| Paromitar Ek Din |
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Director: Aparna Sen Made: 2000 Writer: Aparna Sen Genre: Drama Cast: Soumitra Chatterjee Aparna Sen Rituparna Sengupta Sohini Haldar Sailee Sengupta Khuku Rajatabha Dutta Ratna Ghoshal Rajesh Sharma Kaushik Banerjee Chetana Das Indrani Haldar Rita Koiral Dulal Lahiri Sumitra Mukherjee Alaknanda Roy Ratna Sarkar
Paromitar Ek Din is arguably one of the best films of Aparna Sen as a director. Considered by fans as an equal to her 36, Chowrangee Lane and Paroma, this film too explores the relationships, and the psyches, of women. The one day of the title, is really the distillation of 14 years of the relationship that Paromita has shared with he ex-mother-in-law Sanaka. The two themes of friendship and loneliness run strong through the film, displaying a strong bond between two women, even against social norms and mores.
In a typical family, it is difficult enough for other-in-law and daughter-in-law to be friends, given the constant power struggle that they are forced to engage in, to make their individual places in a patri-local, patri-lineal system. Add to this the fact that the younger woman’s relationship to the family is actually severed by her divorce with the son of the house, and it is still more unusual, and difficult, to maintain a friendship. However, the friendship between Paromita and Sanaka has been forged through shared traumas such as having so-called “abnormal” children. Paromita’s son has cerebral palsy, while Sanaka’s daughter Khuku is schizophrenic. The experiences of surviving in a male dominated system, while dealing with the stigma of having produced “unfit” children can be a strong bond. The growth and cementing of the friendship and the closeness between the two women has been handled sensitively and more than competently, as can be expected from a director of Aparna’s stature and experience.
The return of Paromita to the once-marital home, in order to nurse Sanaka on her deathbed, is not only unusual, but also likely to be frowned upon by conventional social norms. This is all the more true since both Paromita, and her ex-husband, are now remarried. To be able to flout these expectations, and do what is right, shows a great strength of character in Paromita, while it also illustrates the depth of her bond with Sanaka. The entire film, with its back-and-forth timeline, its ample but expert use of flashbacks, and its characterization of the female protagonists, is excellent. There are some weak elements, like the two-dimensional quality of some of the male characters, and certain repetitions and an unnecessary lengthening of certain scenes. However, overall, the film is definitely worth a watch for any lover of good cinema.
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