India Today Cinema [Bandh Jharokein: Breaking Barriers]

MOVIE: BANDH JHAROKEIN
DIRECTOR: PREMA KARANTH
CAST: Sonali Kulkarni, Tushar Dalvi, Uttara Baokar and Ravi Mankani

For any filmmaker, Phaniyamma would be a hard act to follow. Nearly 15 years after she made her directorial debut with the Kannada film Phaniyamma, Prema Karanth once again uses somewhat similar ingredients: a woman-centered storyline, a relatively unknown starcast and her own directorial touch. The end result is a Hindi film that may not quite be in the same league but is definitely worth watching.

The film Bandh Jharokein is based on well-known writer Shashi Deshpande's poignant novel The Dark Holds No Terrors. The film portrays a woman's struggle to win in a merciless world. Sarita (Sonali Kulkarni) faces two conflicts -- the childhood guilt of her brother's death and the brutality she endures at the hands of her husband (Tushar Dalvi).

The film is faithful to the novel in most parts and opens with Sarita travelling to her father's house after her mother's death. The journey back to her roots is an attempt to discover herself and resolve her conflicts, both physical and mental. The film moves back and forth between her childhood and her present. A childhood that has been traumatic with a domineering mother (Uttara Baokar). And a present that is no better: the successful paediatrician is at odds with the complexes of her less-successful husband. In the quietude of the puja room in her father's house, Sarita seeks solace from the twin ghosts that haunt her.

Windows dominate several frames of the film, symbolising the protagonist's predicament. Karanth, who sat over the novel for three years before collaborating with filmmaker Aruna Raje (director of Rihaee) to write the screenplay, refuses to label it as a feminist tale. But she does believe in the inner strength of a woman even though it is not in every woman to "concretise this strength into action". The protagonist faces rejection everywhere -- by her strong-willed mother, at the medical college and finally by her egoistic husband. However, she steels herself against all odds. As Karanth explains: "I've tried to show how a frustrated and angry man can only subjugate his wife in the bedroom."

B.V. Karanth's music is haunting and sets the mood -- the lilting flute notes take you to Sarita's past and the melodious tunes of the sitar bring you back to the present. After a long and tortuous regeneration process, Sarita is exorcised of the guilt of her brother's death. She then emerges stronger and relates to her feminine side better -- as also with her career.

The performance of Kulkarni stands out while Ravi Mankani essays the role of the father well. Baokar makes an impact in her rather brief role. For all the controversy about its theme, the film maintains a subdued tone throughout.

The novel is complex and layered, yet Karanth is able to transfer this to the screen happily without melodrama and histrionics. Karanth's other movies have been in Kannada. This time she has chosen to move away from her mother tongue to Hindi, because she feels there are not enough audiences for non-commercial Kannada films.

Money Spinner

By Anupama Chopra

After grossing $230 million (Rs 828 crore) in the US this summer, Steven Spielberg's sequel to Jurassic Park, The Lost World hit Indian screens earlier this month and is set to become India's highest-grossing foreign film. The film is set in Site B, an island where dinosaurs survived and are now thriving. Palaeontologists, scientists and industrialists follow their trail and end up as dino-fodder. The film has already made over Rs 12 crore.

Unlike the US, where the film crashed after an initial high, India hasn't tired of T-Rex and company. "I was expecting this," says Sarabjit Singh of Paramount Films (India). "This one is more engrossing." Since Jurassic Park grossed $930 million (Rs 3,348 crore) worldwide and The Lost World has cash registers ringing, it shows dinos aren't extinct -- at least in Hollywood.

October 6, 1997