Antarmahal: Views of the Inner Chamber

Well-mounted and leisurely paced historical drama, framed as a remininiscence by an English painter come to provide a portrait of the local Bengali Zamidar (prince) at the time Queen Victoria was created Empress. A handsome, loin-clothed young sculptor (Bachchan, son of Indian film star Amitabh) comes to model the burra bari festival effigy of the goddess Krishna, takes the fancy of the Zamidar’s second wife (with whom the Zamidar is desperate to produce a male heir) and is instrumental in an act of rebellion.  Like Satjyajit Ray’s ‘The Chess Players’, Ghosh’s film is not immune at times to the same slightly stultifying air it describes, but there’s no denying the sympathy – never overemphasised – he shows for his female protagonists.