Director & The Cast

Directed & Written BY: The film is directed & written by Ritwik Ghatak.
Released: Meghe Dhaka Tara is a 1960 Indian Bengali classical, drama film
released on Apr 14, 1960.
Story: The film is based on a social novel by Shaktipada Rajguru.
Learning: Sacrifice, a word which conjures images of martyrs, of heroic deeds, and
great struggles.
About the Movie
Background of the Movie: The film revolves around a family of six, the parents
and their four children. The father is a school teacher and the mother (played by Gita
Dey) is a housewife. The eldest child, Shankar (played by Anil Chatterjee) is
unemployed and aspires to be a singer. The second child, Nita (played by Supriya
Choudhury) is studying for her MA (Master of Arts). She also teaches kids on the
side. The other two children are Gita (played by Gita Ghatak) and Mantu (played by
Dwiju Bhawal). Gita is studying in college, though she is not academically inclined.
Mantu is a sportsman and is keen on proving his athletic abilities. Despite their
education, they are always short of money.
Who was Neeta? Neeta played the vital or main role in this movie as a blood women
who maintain his family by private tution. Neeta sacrifices everything for her family,
including her personal happiness, her money, and her health, while her achievements
are hardly ever recognized by the people around her.
Aspiration of Shankar: The eldest son, Shankar, often gets scolded by his parents
for not working. He wants to be a singer and diligently practices every day. We get
an example of his singing prowess when he gets invited to sing in a function. Due to
the irresponsible nature of Shankar, Nita must take care of her family.
Exploitation of women: Meghe Dhaka Tara traces the exploitation of women
through the life story of Nita, the refugee main character who is trying to take care
of her family. The film locates Nita’s exploitation as part of the social, gendered
class-structure to which Nita belongs. The theme of exploitation in this film is
significant. “Those who suffer for others, suffer forever”. Nita is exploited by her
family, but she does not fight back and throughout the movie no matter how bad it
gets for her she continues to allow others to exploit her.
A commentary and critique of the class (caste) and gender dynamics: The film
is also a commentary and critique of the class (caste) and gender dynamics that
existed pre and post Partition. There are many parts of the film where gender
violence, exploitation, and mentality of the bourgeois class are apparent. This is clear
in the many ways that Nita is treated by her family members and Sanat throughout
the film. Her father, the school master, is the most obvious example of bourgeois
mentality. There are many scenes where he quotes Yeates, valuing the intellectual
class as higher than the working class. This is evident in many scenes, particularly
at 49:05, when he finds out his son is working in a factory. He is furious and
disgusted by the embarrassment that his son is now a “labourer”, which is below
their “civilized intellectual bourgeois class”. This is juxtaposed in the scene at the
end of the film where he kicks out Nita when she is sick and dying, something that
most people would call inhumane and un-civilized.