Chaturanga (Bengali: চতুরঙ্গ “Four Chapters”) is a 2008 Bengali film. Directed by Suman Mukherjee, the movie featured Rituparna Sengupta, Dhritiman Chaterji, Subrata Dutta, Joy Sengupta and Kabir Suman.
Plot
Based on the 1916 novel by author Rabindranath Tagore, Chaturanga is about a love caught between conflicting worlds of ideas. Set in Colonial Bengal at the turn of the twentieth century, the film weaves a rich tapestry of crisscrossing desires and moralities. The protagonist Sachish fleets from radical positivism to religious mysticism in his quest for life’s meaning. However, his search ultimately yields nothing but crushing disillusionment. This is because he cannot square his abstract ideals with the powerful presences of two women in his life. One of them is Damini, a young Hindu widow, and the other is Nanibala, the abandoned mistress of Sachish’s own brother. Sachish tries to convince himself that Nanibala is simply a helpless woman who needs to be ‘rescued’ by him. Similarly, during his later religious phase, he pretends that the widow Damini is merely an enticement of Nature that must be avoided at all costs for spiritual salvation. Chaturanga thus becomes, after a point, a psychodrama of cruelty. Nanibala becomes a victim of it because as a ‘fallen woman’ she can only be ‘saved’, but her humanity cannot be recognized. Damini is first given away by her dying husband, along with all her property, to a religious guru. She then falls in love with Sachish who can accept her only without her sexuality.
Cast
Dhritiman Chaterji … Uncle
Rituparna Sengupta … Damini
Subrat Dutta … Shachish
Joy Sengupta … Shribilash
Kabir Suman … Lilananda
Trina Nileena Banerjee … Nanibala
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