The Cloud-Capped Star (1960)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

The Cloud-Capped Star (1960) – R. Ghatak

One of the 1001 films you must see before you die. An intense family drama focused on the older sister who sacrifices her own happiness for a largely ungrateful family, living in poverty. Bleak but with transcendent moments (in both sound and vision). I may have missed some of the political or allegorical subtext apparently related to the partition of Bengal in 1947 (when India became independent and Pakistan was split off). Perhaps Ghatak saw those who were made refugees by the partition making a sacrifice without objecting just as the sister does here?