Ghare baire (1984)

In the Bengali film Ghare baire ("The home and the world"), Satyajit Ray - a giant figure in Indian art cinema - explores the political situation in Victorian Bengal, at the time when Lord Curzon divided the province into predominantly Hindu and predominantly Muslim regions, presaging the ultimate partition of the subcontinent. A forward-thinking Maharajah (Victor Banerjee, best known to Western audiences from A Passage to India), encourages his wife to come out of purdah to meet his school friend, who has become a militant leader of the Swadeshi nationalist movement. All of the relationships are strained when she falls for his message – and for him – only to learn too late that he is little more than an egotistical hypocrite. This interesting film is perhaps best understood as allegory - the sheltered wife is Mother India, tumbling headlong into the modern era.