Teen Kanya (1961)

Teen Kanya (AKA Three Daughters)
Directed by Satyajit Ray
Written by Satyajit Ray from stories by Rabindranath Tagore
1961/India
Satyajit Ray Productions
First viewing/FilmStruck

[box] To a father growing old nothing is dearer than a daughter. — Euripides [/box]

I enjoyed this little-seen film by Satyajit Ray immensely.

This is an anthology film based on three short stories by Rabindranath Tagore, all centered on women.  The first, “Postmaster”, is about a cultured Calcutta man who takes up employment in a small Bengali village.  He is a fish out of water and forms a special bond with the servant he inherits, a little orphan girl.

The second story, “Monihara”, is a sort of modern Bengali version of Greed (1924), in which a wife is driven mad by her obsession with her jewelry.  It’s told as a ghost story narrated by its writer, a schoolmaster.

In the final story, “Samapti”, a student’s mother decides that it is time for him to marry.  He rejects her choice of a mild-mannered young teenager in favor of a wild child the locals call “Crazy Girl”.  She is forced to go through with the marriage against her will and fights back with all her might.  This has a neat resolution and was perhaps my favorite segment.

The entire film is almost three hours long but the stories are entirely unrelated and could easily be viewed in bite-sized chunks.  I watched it in one sitting and was not bored for a moment.  It was refreshing to watch such a humanist film after a series of arty French New Wave movies.  The characters are all very relatable.  Recommended.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fl2P4rb-xLo

Clip