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Watching Seemabaddha

I had watched Seemabaddha as a child - one of the many efforts of my parents to get me "cultured" We never lived in Bengal and I did not have peers who spoke the language - so watching Bangla movies was one of their ways of giving me practice with language comprehension. I recall asking them to repeat what the characters in the movie said in "plain" Bangla. Often they would explain what I missed on the way back home. I enjoyed these movies mainly on account of the snacks I got during the interval.

Watching it recently was a wonderful experience. The finer plot points made sense this time. The wordplay is subtle and the characters have few if any degrees of freedom. They are all constrained (seemabaddha translated to English). The protagonist Shyamal Chatterjee is a product of where he comes from and who he aspires to be - that forms his set of constraints. The wife has her entire identify tied to his success and her constraints are defined by how far her husband can rise in his career.

The sister-in-law defines what lies outside Shyamal's constraints. She tells him the truth, feels a mix of admiration and disdain for him, she flirts with him with the confidence of a woman who knows her mind. Sudarshana is the breath of fresh air Shyamal's life lacks and truth be told the woman he would rather be with. Her approval matters to him and it is hard to come by. The story of greed and immorality in the pursuit of professional success was not what this movie was about for me - that felt like the scaffolding for the story of a man's constraints to hang on - constraints of his own choosing that end up being the trap he cannot escape.

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