On the night of their daughter's first birthday, Upendranath Chowdhary (Tarun Bose) and his wife, Charu (Sulochana Latkar), are persuaded to give temporary shelter to an untouchable baby girl, with the understanding that the arrangement is temporary and that their maid will take care of her. They are Brahmin, and taking care of her themselves is out of the question.
The baby is cute and lovable, and both parents grow fond of her, which convinces them even more that they need to get rid of her soon. But it never seems to work out. The men who originally brought the baby return with a man of the baby's caste, but both Chowdharys object to him.
They keep looking, but in the meantime, they name the child Sujata (a name that ironically means "of good caste"), and start to raise her alongside their own daughter, Rama. Rama calls her parents Mom and Dad, and Sujata is taught to call them Mother and Father.
As Sujata grows, their kindness and their Brahmin rules frequently conflict. Mr. Chowdhury shrugs it off, but it greatly bothers Mrs. Chowdhury.
Eventually they give up on finding a good place for her within her caste and simply try to find another good place for her. They look into an orphanage and plan to send her there, with directions to provide generously for her, but they can't face taking her themselves. They ask Rama's tutor to do it, and not to tell her what's happening.
The tutor lures Sujata with fanciful tales of a magical place, and she agrees to go. When it comes time, however, she realizes she doesn't want to go anywhere without her parents, and the tutor has to lie and say that they are already there waiting for her. Upendra has pled lots of work and is absent, but Charu is home and steals a last look out the window. Sujata sees her and runs back in, where she finds Mrs. Chowdhary crying and gripping the bed frame, trying to fight her feelings.
It takes a moment, with her heart clearly struggling against something she has always been brought up with, but at last Mrs. Chowdhury relents and gives Sujata a hesitant caress. Yay!
Upendra is not-so-secretly delighted, and that night the Chowdhurys decide to give up for then and look for a solution when the girls are older.
The Chowdhurys move frequently, and about the time the two girls are grown they end up living near their favorite relative, Aunt (Lalita Pawar), who has raised a grandson. The aunt is old-fashioned and religious, and very antagonistic to Sujata's presence in the family.
At the Aunt's advice they begin looking for a groom for Sujata. The results are rather discouraging.
At the same time, the grandson, Adhir (Sunil Dutt), a handsome and gentle scholar, somehow manages to be unaware of Sujata's position and falls in love with her.
Sujata (Nutan) herself has also never really understood how she fit into the family. Moving near the aunt has changed family dynamics, and she eventually begs an explanation.
Her Mother's answer is not gentle, so Sujata escapes into the rainy night to cry, beginning to contemplate suicide. A placard with a Gandhi quote gives her courage somehow, and she comes home to make the best of it. (Which is good; I was worried for a minute.) "The best of it" includes her growing romance with Adhir. She sings a sweet song, in which she asks, "Whom can it bother?"
Hmm, any guesses on that one? Here's a hint:
But that's not all the trouble!
But that's as much as I'm going to say. (Watch the movie to find out the rest!)
One of the things I appreciated about this film was its handling of caste. I feel like sometimes caste is shown as a prejudice mainly held by the really nasty or crotchety characters, but this movie shows a nice, normal couple struggling with a social construct that they've always accepted. This context helped me understand it better than before, but also to dislike it more. How awful is it to have barriers on kindness? There's not enough of that to go around, in any case.
So, if you like films about social inequality, or if you just like sweet films with good acting and really lovely songs, give this one a shot. I'll add a sample song: Charu sings this lullaby to baby Rama, and a little bit to Sujata.
I recommend it! (Thanks, Cindy!)
They keep looking, but in the meantime, they name the child Sujata (a name that ironically means "of good caste"), and start to raise her alongside their own daughter, Rama. Rama calls her parents Mom and Dad, and Sujata is taught to call them Mother and Father.
As Sujata grows, their kindness and their Brahmin rules frequently conflict. Mr. Chowdhury shrugs it off, but it greatly bothers Mrs. Chowdhury.
Eventually they give up on finding a good place for her within her caste and simply try to find another good place for her. They look into an orphanage and plan to send her there, with directions to provide generously for her, but they can't face taking her themselves. They ask Rama's tutor to do it, and not to tell her what's happening.
It takes a moment, with her heart clearly struggling against something she has always been brought up with, but at last Mrs. Chowdhury relents and gives Sujata a hesitant caress. Yay!
Upendra is not-so-secretly delighted, and that night the Chowdhurys decide to give up for then and look for a solution when the girls are older.
The Chowdhurys move frequently, and about the time the two girls are grown they end up living near their favorite relative, Aunt (Lalita Pawar), who has raised a grandson. The aunt is old-fashioned and religious, and very antagonistic to Sujata's presence in the family.
At the Aunt's advice they begin looking for a groom for Sujata. The results are rather discouraging.
At the same time, the grandson, Adhir (Sunil Dutt), a handsome and gentle scholar, somehow manages to be unaware of Sujata's position and falls in love with her.
Sujata (Nutan) herself has also never really understood how she fit into the family. Moving near the aunt has changed family dynamics, and she eventually begs an explanation.
Her Mother's answer is not gentle, so Sujata escapes into the rainy night to cry, beginning to contemplate suicide. A placard with a Gandhi quote gives her courage somehow, and she comes home to make the best of it. (Which is good; I was worried for a minute.) "The best of it" includes her growing romance with Adhir. She sings a sweet song, in which she asks, "Whom can it bother?"
Hmm, any guesses on that one? Here's a hint:
But that's not all the trouble!
But that's as much as I'm going to say. (Watch the movie to find out the rest!)
One of the things I appreciated about this film was its handling of caste. I feel like sometimes caste is shown as a prejudice mainly held by the really nasty or crotchety characters, but this movie shows a nice, normal couple struggling with a social construct that they've always accepted. This context helped me understand it better than before, but also to dislike it more. How awful is it to have barriers on kindness? There's not enough of that to go around, in any case.
So, if you like films about social inequality, or if you just like sweet films with good acting and really lovely songs, give this one a shot. I'll add a sample song: Charu sings this lullaby to baby Rama, and a little bit to Sujata.
I recommend it! (Thanks, Cindy!)
I'm glad you liked it. It really is interesting (both enlightening and sad, as you say) to see caste prejudice from the eyes of nice people.
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