Evoking nostalgia of the 60s

Bholabhai Patel’s talk onTagore’s beautifully crafted novella ‘Nashtanir’ (‘Thebroken Nest’) at the Parishad under the aegis of Ravindra Bhavan onWednesday kindled nostalgia of early 60s when a city cinema house used to getpacked with young lovers of Bengali films Sunday mornings.Impressions that Satyajit Ray’s gem ‘Charulata’left are among the most treasured ones. Based on this novella, it featuredMadhabi Mukherjee as Charu and Soumitra Chatterjee as Amal. Endowedwith artistic sensibility, Charu feels lonely in her intellectual and wealthyhusband Bhupati’s palatial home. With time, the ‘balika badhu’grows into a young lady with longings not possible for her to share with busyBhupati, editor of a political journal. Little knowing thepossibilities involved when two young hearts on the same wavelength interact, heasks his visiting young cousin Amal, who is a writer, to keep her company.What begins as companionship develops into a relationship. With adeep psychological insight, Bholabhai in his simple manner points out, Tagoredelicately and with verbal economy portrays the precarious situation. Therelationship reaches a misty peak, where if they took a step further, they wouldhave tumbled into a dark valley. Charu with a binocular in hand andface animated looking out of window to see the bustling world, Charu looking ather husband through glasses as a distant figure gradually fading in a longpassage, Charu singing ‘Fule fule dhole dhole’ on a swing gentlypushed by Amal are among the rich images that linger. The speakerrecalls ambivalence expressed through Bhupati’s and Charu’sstretched out hands that don’t touch each other at the end.Tagore seems to suggest that material comfort within four walls isnot all to a sensitive young wife for marital bliss and that a husband mustneeds remain alive to the mental processes in an evolving individual that she iswith western education.