Word Play

Despite its self-conscious,metaphysical veneer,Sob Charitro Kalponik primarily functions as a work of realism...

Film: Sob Charitro Kalponik
Director: Rituparno Ghosh
Cast: Prosenjit Chatterjee,Bipasha Basu, Jisshu Sengupta
Rating: ***
Running at: Inox (Forum,City Centre,Swabhumi),Priya
Despite its self-conscious,metaphysical veneer,Sob Charitro Kalponik primarily functions as a work of realism. Poetry is a recurring motif in this Rituparno Ghosh film,just as Rabindrasangeet was in his Asukh,but verses end up being a spectral presence in the film. They are words of stirring beauty,but to Radhika,a young probasi Bengali woman,they ring hollow. Eventually,they hound,tease and lead Radhika to a sacred space between dream and reality that inspires creativity.

As urban English-speaking Kolkatans who are encouraged to think and even dream in English at the cost of our mother tongue,its easy to relate to Radhika. After all,having married a Bengali poet,Radhika (Bipasha Basu) is confronted with her own culture with such visceral force that she turns almost hostile to it. Its not as if she is uncomfortable with Bengali,but the language of her husbands soul is not that of her own. Indranil (Prosenjit),on the other hand is a man who is lost in his private world of words and arcane musings. His devotion to Radhika is like that of a particularly moody childs whim. At times he is all attention and soulful eyes,but he also capable of abandoning her in a taxi in the middle of the night. Alas,you exclaim,he is a person who has cultivated his craft at the expense of his heart.

The film begins at Indranils condolence meeting where his close friends and associates remember their moments with him. Through a serious of interflowing flashbacks,we are introduced to Indranil,the person. Actually,along with us Radhika too learns more about her dead husband as she goes back to a few defining moments in her relationship. Their domestic help,Priyabala (a brilliant Sohag Sen),helps Radhika in the endeavour,by giving her an outsiders perspective. The luxury of hindsight helps her understand her husbands compulsions and question her actions,or so it seems. For Ghosh chooses not to spell things out and Bipasha who has that seemingly indigenous British ability to register irony through sideways glance,twitching of lips and inflections,also betrays precious little. In the end we do more than witness Indranils death; we encounter an elusive,original personality who,like so many people in life,disappears too soon.

Ghosh has called Sob Charitro a film about language,and you understand why. Throughout her marriage,Radhika more than Indranil,had to constantly struggle to understand her husbands idiom. The struggle is so intense that it almost leads her to another mans (Jisshu Sengupta plays an English-speaking photographer) arms. There are moments where this clash of idioms leads to an almost comical crisis. One particular scene stands out Indranil uses the colloquial Bengali word maagi (meaning girl) which Radhika with her urban,probasi sensibilities finds offensive and vulgar. Your sympathies so far have been with Radhika but the scene creates such an extraordinary counterpoint to her isolation that you want to shake her and drill some sense into her. Towards the end of the film,when she is on the verge of separating with Indranil,Radhikas voice is exquisitely lyrical,pretty much like her husbands who uses everyday anecdotes as fodder for poetry. When asked by Jisshu whether she really wants to separate with her husband,she answersOne evening,I was taking a lift to the 9th floor of our building. I was alone in the lift and I spotted a large spider crawling beside me. I closed my eyes and prayed that I reach the 9th floor before the spider gets to me. The wait seemed like eternity. It never occurred to me then that I could have stopped the lift at any floor and got out. I dont want to make the same mistake with my marriage.

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