Arth is certainly one of Mahesh Bhatt’s most achieved films and one whose autobiographical side he has never hidden. Unceremoniously abandoned by her husband Inder (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) for his mistress Kavita (Smita Patil), Pooja (Shabana Azmi) was first broken-hearted before realising the illusory nature of the conventions that had underpinned her life. Arth does not deliver the expected melodrama of a scorned and dying wife, but rather the steps towards a possible reconquest of herself and the emergence of a feminine point of view (the wife and the mistress) seeking emancipation. A reversal that subtly undermines the accepted principle of popular Indian cinema where there is no greater joy for a woman than marriage. JB
SCREENINGS
KATORZA
SUN 17 > 8:30 pm
FRI 22 > 5:00 pm, in the presence of Shabana Azmi
