Goynar Baksho

2013 Indian film

12 April 2013 (2013-04-12)

Running time

141 minutesCountryIndiaLanguageBengali

Goynar Baksho (transl. The Jewellery Box) is a 2013 Bengali-language Indian horror comedy film directed by Aparna Sen. The film is based on a novel Goynar Baksho and a short story Rashmonir Sonadana, both written by Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay and published in Desh magazine.^[1]^[2]^[3] The film premiered in Kolkata on 12 April 2013.^[4]

Plot

The film revolves around women of three generations and their lives and changing positions in society. And this is shown about a jewelry box.^[1] The lead character is the matriarch of a Bengali Hindu family (Moushumi Chatterjee) of landed gentry in East Bengal. She was married off in an arranged marriage at age 11, and widowed shortly thereafter. The story of the film revolves around her wedding jewels, which she keeps sequestered in a box. To escape violence in East Pakistan during the partition of India, her family moves to India, losing their ancestral lands in the process. She spends the remainder of her life, apparently as a chaste widow, hiding her wedding jewels from her greedy relatives in the joint family. In 1949, she befriends the new bride of the family, her niece-in-law (Konkona Sen Sharma) shortly before dying.

The niece-in-law is visited by the spirit of the matriarch, who demands that she hide the jewelry box from her greedy relatives. Over the years, the family descends into poverty, losing money in judicial proceedings over family property disputes, while the niece-in-law, regularly monitored by the spirit of the matriarch, keeps the jewels hidden. Eventually, the spirit of the matriarch allows the niece-in-law to pawn some of the jewels so that her husband (Saswata Chatterjee) can set up a business, over the objections of the family, selling saris. The prosperity of the business allows her to buy the jewels back, completing the hidden collection. The niece-in-law discovers that her husband is having an affair, and complains to the ghost of the matriarch. The ghost of the matriarch regales her with a story of a torrid sexual liaison that she had with a laborer when she was alive and young and encourages the niece-in-law to take on a lover of her own. The niece-in-law at first falls in love with the secret lover but later she returns to her husband and gives birth to a girl. The ghost fails to succeed in her endeavor of uniting the niece-in-law and her lover abandons the niece-in-law and begins to visit her daughter, the ghost's grandniece instead.

The final part of the film revolves around the daughter as she grows up (Srabanti Chatterjee) and becomes a modern Bengali Indian woman; going to college, driving, and becoming involved in politics. The film approaches the year 1971 when the Bangladesh Liberation War breaks out in East Pakistan. Bengalis in East Pakistan demand political, cultural, and linguistic freedom from the intense and brutal oppression of Pakistan, and rebel against West Pakistan. The daughter's lover regularly crosses the border over to East Pakistan to aid the Mukti Bahini rebels in their struggle for freedom. The 1971 Bangladesh genocide becomes a backdrop of the film, and one of the rebels is murdered by a Pakistani death squad, following which the ghost of the matriarch advises the daughter to donate the jewels to the cause of the Mukti Bahini.

Production

Aparna Sen thought to make this film in 1993. But, she was not getting the right production house to finance the film. That's why she had to delay the project so long. Sen told–^[2]

When I first read the book way back in 1993, I instantly decided to turn it into celluloid, but the delay was due to not getting the right production house to finance the film. Now finally it is happening.

Cast

Moushumi Chatterjee as Rashmoni / Pishima
Konkona Sen Sharma as Somalata
Srabanti Chatterjee as Chaitali / Young Rashmoni
Saswata Chatterjee as Chandan
Paran Bandopadhyay as Chandan's Father
Aparajita Addya as Chandan's Sister in Law
Pijush Ganguly as Chandan's Elder Brother
Manasi Sinha as Chandan's Mother
Kaushik Sen as Rafiq
Koushik Roy as Banwarilal aka Benu/ Ram Khilawan
Monu Mukhopadhyay as Chandan's Paternal Uncle
Sudipta Chakraborty as Kamala
Pradip Mukherjee as Doctor
Rudraneel Das

Tracklist

Song Name	Singers
"Aamar Sonar Bangla"	Arijit Singh, Samantak, Ipshita
"Bangla Rap"	Paran Bandopadhyay, Saswata Chatterjee, Konkona Sen Sharma, Pijush Ganguly, Moushumi Chatterjee
"Basonar Gaan"	Kaushiki Chakrabarty
"Chandan Kumkum"	Paromita, Ipshita, Sweta, Debolina
"O Boner Dubba Re"	Paromita, Ipshita, Sweta, Debolina
"Ki Ache Goynar Bakshe"	Anindya Chatterjee, Upal Sengupta
"Nodir Oparey Ghono Kuasha"	Rupankar Bagchi
"Sakhi Ri"	Shubha Mudgal

Awards and nominations

Ceremony	Category	Nominee	Result
Filmfare Awards East	Best Director – Bengali	Aparna Sen	Nominated
	Best Actor in a Leading Role (Female) – Bengali	Konkona Sen Sharma	Won
	Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Female) – Bengali	Moushumi Chatterjee	Won
	Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Male) – Bengali	Saswata Chatterjee	Nominated

References

^ ^a ^b "The jewellery box". The Telegraph. Kolkata. Archived from the original on 4 February 2013. Retrieved 10 November 2012.
^ ^a ^b "Aparna Sen to film "Goynar Baksho"". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 9 May 2013. Retrieved 10 November 2012.
^ "Aparna Sen's next film based on Bengali story Goynar Baksho". First Post.
^ "Aparna Sen's Goynar Baksho Bengali Film Opens with Dazzling Premiere in Kolkata | ওয়াশিংটন বাংলা রেডিও Washington Bangla Radio USA". Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 16 April 2013.