At a time when cinema, the world over is learning to look at women with an all-new gaze, Satyajit Ray’s films find relevance for the remarkable grasp of the female mind and emotions he always revealed in his works. Compelling women characters are the hallmark of great cinematic work anywhere in the world, but the late maestro’s oeuvre stands out for the fact that he was uncompromising while crafting strong female psyche and persona in a country that was, and continues to be, innately patriarchal in its perception of women.
The women in Ray’s films are never irrelevant showpieces, rather they exude an understated sense of power. The Ray heroine bears simplicity as a person that lets her strike an instant connect with the viewer. Yet she is nuanced enough to merit deeper study as a personality, in the way she asserts desires and defies barriers.
She is as significant as the hero of any screenplay but never needs to engage in a contest of gender supremacy or undermine his presence in her world.
With a few exceptions as Shatranj Ke Khilari and Sadgati, Ray’s filmography spanning nearly four decades (Pather Panchali in 1955 to Agantuk in 1991) comprises films made in Bangla, which reflect Bengal as a society and people. Yet his works find universal appeal for the way he portrayed the human struggle to understand and live life. His women characters have played a vital role in establishing this struggle, which is also about striking the balance between tradition and change.
Ray lived and made films through decades when society was not ready to accept the fact that a woman could have an identity outside of her relationship to the men in her life — be it her father, brother or son. Yet he credibly portrayed women as individuals, despite those tags. If Pather Panchali highlights the resilience of a single mother to provide for her children, Charulata was a lyrical ode to the neglected wife who doesn’t hesitate to explore and assert her desires. Mahanagar trains focus on a middle-class home of the sixties, and the wife’s dilemma over whether she should defy societal norms and venture out to earn because her husband’s income isn’t adequate. Such characters continue to define womanhood even today.
The truth is women in Ray’s films defined empowerment decades before cinema started a serious conversation around the subject. Importantly, three decades after his death, women in Ray’s cinema continue to influence how unforgettable female characters are written for the screen.
We take a look at the most unforgettable women in the films of Satyajit Ray.
Madhabi Mukherjee as Charulata - Charulata (1964)
Based on a Rabindranath Tagore’s story Nashtanir, the film is considered by many as Ray’s finest work. Set in the late 19th century, the film casts Madhabi Mukherjee as Charulata, the lonely wife of a workaholic upper-class intellectual who has no time for her. The arrival of the husband’s cousin (Soumitra Chatterjee) triggers Charulata’s desire to break free from the bondage of mundane existence and be herself. The film endorses women’s liberation in a time setting when such talk didn’t widely find favour.
Madhabi Mukherjee as Arati in Mahanagar (1963)
Based on Narendranath Mitra’s short story Abataranika, Mahanagar came at a time when the idea of the big city middle-class woman stepping out of her home to earn was more than about emancipation. It was an act propelled by economic necessities. Madhabi Mukherjee plays the homemaker Arati, who takes up a job because her husband’s income alone isn’t enough to meet their expenses. Hailed as an outstanding feminist work, the film talks of a woman carving her identity beyond her home.
Karuna Banerjee as Sarbojaya in Pather Panchali (1955) and Aparajito (1956)
Sarbojaya is a quintessential Ray heroine, far more nuanced than her ordinary existence may suggest. Her rustic, homely persona conceals the dogged resilience that she reveals when it comes to fending for her son Apu after her husband and daughter’s death. Through the first two films of the Apu trilogy, Sarbojaya represents a familiar template that many Indian filmmakers have worked with down the decades — the mother who hides her woes for the sake of her offspring’s happiness. Only, Ray avoided melodrama and breathed raw realism into the prototype.
Sharmila Tagore as Dayamoyee in Devi (1960)
In Devi, Ray looks at how blind faith is often propagated by the patriarchal society and how vulnerable women end up victims in the process. Based on a short story by Provatkumar Mukhopadhyay, the film is set in 19th century rural Bengal and casts Sharmila Tagore as the 17-year-old Dayamoyee. The film narrates how her superstitious father-in-law (Chhabi Biswas) believes Dayamoyee to be a goddess incarnate, which leads to a tragic consequence for the young girl.
