Exploitation, Victimhood, and Gendered Performance in Rituparno Ghosh’S Bariwali

EXPLOITATION, VICTIMHOOD, AND GENDERED PERFORMANCE IN RITUPARNO GHOSH’S BARIWALI Rohit K. Dasgupta and Tanmayee Banerjee Rituparno Ghosh (1961—2013) was a filmmaker, lyricist, and writer who first emerged on the cultural scene in Bengal as a copywriter at Response, a Kolkata-based advertising firm in the eighties. He made a mark for himself in the world of commercials, winning several awards for his company before directing two documentaries for Doordarshan (India’s national public television). He moved into narrative filmmaking with the critically acclaimed Hirer Angti (Diamond Ring, 1992) and the National Award–winning Unishe April (19th April, 1995). He is credited with changing the experi- ence of cinema for the middle-class Bengali bhadrolok and 1 thus opening a new chapter in the history of Indian cinema. Ghosh arrived at a time when Bengali cinema was going Rituparno Ghosh. ©SangeetaDatta,2013 through a dark phase. Satyajit Ray had passed away in 1992 , leaving a vacuum. Although filmmakers such as Mrinal Ghosh, clearly influenced by Ray and Sen, addressed the Sen, Goutam Ghose, Aparna Sen, and Buddhadeb Dasgupta Bengali middle-class nostalgia for the past and made films “ ” contributed significantly to his genre of intellectual cinema, that were distinctly “Bengali” yet transcended its parochialism. they did not have much command over the commercial mar- Ghosh’s films were widely appreciated for their challenging “ ” ket. The contrived plots, melodrama, and obligatory fight narratives. His stories explored such transgressive social codes sequences of the action-packed Hindi cinema, so appealing to as incest in Utsab (Festival, 1999), marital rape in Dahan the masses, had barely anything intelligible to offer to those in (Crossfire, 1997), polyamory in Shubho Muharat (First Shot, search of a higher quality cinema. Increasingly, Bengali films 2003), the sexual desires of widows in Chokher Bali (A Passion became clones of earlier box-office hits. Filmmakers who Play, 2004), same-sex love in Chitrangada (Chitrangada: A ’ were aware of the educated urban audience s abhorrence of Crowning Wish, 2012), and the moral hypocrisies of the new the kind of films made by directors, such as Anjan middle class in Dosar (Emotional Companion, 2006). Chowdhury, Swapan Saha, Sujit Guha, Anup Sengupta, Often censured on the ground of his nonconformist gen- and Haranath Chakraborty, relied instead on the rural or der and sexual orientation, Ghosh has constantly attempted to suburban audiences and the urban poor for box-office re- expose the sham progressiveness of a society that has more turns. The educated Bengali middle-class audience, which oftenthannotbeeninsensitive to human emotions and 2 could not relate to the new populist films, turned away from desires. Bariwali (The Lady of the House, 2000), one of his movie theatres entirely. Bengali art-house cinema, as it is still most important films, won two National Awards from 3 called, scarcely found producers, and globally acclaimed di- the government of India. It clearly marked the beginnings of rectors suffered a major setback. Ghosh’s gender and sexual politics, which would finally cul- minate in Chitrangada, and was one of the first Bengali films to introduce a visibly queer character in Bengali cinema. Film Quarterly, Vol. 69, Number 4, pp. 35–46, ISSN 0015-1386, electronic ISSN 1533-8630. Oddly, while his later films, including his queer trilogy, have © 2016 by The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article content through received widespread attention from scholars in recent years, the University of California Press’s Reprints and Permissions web page, http://www. Bariwali has received almost none—even though its discourse ucpress.edu/journals.php?p=reprints. DOI: 10.1525/FQ.2016.69.4.35. of victimhood is narrated through the trope of gendered FILM QUARTERLY 35 agency in the film, positioning hegemonic masculinity and and for which she received the National Award for best heteropatriarchal privilege as markers of exploitation within actress. It is also one of the first Bengali films to introduce the India’sgenderedpolitics. queer figure, and it was Ghosh’s third film to be recognized The central presence of Prasanna (Surya Chatterjee), the at India’sNationalAwards. first identifiably queer character created by Ghosh, invites an For the urban educated Bengali, Rabindranath Tagore is interrogation into the boundaries of masculine performance an integral part of Bengali consciousness, and Ghosh was no and subjectivity and offers a contrast to the ways in which exception. The influence of Tagore’s writings and Satyajit female agency is problematized against a masculine axis. The Ray’s adaptation and appropriation of Tagore into his cinema protagonist Banalata (Kiron Kher), positioned within both created an indelible impression on Ghosh’s sense of aesthetics, feudal space and bhadralok discourse, embodies the