ODE TO LOVE
A film by Aparna Sen is an event to wait for. Sense, sensibility and a high degree of aesthetic quality are a given in her films.
The Japanese Wife, based on a Kunal Basu story, is a delicately narrated, beautifully shot elegy to love; it's biggest fault being that it belongs to the wrong period. A bizarre story of a marriage between two people who have never met sounds very implausible now. But Sen tells it with love and empathy for her characters, with gentle acceptance for their quirks, and makes it almost believable.
Snehamoy (Rahul Bose), a shy schoolmaster in a remote Sunderbans village, starts a pen friendship with a Japanese woman, Miyage (Chigusa Takaku). She proposes marriage and he accepts, but they are both unable, due to family and financial constraints, to travel to meet each other. So the marriage remains long distance, but their love and concern for each other endures over many years, as letters and gifts fly across the seas.
Back in his modest, riverside home, his aunt (Moushumi Chatterjee), stoically accepts the odd situation, even though she harbours hope for a marriage between Snehamoy and the Sandhya, the daughter (Raima Sen) of her friend. Later, a widowed Sandhya moves in to the home with her son, and both make space for each other, that allows them to care, without making any demands.
Till the story unravels with tender humour (the energetic kite-flying scene) and some whimsy, Sen keeps a hold on the audience, in spite of the leisurely pace (tighter editing would have helped), but when news of Miyage's illness arrives and Snehamoy runs around seeking medical help, the film, sadly, descends into bathos.
But, its painterly frames (Anay Goswani), relatively unexplored location, and excellent performances (Moushumi Chatterjee is absolutely delightful) make up for the terribly old-fashioned story. This kind of pure romance brimming over with repressed sexuality would probably work better if the setting was the 19th or early 20th century. In the present, it seems ridiculous and the two characters not quite normal. In spite of this, if Sen can make their story moving and affecting, it is her skill as a director... to correctly channel emotions without seeming manipulative.
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