Sharmila Tagore as Tutul in Seemabaddha (1971)
Seemabaddha is based on acclaimed Bengali author Shankar’s novel of the same name and is the second of Ray’s Calcutta Trilogy, in between Pratidwandi (1970) and Jana Aranya (1976). Together, these films highlight how urbanisation and the lure of big money ushered gradual disintegration of values at the workplace. The film casts Barun Chanda as the ruthlessly ambitious protagonist Shyamal but finds its soul in Shyamal’s sister-in-law Tutul, played by Sharmila Tagore. The film was noted for the communist ideology implicit in Tutul’s character.
Swatilekha Chatterjee as Bimala in Ghare Baire (1984)
Set in the early 1900s, the film is adapted from Rabindranath Tagore’s novel of the same name. Ray deals with the subject of emancipation of women in the lines of Charulata, only this time he uses a strong political subtext. The film introduced Swatilekha Chatterjee as Bimala, who finds her life’s purpose in serving her husband, the wealthy landlord Nikhilesh (Victor Banerjee). Bimala’s outlook towards life changes after her chance meeting with the freedom fighter Sandip (Soumitra Chatterjee). She discovers what it means to decide for herself.
Waheeda Rehman as Gulabi in Abhijan (1962)
The film marked Waheeda Rehman’s debut in Bengali cinema as Gulabi, a young village widow on the verge of being sold as a sex worker. Ray’s narrative, woven around a truck driver named Narsingh (played by Soumitra Chatterjee), dissects the concepts of good and evil, and how one can seamlessly morph into the other. Gulabi is thrown into a dark world and yet she upholds the significance of morality and positivity. Narsingh, on the other hand, finds himself falling into the throes of evil driven by ego and his lust for money. Gulabi’s advent has a healing impact on him. The film is adapted from Tarashankar Bandopadhyay’s novel of the same name.
Sharmila Tagore as Aparna and Simi Garewal as Duli in Aranyer Din Ratri (1969)
One of the interesting aspects of the film, based on Sunil Gangopadhyay’s novel of the same name, is how Ray explores diverse facets of womanhood and how they attract men. The story is about four Kolkata youths on a trip to Palamau forests, to escape the diktats of urban life in the heart of the tribal hub. Sharmila Tagore plays the city-bred Aparna, an elegant and intelligent young woman whose poise and presence of mind awes the quartet.
At the other end is Simi Garewal as Duli, a tribal girl whose open willingness for sex and booze is something the men don’t normally witness and which can be a trait too tempting. Ray used a carnivalesque style to set up the drama, which made the storytelling process engaging.
Alokananda Roy as Monisha in Kanchenjunga (1962)
Ray’s first original script had an ensemble cast of characters with an interesting backstory for each protagonist. An affluent family from Kolkata is on vacation in Darjeeling, and parallel sub plots narrate the individual stories of the various members over a single day. One of the most interesting characters is Monisha (Alokananda Roy), the nineteen-year-old college-going daughter now deemed ready for marriage. Ray uses the frequently changing weather of the scenic hill town — from sunny to hazy, from a rush of clouds to mist — to structure drama and the varying moods around Monisha’s day out, as she chances upon Ashoke, a middle-class young man below her in social status.
Chandana Banerjee as Ratan, Kanika Majumdar as Manimalika and Aparna Sen as Mrinmoyee in Teen Kanya (1961)
Ray explores three very different aspects of womanhood in this episodic feature that narrates three short stories of Rabindranath Tagore. The first, The Postmaster, traces the grief of a young girl (played by Chandana Banerjee) on being ignored by the village postmaster, a bachelor, whose house she tends and who she had come to be fond of. In Monihara, a ghost story, the spirit of a dead wife (Kanika Majumdar) returns to claim the last gift her husband had bought for her before she passed away. Aparna Sen stars as the village tomboy Mrinmoyee in Samapti, the third story. It tells the tale of how a young man (Soumitra Chatterjee) rejects the girl his mother chose for him and instead settles for the tomboy Mrinmoyee because he finds her intriguing.
Vinayak Chakravorty is a critic, columnist and film journalist based in Delhi-NCR.
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