Chokher Bali

Story:

Chokher Bali is a 2003 Indian Bengali language drama film based on the 1903 novel Chokher Bali by Rabindranath Tagore. It was directed by Rituparno Ghosh in 2003 and stars Aishwarya Rai as Binodini and Raima Sen as Ashalata. Ashalata and Binodini refer to each other as Chokher Bali. The other major characters are played by Prosenjit Chatterjee as Mahendra, Lily Chakravarty as Rajlakshmi, the mother of Mahendra, Tota Roy Chowdhury as Behari, Mahendra’s best friend, and Swastika Mukherjee in a cameo role. The film was later dubbed into Hindi and was released internationally in that language.

PLOT

Set in the early 20th century, Binodini is a young Bengali Hindu girl who is left to her own devices when her sickly husband dies soon after their marriage. She returns to her village and lives there for a couple of months until she sees one of her aunts, another Bengali Hindu widow named Rajalakshmi passing by. Binodini hails Rajalakshmi and she agrees that it would be best if Binodini came to live with her and her family at their North Kolkata residence.

Rajalakshmi’s son, Mahendra, an aspiring medical practitioner studying in the Calcutta Medical College, was one of the first suitors to see Binodini’s photo when she was proposed as a prospective bride for him, yet he refused her on account of his being “unready for marriage.” When Binodini arrives with her aunt, Mahendra and his new bride Ashalata (whom Binodini befriends & jokingly call each other as Chokher Bali or ‘eyesore’ in Bengali) are constantly sneaking off to be alone together. Mahendra’s infatuation with Ashalata makes him introduce cooking non-vegetarian food into the household, to which the conservative Vaishnavite Rajalakshmi protests by leaving the house & going away to Kashi to live out the rest of her life.

However, this infatuation does not last long, and the thoroughly Westernised Mahendra soon begins to see that the English-speaking, witty Binodini is more of his type than his traditionalist, naive housewife Ashalata. Mahendra also feels insecure when Ashalata expresses appreciation for Mahendra’s childhood best friend Behari’s physical features & Behari, in turn expresses appreciation for Binodini’s beauty. To spite Behari, Mahendra starts an extra-marital affair with Binodini, and this is soon revealed to Ashalata who, unaware of her pregnancy, leaves Mahendra out of grief to live with Rajalakshmi. Binodini, after realising that Mahendra is self-obsessed, leaves Mahendra’s house to seek Behari. She pleads with Behari to marry her, but the traditionalist Behari, true to his values, rejects her advances (since at that time he harboured feelings for Ashalata, for whom he was initiatially chosen as a groom before Mahendra got infatuated with her photo). Binodini leaves Kolkata for her village. Mahendra comes there to mend their relationship which she refuses.

Instead, she makes him promise to take her to Behari, who had gone to Kashi on being informed about Rajalakshmi’s failing health. At Kashi, Mahendra gets to know about Rajalakshmi’s death, he apologizes to Ashalata & takes her back to Kolkata. Binodini meets Behari who, after some incidents, agrees to marry her. But on the day of their marriage, Binodini vanishes, leaving a letter for Behari & another for Ashalata, apologising for interrupting in her marital bliss.