Beautiful Neeta lives in a Calcutta slum with her family after being displaced from East Pakistan by the Partition of India. She once had hopes and dreams of going to a university, but she abandoned them when her greedy family demanded that she work to support them. Her lazy brother spends all day practicing singing in the vain hopes that he might one day become a star. Her mother and father lounge around all day, complaining that their children don't work hard enough and don't bring home enough money for them to spend. It is in this harsh environment that director Ritwik Ghatak set the film that would ultimately become known as his masterpiece. It is a devastating exploration of self-sacrifice. As Neeta struggles to support her family as their only bread-winner, she loses her fiancee, then her job, and finally her health as tuberculosis begins to ravage her body. Ritwik utilized incredible mise en scène to demonstrate Neeta's isolation and hopelessness. Of great note is the expressionist sound design wherein Ritwik would use odd and non-diegetic sound effects to highlight the emotional impact of certain scenes. The film is bold and tragic as it careens towards its famous ending where Neeta flings herself at her brother and yells out in defiance, "Brother, I want to live!"
8/10
No comments:
Post a Comment