Ray & His Women Throughout the Years Part 2

 Coming to the 2nd part of Satyajit Ray's significant women characters today. 

8. Charulata from Charulata (1963): The intelligent, beautiful and culturally advanced housewife of a wealthy publisher, Charulata is one of the best characters in Indian literature and later, in movies. Her freedom of expression for her passion of literature and her friendship with her husband's cousin is way ahead of the women of her time. She is liberal, has a strong voice of her own and has the courage to break emotional boundaries. 

9. Karuna from Kapurush O Mahapurush (1965): Karuna is a loyal woman who was ready to leave all the riches of the world to be with the man she was in love with but was rejected by that very man. Later, when her lover becomes successful and finds Karuna, married to someone else, he asks her to come with him. She refuses, and that's the proof of her loyalty. 

10. Aditi from Nayak(1966): Aditi is an independent and smart woman who grabs the opportunity to secretly interview a Superstar when he is vulnerable. She, very skilfully brings out the insecurities of the star and plans to pen down everything for her magazine. However, later, when she realizes that the huge star is actually a very lonely human being, her moral self forces her to tear off the notes that she had taken secretly to publish. And here lies the empathetic human side of Aditi.

11. Aparna from Aranyer Din Ratri (1970): Aparna is a very witty and intelligent woman, confident in her skin. She can face any challenge with ease and manage any situation with her calm, composed and graceful nature. However, at one point, she reveals her vulnerable side to the person taking an interest in her. This shows how varied a woman's nature can be when she starts to trust someone.

12. Sudarshana from Seemabaddha (1971): Sudarshana is a truthful and honest woman who admires her brother-in-law for his ideologies. Growing up in a humble household, she observes the riches and lavishes of the upscale city life of the then Calcutta but never gets engulfed by it. Later, when she realizes that her brother-in-law has forgotten his ideologies and can go to extreme lows to achieve success, she is shattered.

13. Chutki from Ashani Sanket (1973): Chutki is not a main character in the film, but it is so significant and important in the context of the movie that no one can ignore her. She is a village housewife, beautiful but poor. She has the power to protect herself and her friend from being molested, but this very woman is ready to give herself to traffickers during the time of famine. Chutki is a big example of extreme shift in human nature under circumstance and pressure.

14. Bimala from Ghare Baire (1984): A wife of an affluent English-speaking Bengali nobleman, Bimala learns English songs and gets acquainted with the English culture due to her husband's insistence. Things take a different turn with the arrival of Sandip, her husband Nikhilesh's friend and a Swadeshi activist. The absolute shift of ideologies from her husband's English-loving outlook to Sandip's Nationalist approach triggers Bimala to support him in his Swadeshi movement. When she realizes Sandip's real motive is to just grab power and take money from her, she ultimately understands, its only Nikhilesh, her husband who loves her. But tragedy awaits her as Nikhilesh is killed in front of his house by rioters.

Satyajit Ray's collection of movies form a library and his women characters are each capable of being the topic of an entire book. This is a very humble 2 parts effort of bringing out the women in his movies from my point of view.