I was rummaging through my hard-disk today and played Pather Panchali. I kept watching and soon found my new favorite character in the film- the old Aunt, Indir Thakrun.
I have many grandmas and I notice a little of each one of them in her. When Durga gets caught taking fruits, the lady who owns the orchid tells another how kids that age do what they are taught pointing finger at the mother. But soon we learn how the Auntie has been influential on a highly impressionable Durga. She lights up when she finds a guava in her bowl of bananas. The old woman is child-like when she carefully nicks a couple of chilies from the kitchen.
Old people constantly crave for attention and need to know everything that's happening in the household. It's funny how they react when they are not included in the conversation. When Durga is accused of stealing Nuni's beads, Auntie walks in unaware of the argument. She stands in the line of sight and keeps asking what the problem is, and nobody bothers to answer her. One moment she is watering a tiny plant showing kindness , the next she shocks me by carelessly dumping a bag of cloth on a kitten, and then chucking it away in her anger. It's these minor, brutally realistic observations that make this film so amazing.
Living in deeply impoverished conditions, she only owns a brass pot, a worn-out mattress, and a torn shawl to her name. I had one such grandma and she too kept changing her residence going from one relative to another. She sings old forgotten folk songs about her problems she faces even in the twilight days of her life. The first time she sings the song, I kept thinking how she was referring to her abject poverty and failed to pay much attention to what she was asking.
"Those who came after have already gone
leaving me behind.. the poorest of beggars.
Not a cowrie to my name.
Night's mantle descends.
Row me across to the other side..
Oh, hurry, lord of the crossings."
"The day is done.. take me across.. a penniless beggar.
Day draws to its close.. Oh, hurry, Lord of the Crossing.
I call on you.. Oh, hurry, Lord of the Crossing.
The day is done.. take me across.
Those who have not a single cowrie
...you take them across, too.
I'm the poorest of beggars..
not a cowrie to my name."
I assumed she had always been childless. But she sings about people who came after, already gone, leaving her behind. When the song is played again, after her death, as she is being carried away, the words hit me hard.. how she yearns for all this to end.
Chunibala Devi, who played the character, was brought out of retirement by Ray at the age of 80. She gives the best performance in the film. It saddens me she didn't live to see the film release.