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Khandekar’s didactic script for Vinayak continues his preoccupation with the character of a moral man whose principles conflict with practical reality. Manohar (Salvi, who plays this character’s earlier version: Bappa in Vinayak’s Amrit, 1941) is an alcoholic but idealistic public prosecutor and calls for the death sentence for the nationalist anarchist Ravindra (Vinayak). Ravindra’s girlfriend Shashi (Meenakshi) is pregnant and gives birth in an orphanage. She then becomes a nurse and has to look after Manohar who falls for her. She agrees to marry him but keeps her child a secret. When a child is found dead in the orphanage, Manohar prosecutes its humanitarian manager for infanticide. Shashi, who appears as a witness, reveals the truth of her life in court, causing a dramatic change in her husband’s world-view.
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Status
Released
Original Language
MR
Director Jean Renoir’s entrancing first color feature—shot entirely on location in India—is a visual tour de force. Based on the novel by Rumer Godden, the film eloquently contrasts the growing pains of three young women with the immutability of the Bengal river around which their daily lives unfold. Enriched by Renoir’s subtle understanding and appreciation for India and its people, The River gracefully explores the fragile connections between transitory emotions and everlasting creation.
