Teen Kanya

The title should translate as Three Daughters, since the film originally comprised a trio of Tagore stories, all touching on the problems of emancipation through women of contrasting classes. In the export version, one episode was cut for reasons of length: a ghost story about a woman obsessed by her jewellery, this is comparatively weak (though extremely striking visually). But the other two are Ray at his best, particularly the tale of a young university graduate who rejects the bride his mother has selected for him, but offers to marry the village tomboy (who has caught his eye but piqued his pride by her mockery of his pretensions). A marriage is duly arranged, despite the tomboy's furious protests, and what follows is a variation on The Taming of the Shrew, wonderfully funny and tender, and played to perfection by Soumitra Chatterjee and Aparna Das Gupta. But a bitterly ironic undertone lingers despite the happy end (love prevails): too emancipated to agree to a marriage with a girl he does not love, the hero never for a moment realises that he is denying the same privilege to the girl of his choice.