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Of marital blues...

Rituparno Ghosh continues to invite attention with `Dosar,' a black-and-white tale of infidelity

PHOTO: ARUNANGSU ROY CHOWDHURY

FOR THE THINKING MAN Rituparno Ghosh believes it's important his cinema reaches the paying audience

The media might still talk of `Kabhi Alvida Ne Kehna' and satellite channels might have had special shows on extra-marital relationships following the release of Karan Johar's film. But a little before Johar's film, Bengali director Rituparno Ghosh had been peddling the fare, sometimes in muted tones as in `Raincoat,' sometimes in a riot of colours as in `Chokher Bali.' Or in black-and-white as in the most recent `Dosar,' which had a low-key box office release in the non-Bengali speaking areas of the country. And it made it to the International Film Festival of India in Goa. It will also be screened at the International Film Festival of Kerala.

Forbidden affair

Says the soft-spoken director, known for his period films and languid ways, `"Chokher Bali' was not just an extramarital affair. It was about a forbidden affair. It was a feudal in the background. I wanted to make a more contemporary film, and find an independent identity for the woman. Here the extramarital affair is presented as journey of a woman without being judgemental. This is a rare such attempt considering the world over there is a syndrome to be sympathetic towards the spouse at the end. In films, nothing like that happens. The husband and wife live together with the wounds. Happily ever after is a fantasy."

With `Sunglass' starring Madhavan and Konkona Sen ready for release and `Sahib, Biwi Aur Ghulam' on the anvil, Ghosh is a busy man. Yet takes times out to explain the mindset behind the much-acclaimed film. "I wanted to show the whole cruelty of this woman whose husband has been cheating her, and how she treats him like somebody who is unjust, who is cruel. We have been polygamous since the 1930s. That is when this Victorian prudery was introduced into our laws. I wanted to show that we are changing with liberalisation. Monogamy was inflicted on us over the last 60 years or so. Nobody is monogamous by nature."

Fine. But why did he use the black-and-white medium to talk of adultery? Did it have something to do with the idea of right or wrong?

"It was the requirement of the subject. If `Chokher Bali' was all bright and colourful, `Antar Mahal' was highly contrasted. And `Raincoat' quite muted except in flashback. The colour of the film is according to the subject. In `Dosar,' I talked about the story of various couples resorting to extra marital relations. No other colour could have shown this angst, this feeling so beautifully but I have not been judgemental. The black and white medium gave me the umbrella to join all the incidents and disparate elements in the film, link up the characters without losing on the ethos."

ZIYA US SALAM

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