Sujata, she is outraged. She feels cheated. She considers it as Sujata's ungratefulness to steal her daughter's groom. She is oblivious to the fact that Sujata had herself refused to marry Adheer and wished to live in service of her family forever.

In her rage, she meets with an accident. Strangely, it is only Sujata’s blood which matches Charu’s blood type. When Charu realises Sujata’s blood saved her, she finally gives up the idea of untouchability and accepts her as her daughter. 

What I find interesting is that Bimal Roy chose to show the issue of untouchability from the perspective of these three women. The men in the story seem to be very clear that untouchability is inhuman, which is good. Perhaps it was and is the case with a lot of educated men. But women, whether urban or rural, remain deeply conflicted about such issues, even today.

This is ironic because it is men who created the concept of untouchability in the first place, when they wrote the dharma shastras like the Manusmriti. But sadly, while men have conveniently moved on from these rules that they made, women are left trapped in their net. Men have the freedom to go out in the world, work and study, and therefore learn about new ideas. But women, who must remain within the household, who have to meet all possible social expectations in order to remain in society, find it difficult to move beyond these norms - even if their heart wants to.

This is Charu's conflict who, I feel, suffers as much as Sujata. So, if you think about it, 'Sujata' is not just the story of Sujata, but also of the grandmother, who eventually resigns from arachic ideas, and Charu, who is trapped between them. 

Madhumati

On the surface, it may seem like an ordinary story about a village girl falling for a city boy and their love affair cut short by the lust of a wicked villain. But if you look closely, you would see a much greater story - the story of how Man destroys Nature out of his greed and lust and how Nature takes her revenge and never stops to haunt him for his misdeeds.

Madhumati represents Nature, in all her effervescent beauty, in all her creative agility and strength. Vyajayanthimala depicts her as so completely one with the wilderness that she might be mistaken for a deer or a peacock or any other creature of the forests. She sprints about mountain turfs and valleys effortlessly like a rivulet. She is Nature herself.

She is also the lonely mountain girl. In her song, we hear her intense yearning echoing in the valleys:

“Aaja re…pardesi...
Mai to kab se khadi is paar
Ye ankhiyan thak gayin panth nihaar”

In the beginning, she remains concealed from Anand (Dilip Kumar). Like most creatures of nature, she is fearful of someone new. But when she sees that he is a good man, a harmless man, she presents herself before him. Then there is a lot of natural freeness in her being, a pure childlike innocence which acts intuitively.

We find that she Is a free-spirited young girl. She lives with her father, who was the king of the region at one time. So, in a way, she is a princess. But, with changing times, her family lost the royal title and they now live a simple life.

Soon Madhumati allows herself to fall in love with Anand. She confesses her love for him, with a very natural ease. Actually, she's the first one to vocalize love between them. It happens as a song:

“tumhari ho chuki hu mai, mujhe tumse pyar hai” 
(I have become yours. I love you)

Anand’s employer, the estate owner Ugranarain (Pran), represents the evil in Man, who is cutting down the forest, who treats people worse than animals, and has his eyes set on Madhumati. He tricks her into his trap and tries to overpower her but she escapes and jumps from the terrace to save her honour. Such is her fate.

But her story does not end there. Her real strength is seen after her death. She continues to stay in spirit with Anand. When he finds her lookalike and considers loving her, Madhumati exerts restrain, as if to say that she was more than just a pretty face. He fell in love with her whole being, not just her face. This is a thought-provoking idea.

In the climax, we find that she herself appears before Ugranarain, as if to say that she doesn't need anyone else to avenge her. She is capable of avenging her own self if she so desires. 

Finally, we see that she leads Anand off to the same terrace and makes him jump from there. They are thus united in death.

Devdas

'Devdas' is a beautifully made film and it has not one but two of the most memorable women characters of Indian literature - Paro and Chandramukhi.

