Das Heim und die Welt (1984)

Das Heim und die Welt: Directed by Satyajit Ray. With Soumitra Chatterjee, Victor Banerjee, Swatilekha Sengupta, Gopa Aich. When the movie opens, a woman is recalling the events that molded her perspective on the world. Years ago, her husband, a wealthy Western-educated landowner, challenged tradition by providing her with schooling, and inviting her out of the seclusion in which married women were kept, to the consternation of more conservative relatives. Meeting her husband’s visiting friend from college, a leader of an economic rebellion against the British, she takes up his political cause, despite her husbands warnings. As the story progresses, the relationship between the woman and the visitor becomes more than platonic, and the political battles, pitting rich against poor and Hindu against Moslem, turn out not to be quite as simple as she had first thought.

“I have literally no words to describe this film! Throughout the film, I felt that I was transported back to the early 20th century and watching the events unfold in front of my eyes.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBimala, the wife of a Bengali zamindar/gentry is the main protagonist of the film. Her conflicts, her transformations (no spoilers) are the main events occuring in the film. To enjoy the flavour of the film, I would suggest you to watch the film from the POV of her.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe film illustrates the two sides of the Swadeshi movement. One group felt that Swadeshi movement was unrealistic and the poor would be hard hit. Another group, the utopian one, felt that Swadeshi would bring freedom to India.”