A slow-burning tragedy and unrelenting critique of the family institution, Ritwik Ghatak's The Cloud-Capped Star is a dark melodrama set in late fifties Calcutta, documenting a refugee family from East Pakistan and the vast struggles of Neeta, the oldest daughter, a selfless woman who does whatever is in her power to keep her family afloat. Neeta sacrifices everything for her family, including her own personal happiness, her income, and eventually her health, the quiet martyr of this middle-class refugee family who receives absolutely no empathy, sympathy, or gratitude from the family around her, many of which blatantly take advantage and exploit Neeta's selflessness for their own personal gain. Unsentimental and elegantly told through the use of experimental techniques including expressionistic sound design and sensitized compositions which evoke the inner emotions of its characters, Ritwik Ghatak's The Cloud-Capped Star is a haunting experience, an angry film which finds the filmmaker set his sights on the tragedy which the partition had on India, most notably the disintegration of the family. Ghatak's film is a bitter critique of the family institution, showcasing the loss of family values, empathy, and sense of togetherness which was lost in the partition, seemingly suggesting that these important values have been replaced by the wrongs ones, mainly selfishness and greed, fueled by monetary dreams which are deeply rooted in individual-facing endeavors. The way Neeta finds herself raked through the mud, taken advantage of, and effectively disposed of in the end is a commentary of the filmmaker's perspective on the partition in India, a symbolic representation of an exploited India, one that is being ruined by selfish interests which create division and conflict in the country. Ghatak's film is an angry film about those who exploit the weak, and those who let themselves be exploited, a melodrama which much like the films of Douglas Sirk, is extremely effective due to its expressionistic direction. Neeta is a character who is unable to grow as an individual due to the unrelenting burden placed on her by taking on too much responsibility in the family, a tragic character who finds her life completely stolen from her and placed in the hands of others, hands which themselves make Neeta's well-being a secondary concern to their own successes. While The Cloud-Capped Star is a commentary on the loss of family values, it's also a statement about the importance of personal resolve, as Neeta herself never manages to free herself from the leeches of her family, unable to place her own dreams and ambitions first, always putting her personal ambitions secondary to her family. Even in the end of the film, when we learn that one of her brothers has reached a place of fame and substantial wealth with his music, it is far too late, as Neeta has seen her health erode, with this tragic character only finding the burden of her family lifted and her personal freedom re-instilled to her in her death. From an artistic perspective, The Cloud-Capped Star is reminiscent of neo-realism in its grounded, day-to-day exploits of this refugee family, yet Ritwik Ghatak's use of composition and sound design is far more experimental and expressionistic, frequently using idiosyncratic compositions and editing which illuminate the sense of pain and hardship felt by its central protagonist, effectively telling a tale of melodrama with startling cinematic elegance and humanizing tone that is resolutely unsentimental.
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June 2023
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