Moneycontrol news July 23, 2023
Pather Panchali (1955)
A family of four, on the verge of poverty, live in a village in 1922 Bengal. Poet Harihar, determined to find a job, moves to a city leaving his wife Sarbojaya to look after their two children, an old bickering aunt and unsympathetic neighbours. Amid harsh monsoon, the family is struck by tragedy as Harihar goes missing.
‘Directed by Mani Ratnam, the film is about a little girl adopted by Indian parents going on a journey to Sri Lanka. They are on a quest to find the girl’s birth parents. She encounters the militant group, Tamil Tigers, and brutality and violence. She is reunited with her birth mother. In the final confrontation scene, as the girl’s biological mother hugs her, accepting her -- it rains and the adopted father holds an umbrella over them.
This film's title track introduces Manav to Mansi, and this is when he starts falling for her. Taal has a mystical element to it and feelings of rage, pain, and romance are depicted through its music, and while not a monsoon film, this is definitely one that makes use of the season in a creative manner.
The film is set amidst monsoons, in 1970s Kerala. Two lovers of different faiths fall in love, despite being raised by religiously intolerant families. The lovers decide to elope to America. When the plans are in place, something startling keeps them both from going, leaving the audience hoping that both the lovers survive.
The film set in colonoal times, depicts farmers in a village northwest of India, waiting in anticipation for the approaching rains, singing and dancing to welcome the clouds, and feeling dejected when they realise that their village may go rain-free, yet again, leading to poor yields and increased debt. And the only possible relief is in the form of a cricket Test match between the villagers and the British officers.
Ijaazat, directed by Gulzar, is set on a rainy day. Five years after their divorce, Mahendran and Sudha meet at a railway station waiting room and have no choice but to have a conversation. Through their conversation, the story of their life is revealed, who stayed in his heart and why the marriage really ended.
Two families meet in Delhi for an arranged marriage and what promises to be a glorious union. As festivities unfurl during the rains, expectations and reality collide. The groom drifts between searching and belonging, and the bride's past threatens to destroy her future.