Bhumika Analysis

Bhumika (1977)

Directed by: Shyam Benegal
National Award for Best Actress, Best Screenplay
Starring: Smita Patil, Anant Nag, Amol Palekar, Naseeruddin Shah

This film is a brilliant character study of Usha, a film actress, played by Smita Patil. The film explores her coming-of-age from her young days till her middle age which mostly include her experiences with various men in her life, right from her abusive, alcoholic father to her husband and with various extra-marital affairs that she has. This film is essentially about liberty and authority, and how abusing authority could drive people to purposefully break rules just for the sake of it. She rejects every form of authority she faces, she rejects her mother that film is a bad career choice, she gets pregnant before marriage (which is a huge thing in India even today in some subcultures), she has affairs with various men and even in one of those affairs with a producer, she seeks liberty. Loss of innocence is an element, and the film definitely has a strong cynical outlook towards men, and their carnal desires because in spite of the diverse worldviews, when it comes to sex there is never a second thought from anyone. Some argue that if it's a biological thing, why condemn men for it? It's like condemning frogs for being green.

Keshav played by a brilliant Amol Palekar, is so expressive without even saying anything - especially in the party where she is having dinner with Rajan, the way he looks at them. Kuleshov effect is used in that scene, the shots of Usha and Rajan add to our understanding of Keshav's anger. In the first scene where Keshav and Usha are fighting, the eyes of Keshav are stead strong - in that scene even if we mute it and see we can understand that the husband is accusing the wife of adultery. She probably cheats, only because he overprotects her and makes her feel like she is his property - there is no scope for dialogue there. This film doesn't condone infidelity - it explores how certain things could lead to it.