Satyajit Ray Birthday Special: The Awe-Inspiring Feminist Women In Ray’s Films

They were strong women who did not hesitate to break barriers. Their life was filled with struggle but they were hardly shown as damsels in a perpetual state of distress. They were the protagonists in the movies of Satyajit Ray, the filmmaker par excellence whose stories haunt you long after you are done watching them. The audiences loved his female characters which were equally applauded by critics for their depth. Through his storytelling, Satyajit Ray highlighted the evils of the society and right from his debut trilogy of Apu, the women in his cinema were raw and real which is why the stories were so impactful. Whether it is the Santhal woman Duli played by Simi Garewal in Aranyer Din Ratri, the mother-daughter duo in his award-winning film Pather Panchali, the iconic character of Charu in Charulata or Bimala in the Swadeshi movement film Ghare Baire, each role was given due importance and directed to bring out nuances that no other director could. Here’s a look at some of the celebrated feminist characters in his magnificent movies.

Charulata

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Perhaps one of the greatest movies in Indian cinema, this Bengali film was based on the Rabindranath Tagore novella Nastanirh (The Broken Nest). Played by Madhabi Mukherjee, the titular character of Charulata is a bored housewife whose husband has no time for her. She falls for his cousin who indulges her intellectual interests in poetry and the arts but their feelings remain unspoken due to the forbidden nature of the relationship. Charulata’s awakening in terms of her ambitions and sexuality are finely captured in the emotions where the eyes convey even more than the spoken dialogues. Her portrayal is very relatable as the story of every bored housewife who is talented but undermined.

Bimala

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Ghare-Baire may have been a movie centered around the Swadeshi movement of India where the focus was on a love triangle but the role of Bimala (played by Swatilekha Chatterjee) was all about a housewife’s discovery of the world outside. New Yorker critic Pauline Kael famously wrote about his work “When it comes to truthfulness about women’s lives, this great Indian moviemaker Satyajit Ray shames the American and European directors of both sexes”. Capturing the transition of women during a time when various reforms were taking place for them, Ray brought out the dichotomy faced by upper class women in India highlighted in Rabindranath Tagore’s story from where the film was adapted.

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Arati

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Based on the short story by Narendranath Mitra, the movie Mahanagar had the character Arati (played again by Madhabi Mukherjee) who has to become the sole breadwinner of the family to deal with a financial crisis. As she starts working successfully as a saleswoman, there are ego clashes with her husband who is jobless. All is going well, until one day when she decides to quit her job after looking at the injustice meted out by her employer towards her colleague. Her confidence in her capabilities and her stand is appreciated at last by her husband too. The movie came out in 1963 at a time when women started working not just for their freedom but due to economic necessities.

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Satyajit Ray managed to capture the essence of Indian women whether they were shown as housewives or professionals, introverts or extroverts, rich or poor. Want to read about inspirational women in real life or know why being a feminist is not a crime? Then keep reading Her Zindagi.