361. Meghe Dhaka Tara (The Cloud-Capped Star)v (1960)

Directed By Ritwik Ghatak

Synopsis

A girl lives for her family, gives them all her money. They don't really appreciate her. She gets T.B. and presumably dies. Feel good movie of the year!

Review

I am sorry I have taken so long between posts but my life has been quite full lately and I really have not had the time to watch anything. I suppose it's a good thing, but I missed doing these reviews.

This film is an unflinching look at family life and how horrible it can be. This is an Indian melodrama and as such there is plenty of singing, however it is anything but a musical, the music is always an integral part of the story and when it is incidental it is extremely interesting in its expressionist experimentalism. In fact if anything truly stands out in this film as completely original it is its amazing soundtrack. That being said the film is quite excellent in other ways to, from the camera work to the acting.

The acting is excellent throughout, although the father does seem like a caricature at times as does the mother. In spite of being a melodrama the story never seems to fall into excessive sentimentalism, the reactions to situations seeming quite normal and ringing true to life throughout. A very good film which shows you what you get in life for being nice and selfless.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Meghe Dhaka Tara is strongly melodramatic in tone, especially as concerns the sufferings heaped on the protagonist. As in many of his other films, Ghatak also uses surrealistic sound effects, such as sounds of a lashing as the heroine suffers yet another tragic twist of fate.

The film is online, here is the link for the first part.