Chaturanga: A preview

Based on Tagore’s famous novel of the same name, the film Chaturanga is the story of love that is caught between opposing ideas.

In his quest for life’s meaning, Sachish fleets from radical positivism to religious mysticism. 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 unbelievable 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. Set in colonial Bengal at the turn of the 20th century, Chaturanga weaves a rich tapestry of crisscrossing desires and moralities.

The film has already been screened at various international film festivals like Montreal World Film Festival 2008 and Sao Paulo International Film Festival 2008.


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