In Indian culture, they have come to represent two ends of the social spectrum. While Paro is a respectable woman from a Brahmin family, Chandramukhi is a prostitute, a social outcaste. The difference between their social position and inner nature is vocalized by Devdas himself:

“Tum dono me kitna fark hai aur fir bhi tum kitni ek si ho. Ek badi khuddar aur chanchal, dusri shant aur gambheer. Wo kuch bhi nahi seh sakti, aur tum sab kuch seh guzarti ho. Uski kitni izzat hai aur tum kitni badnaam ho. Use sabhi pyar karte hain aur tumse nafrat…”

 

(You are so different, yet so similar to each other. One so proud and impulsive, other so quiet and serious. She cannot bear anything, and you can tolerate everything. She is so well-respected, and you are so infamous. Everyone loves her, and you everyone hates.)

Though their places in society are so distinct and disparate, they both suffer equally in love, and that is essentially the story of Devdas.

Paro

There are a few instances in Paro’s story that reveal her inner being.

When she sees that her family might marry her off to someone else, she decides to take matters in her own hand and goes to meet Devdas at two in the night. In doing so, she puts at stake everything, most importantly her social image. But she does it with her head held high, without any qualms. She was clearly a woman capable of leaving everything for love.

Everything, but perhaps not her self-respect. When Devdas later expresses his inability to accept her, she is hurt beyond measure, and she decides to not marry him. What Devdas sees as her pride, is only her assertion to be accepted as an equal.

Devdas: Itna ahankar!

Paro: Kyu na ho? Tum ahankar kar sakte ho, mai nahi kar sakti? Tum me roop hai, par gun nahi. Mujhme roop hai, aur gun bhi hai.

(Devdas: Such pride!

Paro: Why should I not be proud? If you can show pride, can’t I? You have beauty, but not quality. I have beauty as well as quality.)

What happens next is astonishing and perhaps acceptable only as a literary expression of some sort. Devdas raises his stick and hits Paro on the face to blemish her beauty, of which he thinks she is so proud. In my opinion, this kind of a scene sends a very wrong message. It says that if a woman does not accept your wishes, she should be tamed, by hitting even. 

In an earlier scene also something similar happens. When Devdas and Paro are children, Devdas very easily slaps her and makes her cry, even though Paro is only trying to love him. He thinks its perfectly fine to do so and even Paro is ready to accept him later. This shows how beating up women has become so acceptable in our culture and women have been conditioned to accept it. 

So, even though Paro has immense self-respect, she is still a product of social conditioning. She believes that it is fine for a woman to be at the feet of the man she loves. After her marriage to the Zamindar of Manikpur, she tells Devdas to visit her so that she has the fortune of serving him. Servitude and submissiveness were the expressions of love for women of her time.

Chandramukhi

Chandramukhi is no different in her beliefs. She too is a woman of her times.

When Devdas meets her for the first time, he seems disgusted by her. He is not enchanted by her beauty, rather he feels repelled by her profession. He perhaps considers her an impure woman, not worthy of any social association. This reflects society’s view of women like her and sadly it has not changed much over the years. 

But Chandramukhi shows profound understanding for Devdas’ repulsion. Instead of shunning him, she senses that he is saddened to see her condition and would want her to leave her profession and live a more dignified life. She is moved by this and begins to love him.

If Paro was willing to leave everything for Devdas, Chandramukhi actually left everything for him. This is the most extraordinary thing about her character. She gives up her profession and goes away from Calcutta. She tries to live an ordinary life in a village, in the hope of meeting Devdas' expectations.

She eventually manages to achieve his acceptance and affection, though not permanently and never completely, because his heart is set on Paro. But she is happy to have made a place in his heart. Vyajayanthimala has portrayed her character with a lot of sensitivity.

The great thing about her portrayal is that it invokes genuine respect and sympathy in the heart of the viewer, perhaps a little more than Paro, because while Paro was out of Devdas' reach after her marriage, Chandramukhi could be his, and yet he cannot accept her because his heart is set on Paro.

It's a pity that the two women never meet each other, at least not in Bimal Roy's version. They just have a glimpse of each other in one dramatic scene, which stays with the viewers long after the film is over.