Excellent movie. Review on Ghare Baire Movie

This is one of the most spectacular films by Ray with rich colors and lavish sets. Not only are the art direction and the cinematography grand in their appeal but even the story line has a great breadth and depth. In some ways, it is similar to Shataranj ke Khiladi. In both these films, against the backdrop of national political events, the main story is narrated about the personal relationships of the main characters. However, the similarity ends here. Unlike the chess-players, our characters here are strongly aware of national events and their lives are deeply affected by them.

The principal male character is an aristocratic landlord and is played by Victor Banerjee in a very restrained but powerful performance. His wife is the traditional Hindu housewife, always in purdah and always with her head covered by Sari. Since the hero has had a modern education, he forces his wife also to study the English language and music with a white lady, played by Jennifer Kapoor (the real-life wife of Shashi Kapoor). Soon, she learns to sing English songs and plays them on the piano too. In the film, she recites a poem “long-long-ago” many times but each time in a Sari with her head covered, showing the ambivalence of being a traditional Hindu wife on the one hand and singing English songs on the other! Just when her western education is completed, her husband announces the arrival of his friend who is a Hindu revolutionary leader. She comes out of purdah for the first time, meets this new guest, and is deeply impressed with his Swadeshi speeches. This relationship grows to such an extent that she does not hesitate to sell her own ornaments to help him with money.

The pinnacle of this infatuation is when both kiss in a dramatic turn of the events. However when her husband exposes his friend’s real nature of being a hate-mongering communal leader, she is disillusioned and her brief extra-marital affair ends. In the mean time, the Swadeshi speeches and the retaliatory sermons by Muslim clerics spread the poison of hatred among Hindu and Muslims in the neighborhood and a riot erupts, ending with the killing of the landlord. His wife is shocked and is left with no choice but to spend the rest of her life as a lonely widow just like her sister-in-law.