Saat Pake Bandha
Ajoy Kar
India. 1963. 128 min

Suchitra Sen gives a major performance in this marital melodrama. The independent Archana (Sen) tries to overcome her domineering and snobbish mother (Chhaya Devi) by marrying Sukhendu (Chatterjee), a serious university lecturer, but mother continues to interfere, reminding her son-in-law of his poverty. Suffering from divided loyalties, Archana’s problems are aggravated when her husband insists that she sever all ties with her parents. She separates from her husband and decides to complete her studies while living independently. When she finally accepts her wifely duties and returns home it is too late, as Sukhendu has resigned his job and gone abroad. Sen’s finely honed performance often undercuts the ideology her character is supposed to exemplify, evoking the possibility of a more egalitarian representation of women in Bengali cinema. Despite the conservatism of the story, issues of marital compatibility are extensively discussed without invoking conventional patriarchal moralism.

AJOY KAR

Ajoy Kar (27 March 1914 – 25 January 1985) was an Indian film director and cinematographer . He directed 26 films between 1949 and 1983. His 1961 film Saptapadi was entered into the 3rd Moscow International Film Festival. Ajoy Kar provided a whole new expression to Bengali cinema. His 1971 film Malyadan won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Bengali.

After initially working as an assistant to Jatin Das, Kar became a cinematographer at Indrapuri Studios, Calcutta, in 1938. Over the next four decades, he shot more than 80 feature films. He also shot a number of documentary films.

Kar’s first film as director was Ananya (1949), made by the Sabyasachi collective launched by Kanan Devi. The first film for which he received individual directorial credit was Bamuner Meye (1949). During the 1950s and early 1960s, he emerged as a key figure in mainstream Bengali cinema, with a string of commercially successful films such as Shyamali (1956), Harano Sur (1957), Saptapadi (1961) and Saat Pake Bandha (1963). Of these, Harano Sur and Saptapadi involved the popular romantic pair of Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen. These films also received critical acclaim.