Benegal's
Bhumika makes tactful use of color of clothing choices and frequency
of change, camera shots, as well as flashback throughout the film in
order to create a strong sense of uncertainty surrounding Usha, the
protagonist, as she struggles to find an identity that best suits how
she wishes to live her life. The film bounces around at different
times of Usha's life, starting when in the present day shifting for a
large portion of what could be considered the first half of
the movie to Usha's past as a young girl up into her late teens or
early twenties approximately. The
last scene before the viewer moves entirely to the present features
Usha rushing to her co-star, Rajan's home after she was accosted by
her husband.
The
transition to present from this point is through
the incessant ringing of a phone with Rajan on the other line, which
serves as another strong tie between the black and white flashback
and the color film current time. Benegal's decision to add in this
extra tie also depicts the extent to which Usha is plagued by her
past as it and those she has chosen to cohort with, are continually
involved and influencing
her life. This pocked
delivery of flashbacks throughout Bhumika does two things, it shows
the sources for the identities that Usha attempts to engage with and
also how ungrounded Usha feels with never being in one place very
long.
Since
Usha was a child she “is
drawn to the classical music, which she learns from her grandmother,
but rebels against her mother’s insistence that she learns
household chores and demure behavior that would make her marriage
material” and
this desire at odds with the cultural construction of what is
expected of those in feminine roles is the beginning for Usha in her
struggle with how she wants and chooses to identify herself. In part
as a rebellious act, Usha becomes a successful actress and is able to
frequently pass through different identities within her roles in the
films she plays in and then furthermore she becomes a parent herself
and attempts to navigate between being a mother, a wife, and also a
free and individualized person.
Another
element to display this uncertainty and lack of full, wholesome
identity is with the camera shots that typically portray Usha within
either mostly medium shots, showing her from the waist up, or
close-up shots wherein just Usha's head is visible. The effect of
this decision to constantly minimize how much we see of Usha is to
push this lack of identity because of the lack of being whole.
The scene in which
Usha is helping Kale's wife and then they begin talking to each other
is an important turning point for Usha as she realizes after his wife
says "The
beds change, the kitchens change. Men's
masks change, but men don't change”
to
Usha while being a bedridden woman. Kale is an oppressive patriarchal
figure all the same as every other man Usha has been involved with
and the fact that Kale's wife is bedridden may be perceived as a
result of his oppression over her and in her telling Usha that no
matter how many times she moves from different lives with different
men, the men never change and thus neither will she (Bhumika
2:01:58).
Towards
the end of the film, Usha is seen wearing four vastly different
colored outfits at different instances in quick succession. From
vibrant red clothes during her talk with Kale's wife, to orange and
subdued green when she speaks with Kale, to then green and yellow as
she speaks with Kale's young son outside, and
then all variants of blue whilst she gives a leg and foot massage to
the grandmother living in Kale's estate. This rapid shift between
colors and clothes represents Usha's attempt to shift between
multiple roles for everyone involved in her life. It isn't until the
final scene where Usha speaks with her now grown daughter after
having left Kale's estate that she remains in her largely more dulled
color clothes and tells herself that she must get used to her
loneliness which is to say she must return to how she used to live
with her husband. As mentioned in professor Ghosh's blog “the
clothing change may be an attempt to transition from the public to
the private, domestic space” showing
another example of how Usha's change in garb is a literal attempt to
change her identity.
As
mentioned in the Smita Patil photo tribute page, “these
cinematic worlds of harsh truths, injustice, exploitation and the
occasional triumph of individual rebellion” are
ever present in Bhumika as Benegal shines light on the the serious
societal pressures that fall on women in India and how problematic it
can be to navigate one's life amidst a constant wave of hetero- and
gender-normative societal expectations whilst trying to live a life
for oneself. The stress of finding individual identity is amplified
greatly by these pressures and expectations and Benegal's Usha is a
fantastic catalyst to depict such a tumultuous life that many women
were and likely still are facing in India. The unfortunate but
sobering reality of this socio-cultural conundrum is materialized when
Usha returns with her husband and in
a medium long shot scene, she
receives a phone call from Rajan who
brings up the prospect of another film to her despite her making no
indication to anyone other than her husband that she was returning.
Usha, like so many other women, is not able to escape the
roles of which she is seen in and now officially recognized.
Nathan,
ReplyDeleteI think what you said about Usha changing the color of her clothes in the film as an attempt to change her identity is very interesting. If this is true, which I think it is, then it adds another meaning to the black-and-white of the flashbacks. When she changes the color of her clothing, it is an attempt to change her identity, which is part of the reason that she changes her clothes so often, because she has a difficult time creating an identity for herself. When in black-and-white, however, though she still changes her clothes often, it is not always clear what colors the new outfits are. To me, this signifies her desire to create an identity for herself, but an inability to do so. In the flashback scenes, she is entirely under the control of either her mother or Keshav and she has very little control over her own life or how she chooses to identify herself. It is not until she leaves her husband entirely that the movie switches to color. I think the idea of the color of her clothing in the film that you pointed out makes an understanding of the film that much deeper.
Great post, Nathan! I agree with everything that Shelby mentioned, but I also appreciate that you observed that the colors are in relation to the multiple roles she plays for the people in her life. I thought that was an interesting perspective. I hadn't considered her clothing very much, so I want to revisit the film with this in mind.
ReplyDeleteWhat was your favorite scene in the film and why? One of the things that I enjoyed most in the cinematography was the scene transitions. I thought that the use of black and white vs color was very clear, but I especially enjoyed scenes with asynchronism as a transition. You would hear Usha singing before you would see it. Or in the beginning of the film, you hear her grandmother calling for her from a flashback as she is getting into a cab, and then she is running through the woods as a child. Very interesting choices.
I think your mention of Usha's conflict of identity is very intuitive. I myself saw her true desire in life to not be in the cinema but rather to become a mother. In this way she could recreate a more positive version of her own childhood. We see her living this role when she moves to the mansion. Initially this fulfills her desire to be a traditional wife and mother with taking care of the young boy and rubbing the legs of the grandmother. It is only after she realizes this joy is an illusion of freedom that she becomes aware that the problem is not where she is but who she is. I think its in this moment that she realizes that her attempt to escape the theater was only a guise for running from her own loneliness.
ReplyDeleteJust a comment that Usha does not return to live with her husband even if she doesn't divorce him. At the end, she tells her daughter that she will have to deal with her loneliness on her own, connoting a move towards self-reliance. The use of her grandmother's music record in the background suggests that Usha's salvation lies in artistic fulfillment instead of domestic happiness.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that you interpret the camera shots, especially the close-ups of Usha, as the film's way of demonstrating her fragmented identity. Generally, close-ups are used in film as a means of bringing the character's emotional state to the foreground. Does the film use extreme close-ups (shots of just her eyes or hands)? Those would serve to affirm your reading. Also, is there a difference in the way Usha is shot versus other characters? Are others also not presented through medium shots and close-ups? I'm thinking of the first scene where we see multiple close-ups of Keshav.
ReplyDelete