Bariwali Information & Bariwali Links at HealthHaven.com

Bariwali
Directed by	Rituparno Ghosh
Produced by	Anupam Kher
Starring	Kiron Kher
Music by	Debojyoti Mishra
Release date(s)	2000
Language	Bengali

Bariwali (Bengali: বাড়িওয়ালি, translation:The Landlady) is a Bengali movie released in 2000 directed by Rituparno Ghosh.The movie featured Kiron Kher, Rupa Ganguly and Chiranjeet Chakraborty.

[edit] Synopsis

This movie is a quiet drama about a lonely, unfortunate middle-aged woman. Banalata (Kiron Kher) has lived a solitary existence since her husband-to-be died the night before their wedding from a snake bite. Never having quite gotten over the tragedy, she rarely ventures out and is clearly very lonely. This changes when she agrees to allow a film production to shoot in a wing in her sprawling estate. Suddenly her house is filled with movie stars and glamorous people, including the beautiful actress Sudeshna (Rupa Ganguly) and charming director Deepankar (Chiranjeet Chakraborty). Though she knows that not only is Deepankar married but that his former lover Sudeshna still holds a torch for him, the lonely widow finds herself drawn to the director. He is exactly the sort of worldly character whom she has always longed to meet. The rakish man flirts back and even persuades Banalata to appear in a bit part in the movie. Yet once the film crew decamps, things at the estate return to the same grinding tedium as before, though the woman feels her isolation all the more acutely. The letters that Banalata writes to Deepankar go unanswered, and her bit part in the movie ends up on the cutting-room floor.^[2]

[edit] Controversy

There was a controversy regarding Kiron Kher's winning of National Film Award 2000 for the film. A well known Bangla film actress, Rita Koiral claimed that she had lent her voice to the character of Kiron Kher. It is very clear that Kiron Kher's voice was not used in the film. In spite of the fact that Kirron Kher did not use her voice in the film she was given the award and there was no mention at all of the person (Rita Koiral as claimed) who had lent her voice. So, it is considered by many that the award should have been shared by Rita Koiral and Kiron Kher.