transition particularly his filmmaking, and has been the subject of sev- 5 from tradition to modernity, from discretion to aggression, eral discussions. Ghoshhasborrowedbitsandpiecesfrom and from politeness to brazen appropriation in Ghosh’sfilm. Bengali literary and cultural elements and made a mosaic out of them in Bariwali. Banalata, the protagonist, shares Situating Bariwali her name with the character created by Jibanananda Das, the most famous Bengali poet after Tagore, in his most Bariwali is set in a suburb on the outskirts of Kolkata. Though celebrated romantic poem, “Banalata Sen,” written in 1934. it is one of Ghosh’s first films (albeit continued in his later Banalata embodies timeless beauty that bears traces of history period dramas) to be set exclusively outside the urban space of and mythology, with whom the poet narrator wants to sit the city, the characters extend Ghosh’s ongoing preoccupation face to face at the end of his life’sjourney.ThusBanalata’s with mannered upper-/upper-middle-class people. Here existence remains confined only to the imagination of her Ghosh delves into the everydayness of a lackluster suburban admirer, the narrator in this case. He creates her and it is he aristocratic mansion occupied by the lineage’s only surviving who enjoys reminiscing about the beauty of his own creation. member, Banalata (Kiron Kher), a middle-aged spinster, who Like Banalata’s beauty, Charulata’s literary accomplish- seems to be caught in a time warp. Banalata’s life is basically ments in Tagore’s short story “Nashtanir” and Ray’s film idle, apart from small household chores, watching television, adaptation, Charulata (The Lonely Wife, 1964), wins the ap- and scolding her domestic helps. Her only companions are preciation of her brother-in-law Amal, who is believed to an aging manservant, Prasanna, who has been serving the have been instrumental in getting Charulata to make use of family since childhood, and an extroverted pert maid, Malati her literary talent. Charulata did not seek public recognition (Sudipta Chakraborty). as a writer but appreciation from Amal of her intellectual Into this mundane setting, diversion arrives in the form of prowess, which was on par with, if not superior to, his. In a film production company, which wants to rent the house both cases the men were satisfied to believe that these for a period drama. Banalata is secretly overwhelmed by the women owed their achievements to them. presence of these people, especially the beautiful actress In addition to Charulata, Bariwali carriesresonancesof Sudeshna (Rupa Ganguly) and the charismatic director Ghare Baire (TheHomeandtheWorld, 1984), another film Dipankar (Chiranjeet Chakraborty). Though aware that adaptation of Tagore’snovelbyRay,particularlyinRay’s Dipankar has a wife back in the city and that he had been Su- discussion of patriarchy, desolation, exploitation, and in deshna’s lover in the past, Banalata finds herself charmed by certain cases, the abandonment of women by the bhadra- this worldly man of a sort she has never encountered before. lok. In Ghare Baire, Bimala the zamindar’swifemeetsa He even persuades her to play a small role in the film when similar fate. Her husband makes every effort to impart the original actor in the role is suddenly taken ill. But once the Western education to her, to teach her Western customs film crew leaves, Banalata is forced back into her lonely exis- and manners so that he can take pride in his wife and tence. Her letters to the film director go unanswered, and a present her to his friends as his greatest achievement. final betrayal comes in the form of a letter from the film crew However, everything falls apart when progressive Bimala, announcing that her bit role in the film has been left out. until then the creation of her husband Nikhil, begins to Bariwali originated as a story penned by Ghosh for a short assert herself and defy her husband. Ray’s successful adap- fiction special issue of Sananda, a Bengali women’smaga- tation of Tagore in a visual medium validated the writer’s zine, which he then adapted into the script and dialogue for immortal significance in the cultural landscape of Bengal and 4 the film. It is an important work for a number of reasons: it India, whereas Ghosh’s deployment of Tagore’s novel within marks the debut of Kiron Kher, one of the most versatile his own narrative reinforces the continuing contemporaneity actors in Bollywood and regional films, in Bengali cinema of those issues and concerns. 36 SUMMER 2016 Banalata (Kher) and Prasanna (Chatterjee) talking to each other. © Anupam Kher Company Ghosh would film Tagore’snovelChokher Bali in 2003, herself represents a fading aristocracy with a certain air of but he was already paying attention to it in Bariwali, intelli- vulnerability. The first scene opens on the ornate yet lacklus- gently weaving its traces into the film’s narrative in order to ter entrance to Banalata’s mansion.

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